Smashing Magazine ~ we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
Smashing Magazine we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

Firefox Themes in an Overview

February 27th, 2007 in Graphics | 69 Comments

Advertisement

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.

Update (28.02.2007): thanks to all of you (particularly the Digg-community) who let us know about some beautiful and useful Firefox themes we’ve missed in this post. We’ll add them till weekend. Thanks!

Firefox Themes

Mostly Cristal

Screenshot

Aluminium Kai

Screenshot

Abstract Classic

Screenshot

Blue Ice

Screenshot

Noia 2.0 (eXtreme)

Screenshot

myFireFox
Firefox appears to become Internet Explorer 7.
Screenshot

Metal Lion - Vista

Screenshot

Kempelton PE

Screenshot

iFox Smooth

Screenshot

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

Screenshot

Aluminum Alloy

Screenshot

Red Cats (green flavor)

Screenshot

MidnightFox

Screenshot

macfox II

Screenshot

Azerty III

Screenshot

Acid Burn

Screenshot

Qute

Screenshot

Phoenity
Classic.

Screenshot

Tinseltown

Screenshot

Scribblies Kids

Screenshot

Ubuntu Human Theme

Screenshot

Opera Theme

Screenshot

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.

Advertisement
  1. 1.

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

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

  2. 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. 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. 4.

    fred (February 28th, 2007, 4:09 am)

    a vista look firefox theme
    Link [i19.tinypic.com]

  5. 5.

    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.

  6. 6.

    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.

  7. 7.

    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!

  8. 8.

    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

  9. 9.

    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]

  10. 10.

    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.

  11. 11.

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

    Dont forget about PitchDark 2.0.0

    I use it and love it.

  12. 12.

    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.

  13. 13.

    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.

  14. 14.

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

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

  15. 15.

    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.

  16. 16.

    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]

  17. 17.

    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

  18. 18.

    cwhisperer (February 28th, 2007, 4:53 pm)

    Aquatint is the coolest theme ;) Link [addons.mozilla.org]

  19. 19.

    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…

  20. 20.

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

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

  21. 21.

    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.

  22. 22.

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

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

  23. 23.

    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.

  24. 24.

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

    Cool post!

  25. 25.

    Ukuli (February 28th, 2007, 9:20 pm)

    Apollo by Aaron Spuler is what I use:

    Link [www.spuler.us]

  26. 26.

    diego (February 28th, 2007, 9:34 pm)

    Second vote for Whitehart: Link [addons.mozilla.org]

  27. 27.

    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. ;)

  28. 28.

    Joost (March 1st, 2007, 12:22 am)

    Black one is great, need more dark colored themes.

  29. 29.

    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!

  30. 30.

    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]

  31. 31.

    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

  32. 32.

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

    Thanx, I like iFox theme.

  33. 33.

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

    I use Orbit Gray, myself

  34. 34.

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

    Littlefox for me. I like getting more screen

  35. 35.

    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?

  36. 36.

    Pigsnout (March 3rd, 2007, 11:02 am)

    What, no Pimpzilla? That’s bullshit! If you’re a fan of bling and leopardskin, Pimpzilla’s the thing for you!
    Link [www.pimpzilla.nl]

  37. 37.

    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.

  38. 38.

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

    is this list a joke?

  39. 39.

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

    iFox Smooth forever !!!

  40. 40.

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

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

  41. 41.

    Miamoto (July 3rd, 2007, 1:30 pm)

    Another one for you. ;) Link [www.deviantart.com]

  42. 42.

    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

  43. 43.

    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.

  44. 44.

    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.

  45. 45.

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

    My personal favorite is Red Shift V2.

  46. 46.

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

    My personal favorite is Tinseltown!

  47. 47.

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

    can we use safari theme in firefox?

Leave a Reply

Allowed Tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
 

All Posts

Sideblog

Ross Johnson discusses 8 forgotten fonts you may use in CSS. Among them are Palatino Linotype, Century Gothic, Copperplate and Gill Sans — apparently, these fonts are installed on a variety of operating systems.

Palatino

How creative can a table of contents be? Designobserver presents Thirty Tables of Contents. The collection includes excerpts from the books by Philip Larkin, Philip Roth, Paul Rand and Jan Tschichold.

Table of Contents

A set of 18 splendid and colorful looking 3D RSS-Icons. They are done with 3d Studio Max. JPG.

Screenshot

In Font Clock 12 different fonts are printed within the mechanism of a clock, providing a random, mixed display of graphic language within a single time piece. Designed by Sebastian Wrong.

Font Clock

One pixel notched corners as used by Google Analytics. Instead of each option being boxed in a clickable rectangle, there is a 1px notch in each corner. It's not necessarily a curved corner, but it is a little softer than a normal box. Nice little trick.

Screenshot

Hartija is a CSS print framework which is an attempt to unite best CSS printing practices into one single CSS-file.

Rather than standard website templates, a free admin template is nearly impossible to find. This is an admin template which you can use for web applications like online-shops or CMS.

Screenshot

Fully Personal Interface research is a survey where people are questioned about their interface preferences. Results: labels and icons should be placed on the left, horizontal menus are more popular than vertical ones.

Fully Personal Interface Research

  • Grab the High-Quality OpenType Free Font Anivers!
  • Grab the Dilectio WordPress Theme!
  • Grab the Smashing WordPress Theme!