Is there a way to reduce desktop icon spacing

[Gemini6]

Hello! I just joined the forum as I have not found a solution for my problem by doing a lot search.
I am still on LL5.2 as my disk space is very limited and I don't want to install a system becoming bigger and bigger. Still, LL5.2 works pretty well for my needs. Thank you.
On my PC, which is Thinkpad X230, With Windows 7, I have put 8 rows of desktop icons. (Actually, it is rather easy to change icon spacing with Windows 7. On Linux lite, I have only 6 rows of desktop icons.
So, I would like to reduce the vertical icon spacing and place 8 rows of desktop icons. For me, 8 rows of desktop icons are just good for my eyes.
Is there a way to do this? If anyone can help, I would really appreciate...

[stevef]

Simply reducing the icon size of the icons might do what you want without directly changing the icon spacing (padding).

To adjust the icon size
Click Menu
Begin typing 'Desktop' into the search bar
When you see an entry called 'Desktop' click on it.
Select the Icon tab and adjust the Icon size down to see if you can get the right look.

Post back if it doesn't look right and you want to adjust padding.

[Gemini6]

Thank you so much. I reduced the icon size, and now I have 8 rows of desktop icons!!
I had noticed this settings before, but as I did not want to reduce the icon size, I did not even try this.. 
So, this is almost what I wanted, but if it was possible to increase the icon size a little while keeping the 8 rows, that would be easier for my eyes. If that is not too complicated..
Thank you anyway, this is already a great improvement for me!!

[stevef]

Depends on how you define 'too complicated'

By default, each desktop icon has a small margin around it and the accompanying text. You can set these margins to zero (or any pixel value). To do this you can create (or modify) a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file for gtk.

Before starting, set the Icon size to the smallest you are comfortable with.

The CSS file will be edited using terminal commands.
To open a terminal press 'Ctrl' 'Alt' and 'T' keys together.

In the terminal, type or paste in the following command.

Code:

cp ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css ~/.config/gtk-3.0/original-gtk.css

followed by the Enter key.

If the file already exists, this command will make a backup copy of it.
If the file doesn't exist the command will reply saying 'No such file or directory'

Next, in the terminal, type or paste in the following command

Code:

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

followed by the Enter key

This will open a text editor within the terminal showing the contents of the file.  The text editor cursor will be at the beginning of the file.  Copy the following text and insert it at the beginning of the file by right click and paste.

Code:

XfdesktopIconView.view {
    -XfdesktopIconView-cell-spacing:0;
    -XfdesktopIconView-cell-padding:0;
}

Exit the text editor by pressing Ctrl and X keys together.
The editor will ask 'Save modified buffer?'
Press Y key
The editor will check the file name
Press Enter
The editor will close.

The lines you've added set padding for the icon and associated text.

To observe the effect, position the Terminal window so that you can see the icons on the desktop and apply the changes by
typing or pasting in the following command

Code:

pkill xfdesktop

followed by the Enter key

The Icons now have zero spacing.  To revert to default spacing remove the lines from the file.

[Gemini6]

Well, your procedure seemed a little "complicated" at first sight, but it is very well explained and very clear!!

So, I was able to follow the procedure step by step, and it worked perfectly!! Thank you very much for your time and patience!!

PS: In the end, I even put the negative value (-10) and increased the icon size to have 8 rows of desktop icons.

[Gemini6]

I am very sorry to ask you another question!!
Well, with your procedure applied, my desktop icons looked perfect. So, I wanted to back up the system. As I always make a backup of a rather clean installation, I restored my backup of clean setup, and applied your procedure step by step exactly as I did the first time. But, to my surprise, this time, gkt.css has no effet!!
What can be the cause? Maybe the configuration in which it worked had been updated and had some modules installed? And, this is maybe missing, which prevents gkt.css from having its effect??
Do you have some idea?

[stevef]

But, to my surprise, this time, gkt.css has no effet!!

Please post back the results of

Code:

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

[Gemini6]

Thank you.

I got the following.

Quote

XfdesktopIconView.view {
    -XfdesktopIconView-cell-spacing:0;
    -XfdesktopIconView-cell-padding:0;
}

Unquote

[stevef]

That listing looks fine.
With small Icons, because the default cell padding is small, using a value of zero doesn't actually make a great difference (to my eyes).  Try changing the values to say 50 and applying by resetting the xfdesktop.  This should really spread the icons out.

If it doesn't, then we need to dig deeper.

Also post the result of

Code:

ls -l ~/.config/gtk-3.0/

[Gemini6]

Thanks.
I am not 100% sure if I understand well, but I started all over again, by following your procedure step by step, after having set the icon size to 50.
Strangely, my desktop icons don't change any more...
When I type.

Code:

ls -l ~/.config/gtk-3.0/

I get.

Code:

total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 default default  20 Jul 23 03:41 bookmarks
-rw-rw-r-- 1 default default 109 Jul 25 13:00 gtk.css

Maybe the permissions are wrong??
Anyway, now by reducing icon size, I can have 8 rows of desktop icons. So, I think I can live with that..