Making Scrollbars More Visible in Linux Mint

Are you tired of barely visible scrollbars in your applications? Here’s how to customize scrollbars for both GTK and Qt applications in Linux Mint to make them more visible and easier to use.

GTK Applications (Most Native Linux Apps)

For GTK applications, you can customize scrollbars by editing your GTK CSS file:

nano ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

Add these styles to make scrollbars more visible:

/* To refresh GTK settings after editing this file:
 * 1. For Cinnamon/MATE: Run 'gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme "$THEME_NAME"' twice
 *    (replace $THEME_NAME with your current theme name, e.g., 'Mint-Y')
 * 2. For GNOME: Run 'gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme "$THEME_NAME"' twice
 * 3. Restart the application (for app-specific changes)
 * 4. Or log out and log back in (for system-wide changes)
 */

/***  ** scrollbar slider - cinnamon-settings-generated - do not edit *****/

@define-color scrollbar_fg_color white;
@define-color scrollbar_bg_color #5aaa9a;

scrollbar {
    -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: true;
    -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: true;
}

scrollbar slider {
    border: 1px solid shade(#5aaa9a, 0.8);
}

scrollbar.horizontal slider {
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom,
            shade(#5aaa9a, 1.12),
            shade(#5aaa9a, 0.95));
}

scrollbar.vertical slider {
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom,
            shade(#5aaa9a, 1.12),
            shade(#5aaa9a, 0.95));
}

Qt Applications (Kate, KDE Apps)

Qt applications like Kate don’t use GTK styling. You need to configure them separately:

1. Configure KDE Globals

Create or edit ~/.config/kdeglobals

mkdir -p ~/.config
nano ~/.config/kdeglobals

Add these lines:

[KDE]
ShowDeleteCommand=false
widgetStyle=Breeze

[Colors:View]
ScrollBar.BackgroundColor=77,170,154
ScrollBar.SliderColor=77,170,154

2. Create a Qt Stylesheet for Scrollbars

Create (or modify) a custom scrollbar stylesheet:

mkdir -p ~/.config/qt5ct/qss
nano ~/.config/qt5ct/qss/scrollbar.qss

Add this CSS:

QScrollBar {
    background: #f0f0f0;
    width: 12px;
}

QScrollBar::handle {
    background: #5aaa9a;
    border: 1px solid #3a8a7a;
    min-height: 20px;
}

QScrollBar::add-line, QScrollBar::sub-line {
    background: none;
}

3. Reference the Stylesheet in Qt5ct Configuration

Edit your Qt5ct configuration file:

nano ~/.config/qt5ct/qt5ct.conf

Find the “stylesheets=” line and add your new stylesheet to the end (separated by a comma):

stylesheets=/path/to/existing/stylesheets, /home/YOURNAME/.config/qt5ct/qss/scrollbar.qss

Applying the Changes

For GTK applications (yes, that is the same command twice), using your Mint Theme’s name instead of “Mint-Y-Dark-Teal”:

gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme "Mint-Y-Dark-Teal" 
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.interface gtk-theme "Mint-Y-Dark-Teal"

For Qt applications:

Restart the application

You might need to run: kbuildsycoca5

If needed, set: export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct

Benefits

Scrollbars are now much more visible with a teal color
Consistent styling across applications
Easier to grab and use scrollbars
No more straining to see pale gray scrollbars on white backgrounds

These changes work well on Linux Mint 21.2 with Cinnamon desktop environment and should help make your scrollbars much more visible and easy to use.