461530 - Firefox does not fully adhere to GTK+2/GNOME theme in Linux

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Brett]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008101315 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008101315 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.3

I first submitted this at Launchpad.net under Ubuntu[1], but was referred here for better integration upstream.

I attached a screenshot[2] of the problem, juxtiposing Abiword (a program that fully conforms to the GTK+2/GNOME theme selected) and Firefox 3.0.

I tried changing my theme around, including the fonts and Firefox seemed to have troubles picking up the fonts, even after a reboot. The only other program that does this is OpenOffice.org. Pidgin, GIMP, Abiword, gEdit, etc., all conform to the selected theme properly.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/287275
[2] http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18784000/firefox.png

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try a GNOME-based Linux distro such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc. 
2. Run Mozilla Firefox 3.0
3. Change the theme, including the fonts
Actual Results:  
Firefox changed its theme quite diligently, but failed to fully realize the selected theme and its fonts

Expected Results:  
Firefox would fully adhere to my GTK+2/GNOME theme.

The major problem Firefox seems to have is not so much the theme but the fonts in specific.

Comment 1

[Tchalvak]

In a related accessibility problem, with a dark theme it fails to change the text of dropdown menus (all the other chrome pretty much seems to work) the light colored text suggested by the system.  As a result, you get dark dropdowns with dark text when using a dark theme (in ubuntu 8.10, Gnome 2.24, Firefox 3.0.4).

Comment 2

[Brett]

(In reply to comment #1)
> In a related accessibility problem, with a dark theme it fails to change the
> text of dropdown menus (all the other chrome pretty much seems to work) the
> light colored text suggested by the system.  As a result, you get dark
> dropdowns with dark text when using a dark theme (in ubuntu 8.10, Gnome 2.24,
> Firefox 3.0.4).

So you're saying Firefox assumes a light theme and prints dark text there every time? I've seen that too.

Comment 3

[Tchalvak]

I searched around some more and found this: as a more complete acessment of the theme problem:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=437366

In summary, it's respecting one part of the system theme (the dropdown box chrome) and not another part (the dropdown box text), according to what they're saying.

Comment 4

[Dusan Maliarik]

it not just dropdown boxes, firefox isn't using GTK Toolbar, nor imitating it. Try with any theme that has different styling for toolbars, Dust for example. Looks like it is drawn with plain color picked from theme.

see screenshot

Comment 5

[Dusan Maliarik]

Attachment: Firefox not imitating GTK Toolbar

Comment 6

[Jeremy Nickurak]

Confirmed still having this issue here, in firefox 3.0.x and the 3.5b4pre. It's easilly the most annoying thing I run into under firefox.

GTK or gtk-like widgets in a page (drop-downs, text entry fields, submit buttons, etc) should always obey the current color scheme, whether that scheme is defined by the page or by the "system colors", if that's where the current page is getting its colors. Anything less than that is a major accessibility annoyance.

Comment 7

[Thomas Wood]

The menubar problems have been fixed by bug 496454.

Comment 8

[George Carstoiu]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b13pre) Gecko/20110315 Firefox/4.0b13pre

Brett, can you still see this issue?

Also can you please check on the latest Firefox 4 RC available here:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/RC

Comment 9

[George Carstoiu]

Brett, any new information on this issue?

Comment 10

[Ilya Chenykh]

Still have this problem, Firefox 15.