`mate-appearance-properties` [Feature request]: Preview animated icons for cursor themes

[davidhedlund]

Background

Cursor themes ("DMZ (black)", "DMZ (white)", "MATE", "MATE (black)", "Yaru") rely on animation to convey their design and timing. Without motion, it’s difficult for users to evaluate how the cursor actually behaves, which frame rate it uses, or how smooth the animation appears.

The "Yaru" cursor theme in action is animated on the 5th second:[1]

output.mp4

Current behavior

mate-appearance-properties -> "Customize..." (button) -> Pointer (tab) displays only static icons. Example for the default Yaru-light-theme in Ubuntu MATE 24.04:

Feature request

It would be useful if GitHub’s preview or asset viewer supported not only static cursor images, but also a small animated preview similar to how .gif or .apng files are already rendered.

References

Loading cursor icon file names are usually:

• watch: This is the common name used by GTK/MATE applications for the cursor that indicates a long task (like a spinning clock or hourglass).
• wait: This is another common alias, especially in environments like KDE, and cursor themes often include a symbolic link (symlink) to watch for this name to ensure compatibility.

For example, the files for the Yaru cursor theme are:

• /usr/share/icons/Yaru/wait
• /usr/share/icons/Yaru/wait.ani
• /usr/share/icons/Yaru/watch
• /usr/share/icons/Yaru/watch.ani