How do you increase the resize border thickness in Xubuntu 12.04?

Question

I want to make the window resize border larger, but do not want to change the window manager or the desktop theme. How do I do so?

Answer 1

Here's an explanation of increasing the border size:

http://sevkeifert.blogspot.com/2014/12/increase-window-border-size-in-xubuntu.html

Summary:

XFCE theme files use a XPM3 file format. To change the Greybird Window borders, find the theme XFCE files under:

cd /usr/share/themes/Greybird/xfwm4/

Then, back up the files and try tweaking. Increase the width to 4px and add a one pixel dark border:

sudo vi bottom-active.xpm

/* XPM */
static char * left_active_xpm[] = {
"1 4 2 1",
"  c #cecece",
". c #7c7c7c",
" ",
" ",
" ",
"."};

sudo vi left-active.xpm

/* XPM */
static char * left_active_xpm[] = {
"4 1 2 1",
"  c #cecece",
". c #7c7c7c",
".   "};

sudo vi right-active.xpm

/* XPM */
static char * left_active_xpm[] = {
"4 1 2 1",
"  c #cecece",
". c #7c7c7c",
"   ."};

To trigger a refresh, you can use:

 xfwm4 --replace

Answer 2

I found the only easy answer was to learn to use the alt-right button-drag thing. Which once you get used to it is pretty handy, and of course therefore is sorely lacking in windows. :-(

Answer 3

The window border size depends in the window manager (xfwm) theme. Changing the window manager theme doesn't interfere with the desktop (GTK) theme, they don't have to be the same. To get exactly the look you like it's quite easy to make a modified version of your favorite theme but with a thicker border. The themes are located in /usr/share/themes and your custom theme can be placed in ~/.themes (you only need care about the xfce4 subdirectory).