KDE themes mouse cursor

[Duncan]

Bob Stia posted on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:43:07 -0500 as excerpted:

> Hello KDE4 people,
> 
> I am very sight impaired. (macular degeneration)

Ouch!

> I have a very difficult time seeing many things on the themes shipped
> with 11.2. Oxygen is the best so far but not great. I need something
> with lots of contrast bold fonts of a decent size etc. Don't need or
> want glitz. Just plain easily readable stuff.

First, I don't know what 11.2 is.  It's not the kde version number, since 
the latest current release is 4.3.4.  Maybe it's your distribution 
version number, but you don't say which distribution and this is the kde 
list, not your distribution list.  Never-the-less, I'll assume it's the 
SuSE version number, since AFAIK that sounds about right for them.  That 
would mean you're running SuSE, but as this is a kde list not a SuSE 
list, you can't really assume that we'll know what version of kde you're 
using just because you say the version of distribution you're using.  
That info would be helpful, but this is a general enough question, we'll 
do without that info for now, and make the I think valid assumption that 
you're running SuSE and that the current version includes a reasonably 
current kde, tho it's likely not the latest...

Next, on accessibility, make sure you have the kdeaccessibility package 
installed.  Your distribution may package it as a single package, or 
multiple split packages.  Here on Gentoo, the combined package is a meta-
package that pulls in all the others as dependencies.  Here's the list of 
what it pulls in, in case you have them separate as well:

kdeaccessibility-colorschemes
kdeaccessibility-iconthemes
kmag
kmousetool
kmouth
kttsd

kttsd is the text to speech engine, and kmouth reads what you type 
outloud.  You'll probably find kttsd useful, at least.  kmousetool clicks 
the mouse for you -- not your problem.  kmag may be interesting, but kde 
already includes magnifier effects as an option (under desktop effects in 
kcontrol/systemsettings) as long as you have composite effects available.

You'll probably want the kdeaccessibility-colorschemes and iconthemes.  I 
don't have them installed at present, but as I recall, they DO include 
very high contrast themes, which is what you need.

You can then tweak fonts, colors and icons in kcontrol/systemsettings as 
necessary.

The other thing you'll need to set is plasma's themes.  These are 
selectable not from kcontrol, but from the desktop/activity settings 
dialog.  Here, I really don't know what would be best.  Maybe someone 
else has some idea.

> I've gone to KDE look and searched for themes but it is hard to tell
> what they actually look like unless you download and install them. That
> could take forever. Hopefully some of you out there have seen a theme
> that I can use.
> 
> Also need to find a bigger bolder mouse pointer. How does one find that
> in KDE4?  I have searched all through the desktop settings without
> finding it.

kcontrol/systemsettings, computer administration, keyboard & mouse, 
mouse.  That's the kcontrol applet.  The second tab is cursor themes.  Of 
course, you can only select from themes you have installed, but there are 
BIG versions of most of the default KDE cursor themes (kdebase-cursors 
package, here on Gentoo, part of the kdebase meta-package, of course).  
Your distribution likely has others, and kde-look should have still 
others.  Since mouse cursors are generic X, gnome-look and etc may have 
other useful choices, as well.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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