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Firefox Themes in an Overview

By Smashing Editorial, February 27th, 2007 in Graphics | 73 Comments | Forum

It’s amazing if you think about it. The new generation of web-browsers has become so flexible, so adaptable and so easy to use that you can design and use it according to your personal taste and needs. So if you are a Mozilla Firefox user, you can add almost any functionality you ever thought about via external extensions. Furthermore, you can also personalize your web-browser, changing its look with Firefox Themes. Thus you can let your browser have a fresh Vista look or appear like Opera, Internet Explorer or Mac-Browser. But which look can you choose to guarantee the most enjoyable browsing experience? Well, it’s a tough one.

In fact, there are many of them. We’ve selected some of the most beautiful Firefox Themes, which work in Firefox 2 and listed them below. Usually the changes concern not only the visual appearance and interface (icons and background colors), but also the functionality of the “adapted” Firefox - e.g. extensions. Links checked: June/26 2008.

Firefox Themes

myFireFox
Firefox appears to become Internet Explorer 7.

Metal Lion - Vista

Kempelton PE

iFox Smooth

Pink Paula / PP 2
Firefox fur Madchen. Gibt es auch in Blau.

Aluminum Alloy

Red Cats (green flavor)

Phoenity
Classic.

Full with various plug-ins - Saferfox Xpanded, designed by Mankin Studios.

Screenshot

How can I install a Firefox Theme?

Just click on the selected theme on a web-site you can download it from, the Firefox changes its look immediately. Alternatively you can also drag the installer into the theme-window (”Tools” –> “Add-ons”). There you can activate or deactivate the theme.

Screenshot

Please keep in mind that not every theme works in every version of the Firefox browser.

Published in Graphics, February 27th, 2007
Tags: add-ons, browser, downloads, firefox, themes

1.

Haungo (February 28th, 2007, 2:45 am)

Neato.. I aleady use iFox. You guys just validated that it was cool.
2.

Bill (February 28th, 2007, 2:52 am)

Mac Firefox users should also take a look at the GrApple themes at Link [www.takebacktheweb.org] site.
3.

add (February 28th, 2007, 3:33 am)

thin article :|

most of the themes are simply ugly and everybody knows how to install a theme on FF…
4.

larsen (February 28th, 2007, 4:19 am)

add is right, most of the firefox themes are pretty much ugly - so i keep the default theme.
5.

Sue (February 28th, 2007, 5:51 am)

add-
No.
Not everybody knows how to install a theme on FF. In addition, there are those of us with cognitive/memory difficulties that need a quick, overview reference like this as a reminder for when we want to do it again in a month or 4 or 6.
6.

Jonathan (February 28th, 2007, 6:30 am)

Wow great review of Firefox themes. Mozilla updates has a decent review of themes, but they don’t provide adequate usage of screen shots to actually see how the themes look.

Great article!
7.

typoblog.ch (February 28th, 2007, 6:49 am)

Isn’t this the list from Link [www.drweb.de] ?

See: Link [www.drweb.de]

Do you steel articles???

typoblog.ch
8.

Trevor (February 28th, 2007, 10:27 am)

How about adding the Tango theme?
It’s one of the classiest ones, in my opinion, and fits with the new Gnome (Linux Desktop Manager) look.
Link [addons.mozilla.org]
9.

Agent 942 (February 28th, 2007, 10:34 am)

I have to go with typoblog.ch on this one… WAY to many similarities (cut and paste?) to let this one slide on by…

Shame for not at least referencing the original.

Shame.
10.

Josh (February 28th, 2007, 11:10 am)

Dont forget about PitchDark 2.0.0

I use it and love it.
11.

Justin (February 28th, 2007, 11:52 am)

I don’t understand why Noia is so popular. It’s one of the ugliest themes I’ve ever seen.
12.

Jeff (February 28th, 2007, 12:21 pm)

is this a joke? i generally enjoy smashingmag quite a bit, but this article is terrible. most of these themes are downright fugly.
13.

the gobbler (February 28th, 2007, 12:24 pm)

ifox smooth is the only theme that is worth it. the rest are rather cheesy.
14.

crimesaucer (February 28th, 2007, 12:37 pm)

Nothing beats your own gtkrc theme that modifies the Firefox Classic Default theme and the Thunderbird Default theme. Then a swapping of your favorite icons from a theme (Like Cylence:Obsidian) makes it even better.

Link [ubuntuforums.org]

It also feels light like the default themes.
15.

Mike Shafir (February 28th, 2007, 12:57 pm)

You know, firefox skins are available from other websites, not only from the main firefox site. Deviant Art offers some amazing firefox skins that are, in my opinion, much better than the ones currently on the mozilla site. Of course, there is no automatic installation, you have to use All-in-one sidebar in order to install themes from .jar files (The install button on the extension pane). I love the, currently in beta, Black Vista theme: Link [www.deviantart.com]
16.

choke (February 28th, 2007, 3:26 pm)

# Sue Says:
February 28th, 2007 at 5:51 am

add-
No.
Not everybody knows how to install a theme on FF. In addition, there are those of us with cognitive/memory difficulties that need a quick, overview reference like this as a reminder for when we want to do it again in a month or 4 or 6.

What Sue said and, for thems that may have it (add) and are unaware they do (umm, add)……

“Cognitive problems are difficulties in processing information, including such mental tasks as attention, thinking(add), and memory”.

Oh, I use Metal Lion.

choke
17.

Psyked (February 28th, 2007, 6:33 pm)

Eww. I really appriciate the default theme now. Okay, some have nice icons, but.. c’mon, thats a rather boring article guys…
18.

ToxicBrew (February 28th, 2007, 6:47 pm)

Black japan,Ifox and Metal Lion for me….. rest all are too ugly to use.
19.

Tony Green (February 28th, 2007, 7:30 pm)

A better display of examples of the themes than you see at the Mozilla site.
One small niggle though, the thumbnail which claims to be for “Aluminium Kai” is actually a picture of “Acid Burn” which appears again lower down. I only noticed that because I liked the look of it and went to install it.
20.

Andrew (February 28th, 2007, 7:49 pm)

You’re missing a great one: iPox. Very smooth looking theme, very pretty.
21.

ian (February 28th, 2007, 8:19 pm)

Interesting list. I will add ” whitehart ” theme which is very minimalist and deserves to be part of this list.
22.

smart (February 28th, 2007, 9:12 pm)

Cool post!
23.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (February 28th, 2007, 10:45 pm)

@typoblog.ch, Agent 942: probably you should compare the names of the authors of Smashing Magazine and the publishers of Dr. Web. ;)
24.

typoblog.ch (March 1st, 2007, 12:36 am)

@Vitaly Friedmann & Sven Lennartz:

Oh no. What did I do %)

Sorry to the authors. I really didn’t realize that you ARE also drweb.de…

Sorry for my previous comment!
25.

ilker (March 1st, 2007, 5:47 am)

Actually I use this one that is not compatible with Firefox 2 but is better than the other ported one: Link [addons.mozilla.org]
26.

ilker (March 1st, 2007, 5:53 am)

Personally, I like the Mac OS style Brushed theme:
Link [addons.mozilla.org]

I just disable add-on compatibility check and works perfectly fine with Firefox 2.0.0.2
27.

Tugo (March 2nd, 2007, 10:42 am)

Thanx, I like iFox theme.
28.

Mark (March 3rd, 2007, 12:39 am)

I use Orbit Gray, myself
29.

Kevin (March 3rd, 2007, 1:32 am)

Littlefox for me. I like getting more screen
30.

David P (March 3rd, 2007, 1:38 am)

How about a “compact” theme that allows you to put stuff on the menu bar so that less screen real estate is left unused?
31.

Mark (March 5th, 2007, 11:49 am)

David, you already CAN do that. Right-click on the menu bar and click ‘customize’ and you can drag anything anywhere you want.
32.

Alana Post (March 18th, 2007, 5:04 am)

is this list a joke?
33.

Vetrov (June 24th, 2007, 12:20 am)

iFox Smooth forever !!!
34.

Voiture (June 30th, 2007, 5:09 pm)

I like the kid’s theme, it’s amazing what we could do with a computer now !
35.

oppositionradio (July 10th, 2007, 11:46 pm)

amalgam has yet to be updated but was my favorite… i wish the grapple guy would bust out some PC versions of his beautiful stuff
36.

Marc (August 21st, 2007, 8:38 pm)

I have been looking everywhere for “R” rated themes. I understand that you can make your own themes so surely someone has made some themes such as monsters or nudity. I plan on making my own but i haven’t had time to learn it yet.
37.

Baronessa (October 2nd, 2007, 12:18 pm)

I would love to see somebody update the “Simpler” themes that were available for older verions of firefox. I was in love with Simpler Green but I can’t use it anymore.
38.

Angel (October 5th, 2007, 6:09 pm)

My personal favorite is Red Shift V2.
39.

Jeeto (December 6th, 2007, 2:44 pm)

My personal favorite is Tinseltown!
40.

M.S. Babaei (March 11th, 2008, 1:16 pm)

can we use safari theme in firefox?
41.

Firefox 3 (August 11th, 2008, 4:13 pm)

Do they work with he new FF3?
42.

Christopher Anderton (November 23rd, 2008, 12:00 pm)

I must say, that’s a whole bunch of, well, to be kind, monsterous themes.
43.

Mukesh (December 2nd, 2008, 3:51 am)

3rd one from top is really good i jus loved it…few of dem r pretty much decent..very few look ugly..thank u so much
44.

vineeth menon (March 5th, 2009, 8:19 pm)

Do they work with he new FF3?
45.

ana (March 30th, 2009, 1:48 am)

Now fireFox is always NEW.

Thanks for sharing, nice collection
46.

Ken Mason (April 19th, 2009, 7:57 pm)

The VERY best, most attractive theme is Aeon Colors! Most of the others are just Default theme clones, or mostly grey. Aeon Colors is imaginative and colourful. Try it!
47.

turkce forum (June 29th, 2009, 4:08 pm)

Link [www.forumneti.com]

nice themes! thanks a lot

download :)