We love the Papirus icon theme here at OMG! HQ.
It’s the icon theme we use on our own desktops, and the icon theme that we often recommend to new users looking to give their Ubuntu desktop a “fresher” look than stock (sorry Ubuntu Mono Dark, but you’re so 2010).
But it seems that this set, arguable one of the most popular Linux icon sets currently available, is in trouble — and it needs your help.
Help Design Icons For Papirus
After managing to circumvent some issues with maintenance before (it had a PPA, then didn’t, now does again) the icon set has a new problem.
Alexey ‘Varlesh‘ Varfolomeev, Papirus theme lead, says he is no longer in a position to continue development of the increasingly diverse icon set.
But don’t panic; the Papirus icon set is not dead, at least not yet.
A new maintainer, Sergei ‘SmartFinn‘ Eremenko, is stepping up to fill the gap left by Varlesh.
But Sergi cautions that while he “can support all projects of the team (although it’s hard for one man)“ he “can’t draw new icons for the Papirus icon theme.”
Which is where you can help.
If you’re a dab hand at illustration or have some impressive Inkscape skills get involved. If you’ve ever fancied contributing to a widely used open-source project, to see your work on the desktops of thousands of Linux desktops, this is your chance.
A detailed Papirus design guide is available on the project’s Github page. This explains what the icon set is, distills main design motifs and trends, and instructs you on how to create icons well suited to it.
You’ll also find a list of pending icon requests on the theme’s Github issue tracker for when you’re ready to dive in.