If you use the Papirus icon theme in Ubuntu you’ll be pleased to hear a new version is available to download.
Papirus’s first update in 2024 adds more than 50 new and updated apps icons, plus a handful of other changes including updated icon names and symlinks, and removing a small collection of icons for apps which are no longer widely used/EOL.
Among new apps covered in Papirus are multi-protocol backup tool Celeste, the nifty Logitech wireless utility Solaar, stat-packed system monitor app Mission Center, and Thunderbird beta builds. Iotas, Halftone, Upscayl, and Mini-Text are also newly covered by this icon set too.
With more web browsers supporting progressive web apps (PWAs) Papirus is bolstering its coverage with icons for a plethora of popular PWAs including Duolingo, Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, OneDrive Telegram Web (both ‘a’ and ‘k’ versions).
Updated/tweaked icons take in perennially popular messaging service Telegram, IRC client Polari, and the 3DS emulator Citra, among others.
A complete list of new and updated icons:
- Android Messages
- Celeste
- Chrome Remote Desktop (PWA)
- Cinnamon Actions module
- Cinnamon built-in actions
- Cinnamon Desklets
- Citra
- cs-applets
- Czkawka
- DevDocs (PWA)
- Duolingo (PWA)
- Facebook (PWA)
- Forkgram
- Freeciv Qt client (Flathub)
- Freeciv SDL2 client (Flathub)
- GDM Settings (symbolic icons)
- GDM Settings
- GMail (PWA)
- Google Contacts
- Google Drive (PWA)
- Google Keep (PWA)
- Google Maps
- Google Meet (PWA)
- Google Photos (PWA)
- GPU Screen Recorder
- Halftone
- Iotas
- KiCad
- krdc
- Microsoft 365 (microsoft365.com) (PWA)
- Microsoft OneDrive (PWA)
- Mini Text
- Mission Center
- NOS TV (PWA)
- Outlook (live.com) (PWA)
- Overcooked
- Plasma Discover
- Polari
- PollyMC
- Pomodoro
- preferences-desktop-icons
- preferences-desktop-wallpaper
- preferences-system-notifications-symbolic
- Solaar
- suanPan
- TeamSpeak3 (Flathub
- Telegram
- Telegram Web A (PWA)
- Telegram Web K (PWA)
- The Ur-Quan Masters HD MegaMod (Flathub)
- Thunderbird Beta
- TikTok (PWA)
- Tor Browser Launcher
- uGet
- Unsplash (PWA)
- Upscayl
- USBView
- utilities-log-viewer
- VNote
- VSCodium – Insiders
- Warehouse
- Xbox Cloud Gaming (en-US) (PWA)
Changes include:
- Preferences-desktop-touchscreen symlinks
- Symbolic icons for Privacy panel in GNOME Settings v45
- vscode symlink for Visual Studio Code v1.75 and newer
- Renamed icon for PDFsam
- Updated caja-actions icon to match the icon of system-file-manager
Plus, removal of Chrome Apps (which are now EOL).
Switching to Papirus Icons in Ubuntu
You can download Papirus from GitHub.
Some may prefer to install Papirus in Ubuntu using the official PPA, which provides pre-built packages for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and above.
Once you have installed the Papirus icon theme you will need to change icon theme in Ubuntu yourself (it doesn’t happen automatically). To do this, install the Tweaks tool, open it, go to Appearance, and from the icon set dropdown menu select ‘Papirus’.
You can change icon theme using a dconf command but it’s far more effort than necessary.
Summary
Frequent updates are part of why the Papirus icon set is so popular with Linux users. It’s annoying to use an icon set that has gaps, with un-themed icons sticking out like a sore thumb — but you don’t get that with Papirus because it’s constantly expanding its coverage.