LibreOffice AppImage Version Looks Great on Elementary OS

LibreOffice is a really great free software project which provides its product in all formats possible, whether it is DEB or RPM, Snap, Flatpak, or even AppImage. If you don't know, AppImage is just like DMG on MacOS, it's application in single file format just click to run it. However, if you see closer, LibreOffice AppImage looks good on elementary OS 5.0. That's why it's very interesting to use on elementary OS. In this article I just want to report screenshots and my short comments about it. I hope you are interested to run LibreOffice AppImage version on elementary OS too. Enjoy!

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Installation

To run the software, simply give it Execution rights, and double-click the appimage file. LibreOffice runs just as easy as that.

1. Front Look

The AppImage version starts with LibreOffice Launcher as you can see below. From this launcher, you select to run either Writer, Calc, or Impress module; of if you have recent documents you open one of them.

2. Writer Look

This is how LibreOffice in general looks on elementary OS. See the titlebar? It looks grayish with metallic gradation, and everything looks so matched with Pantheon. If you unmaximize the window, it shows the smooth drop shadow just like any other apps on elementary OS. The only one thing unsightly is perhaps the 'x' button with white background on top-right corner.

3. Calc Look

Here's how Calc would look.

4. Impress Look

And here's how Impress would look.

5. Menubar and Context menu

Normal menubar and Muffin menubar look seamless with elementary OS theme and every piece drawn with smooth drop shadow. The drop shadow makes the menu distinguished clearly to the toolbar below it (mine on KDE without drop shadow looks no different, slightly unclear to read). Context menu also looks very well shaped. All text looks clear, distinguished to their gray background, and no text rendered in similar/same color as the background.

6. Toolbar and Sidebar

I tried to show many toolbars here. You see here, standard toolbar staying with formatting, drawing, table, find, and insert toolbars. As you can see, all look integrated to elementary OS particularly because of the icon theme.


The sidebar looks great as well! Sidebar is the most concentrated UI element in LibreOffice packed with all kinds of buttons in one place; it includes many combo boxes and icons. The background gray color is slightly lighter compared to the toolbar, but all text and icons look clear and distinct, and the Elementary icon theme here made it feels refreshing.

7. Notebookbar

The ribbon toolbar of LibreOffice fortunately looks good with elementary OS. Grayish with a little bit metallic gradation, and drop shadow everywhere, supported by the default icon theme of the buttons. The tabbar rendered in darker gray and every tab shown in a little bit round-corner fashion, they are clear, easy to distinguish to titlebar and toolbars.

8. Dialogs

All dialogs follow elementary OS style with grayish theme and a bit rounded corners. Particularly the open/save dialog, the breadcrumb (addressbar) follows elementary style.

9. Icons

You saw above at Toolbar section the Elementary icon theme. You see below LibreOffice with Karasa Jaga and Sifr icon themes. If you are bored with the default one, you may change it at any time and it will look as good.

Final Comment

If you do not have office suite on elementary OS yet, I recommend you to use LibreOffice AppImage. It runs instantly, unlike Snap or Flatpak version, without dependencies installation. You can run it by double-click on file manager. It works, and it looks so elementary fashioned. Happy working!

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This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.