In this article, we will learn how to customize cursors in GNOME, change the cursors theme, change particular cursor in the theme, and change the size of the cursor in GNOME.

🤔 Why Customize Cursors?

Customization in Linux is fun you can use different and unique cursor themes to give your cursor a cool look or you can change cursor size to make according to your preference because the cursor plays a very important role in working on our desktop.

đź“„ Pre Requirements

  • Linux Distro Installed with GNOME Desktop Environment
  • Basic Linux Knowledge

Changing the Size of the Mouse Pointer

In GNOME desktop you don’t generally get an option in settings to change cursor size but it’s possible and it’s very easy you just need to run one-line command.

So launch terminal and run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-size 30

Where “30” is the cursor size. The default size is 24, you can set a large number to increase and a smaller number to decrease the size.

In order to find your current cursor size you can run this command:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-size

Changing Cursors Theme

So firstly you will have to find the theme you like the most, to find the theme go to gnome-look.org and choose any theme you like.

In our case we choose this one: Cursor Theme Now go to files tab and click on download button. Cursor Theme Download

Now extract the archive file you downloaded, you will see a new folder with theme name in our case its name is “Plasma-Overdose” so now what you have to do is move this folder to ~/.icons (.icons should be in the root of the home folder such that /home/$USER/.icons) please don’t forget to enable show hidden files from 3-dot menu at the top in files app or you can also use the Ctrl + H shortcut to toggle hidden items.

Note: Feel free to create .icons directory yourself if you don’t have one.

To change your cursor theme you have 2 options the first one is to use terminal and the second one is to use a GUI tool called GNOME Tweaks:

1. Using Terminal

To change the cursor theme launch the terminal and run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme Plasma-Overdose

Where “Plasma-Overdose” is the cursor theme. The default cursor theme is Adwaita, It may differ according to your Linux distro.

In order to find your current cursor theme you can run this command:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme

2. Using GNOME Tweaks (GUI)

To install GNOME Tweaks run the following command:

  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install gnome-tweaks
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks

Launch GNOME Tweaks and go to the appearance tab then in the cursor dropdown select your cursor theme. Select Cursor Theme

🥳 Congratulations you have successfully installed and enabled your new cursor theme.

Changing Particular Cursor in Cursor Theme

It’s a very easy task you just have to play with files, replace them correctly and you are done. So let’s do this, We have taken Adwaita and Plasma-Overdose, For this example we have cloned the Adwaita theme into the ~/.icons folder and renamed it to AdwaitaClone to avoid issues. We like the Adwaita theme but we want the text selection cursor from the Plasma-Overdose theme, So to do this refer to the below chart as you can see the text selection cursor file name is text so now what you have to do is replace ~/.icons/AdwaitaClone/cursors/text with ~/.icons/Plasma-Overdose/cursors/text and that’s it you are done. Set the theme to AdwaitaClone and enjoy your custom theme.

Cursor Filename Chart

Opening every cursor file and seeing “Which cursor is this” is kinda annoying right?
Don’t worry! We have got you covered with the previews and file names of all the cursors.

Preview File Name
Image alias
Image all-scroll
Image arrow
Image bd_double_arrow
Image bottom_left_corner
Image bottom_right_corner
Image bottom_side
Image bottom_tee
Image cell
Image circle
Image col-resize
Image context-menu
Image copy
Image cross
Image crossed_circle
Image crosshair
Image cross_reverse
Image default
Image diamond_cross
Image dnd-ask
Image dnd-copy
Image dnd-link
Image dnd-move
Image dnd-no-drop
Image dnd-none
Image dotbox
Image dot_box_mask
Image double_arrow
Image draft_large
Image draft_small
Image draped_box
Image e-resize
Image ew-resize
Image fd_double_arrow
Image fleur
Image grab
Image grabbing
Image hand
Image hand1
Image hand2
Image h_double_arrow
Image help
Image icon
Image left_ptr
Image left_ptr_help
Image left_ptr_watch
Image left_side
Image left_tee
Image link
Image ll_angle
Image lr_angle
Image move
Image ne-resize
Image nesw-resize
Image no-drop
Image not-allowed
Image n-resize
Image ns-resize
Image nw-resize
Image nwse-resize
Image openhand
Image pencil
Image pirate
Image plus
Image pointer
Image pointer-move
Image progress
Image question_arrow
Image right_ptr
Image right_side
Image right_tee
Image row-resize
Image sb_down_arrow
Image sb_h_double_arrow
Image sb_left_arrow
Image sb_right_arrow
Image sb_up_arrow
Image sb_v_double_arrow
Image se-resize
Image size_all
Image size_bdiag
Image size_fdiag
Image size_hor
Image size_ver
Image s-resize
Image sw-resize
Image target
Image tcross
Image text
Image top_left_arrow
Image top_left_corner
Image top_right_corner
Image top_side
Image top_tee
Image ul_angle
Image ur_angle
Image v_double_arrow
Image vertical-text
Image wait
Image watch
Image w-resize
Image X_cursor
Image xterm
Image zoom-in
Image zoom-out

Cursor Image Credits: Adwaita Theme licensed under CC BY SA 3.0

Conclusion

From this article, you came to know about cursor customization in GNOME. Feel free to comment if you have any doubts or questions.