Firefox is one of the most used web browsers on the Web. According to Clicky, it holds around 20% of the global market share. Firefox is also installed by default in almost all Linux distributions. So it’s very likely to see Linux users using it all the time, although many other alternatives are available like Chromium and Epiphany.

Since the web browser’s window is all what many of us see the whole day, you may want to customize its appearance. We are not talking about “personas” or those simple backgrounds that you put to colorize a small part of the browser’s window. We are talking about changing the theme totally. Firefox does this using “Complete Themes“.

In this tutorial, we’ll introduce some nice extensions and themes to consider using if you want to customize Firefox.

Htitle – Hide The Title Bar

Htitle Firefox Extension
Htitle Firefox Extension

This extension – although discontinued – still does its solo great job: hiding the title bar and the window’s buttons. Which gives you an extra space for displaying the Web content. It’s still working good even with Firefox 49.0 (Latest version at the time of writing this article).

After hiding the title bar, the window’s buttons (Close, maximize and minimize) will be displayed as small buttons near the Firefox menu on the same search bar. You can also choose if you want to hide the title bar always or when maximized.

Note: Keep in mind to turn on the “Legacy Mode” option from the extension’s settings, it’s very important if you want it to work on desktop environments other than GNOME.

Download Htitle Firefox Extension.

Classic Theme Restorer

Classic Theme Restorer Settings on FIrefox
Classic Theme Restorer Settings on FIrefox

From its name, this extension can indicate its mission: going back to the classic look of Firefox. However, it offeres tons of extra features and functionality. for example you can change the tabs width & height, the toolbars width & height, the tabs position, the UI style, the add-ons bar, the bookmarks bar buttons, the search box settings, the border radius, the used icons and a lot more.

However you need to dig a bit into the settings to turn on / off what preferences you want. The extension doesn’t turn everything on by default and it doesn’t restore the UI automatically. You have to choose your settings. Here’s my setup:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-19-50-08

Still, it’s very rich with functionality. It allows you to customize a lot of aspects in your browser that no other extension allows you to customize. Consider donating to the developer if you liked it.

Download Firefox Classic Theme Restorer.

FFLoki

Firefox with FFLoki Theme and Htitle Extension
Firefox with FFLoki Theme and Htitle Extension

Maybe you have heard about elementary OS Loki; the latest release from the elementary team which came with astonishing design. It also came with a Web browser called “Epiphany” which is the default browser for GNOME environment as well.

FFLoki is a complete theme for Firefox that transforms it into the look of that Web browser in elementary. It’s very clean and very nice. I recommend that you give it a try. Specially with the Htitle extension.

Download FFLoki Complete Theme For Firefox.

Arc Theme

Arc Theme For Firefox
Arc Darker Theme For Firefox

Arc is one of the most complete themes for the Linux desktop. They provide a unique theme for +GTK 2/3, Cinnamon, GNOME Shell, Unity, XFWM4 and Metacity. It also supports all +GTK versions from 3.14 up to 3.22.

The good thing is: They also provide a special complete theme for Firefox in 3 variants: Normal, Dark and Darker. Which gives you an amazing compatible experience with your desktop.

You can download Arc theme for Firefox, Arc Dark or Arc Darker.

FXChrome

FXChrome Theme On Firefox
FXChrome Theme On Firefox

If you like the look and feel of Chrome (Or Chromium) and you want that appearance in Firefox. Then this extension is for you. By using it you will be able to transfer Firefox into Chrome (in appearance only). It also supports the private window, which will use the dark theme when you choose that mode.

There’s another theme like it but uses the dark theme by default, it’s called FXChromeDark.

Download FXChrome theme for Firefox.

Move The Bookmarks Near The Search Bar

If you don’t want to always display the bookmarks tab in order to allocate more space for Web content but still, you want to access your bookmarks easily, you have a simple solution for that.

This is not an extension actually but a very simple tip. First open the customization window:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-17-03

Then drag the “Bookmarks Toolbar items” from the bookmarks toolbar to the search bar up:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-17-33 screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-17-54

Now exit the customization and create a new folder to group the bookmarks in the top bar. You can do this by right-clicking on an empty space near your bookmarks:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-18-42

And it will be created:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-19-38

At the end, this is how your browser would look like:

screenshot-from-2016-10-02-17-21-08

Conclusion

There are many extensions and themes for Firefox and they can all be used depending on your needs. You can keep browsing the Mozilla Add-ons store to see what fits you the best. If you want the real “themes” for Firefox then consider browsing the complete themes. They are updated from time to time.

If you use any other theme or extension and you think that it’s great, I hope you share it with us in the comments.

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