I've found a way of using GTK themes without the need to install gnome, well at least not all of it, the only packages you need is gnome-themes/gtk2-themes. Both of the packages just provide themes -- you dont need to install them if you already have a theme you'd like to use.
1. Create an empty file called ".no-qtrc-to-gtkrc-mapping" inside you're home directory and leave it empty. This an undocumented feature of SuSE Linux which I found by looking at the code for the startkde script at /opt/kde3/bin/startkde.
2. If you don't already have the ".gtkrc" and ".gtkrc-2.0" files in your home directory create them and add/modify the include statement to match the themes gtkrc file you want to use. For example if you want to use the industrial theme (gnome-themes package - installed in /opt/gnome/share/themes/Industrial on SuSE 9.1 - should be the same for earlier versions too):
include "/opt/gnome/share/themes/Industrial/gtk/gtkrc" for .gtkrc
and
include "/opt/gnome/share/themes/Industrial/gtk-2.0/gtkrc" for .gtkrc-2.0
3. The fonts are usually ugly even if you set the themes so add a line to both of these files similar to
gtk-font-name = "Sans 10"
where the 1st part is the font name and the number at the end is the size of the font.
Thats it! Your GTK apps should use the theme you configured in the include statements. No script editing... no gnome.
Now for my .gtkrc and .gtkrc-2.0 files:
.gtkrc
Code:
include "/opt/gnome/share/themes/Industrial/gtk/gtkrc"
gtk-font-name = "Verdana 8"
.gtkrc-2.0
Code:
include "/opt/gnome/share/themes/Industrial/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"
gtk-font-name = "Verdana 8"