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Changing GTK+ settings when in a non Gnome environment

From the FreeBSD Gnome FAQ:

How do I use GTK+ 2 resource settings for GTK+ 2 applications when not in a GNOME environment?

GNOME 2 applications get their GTK+ 2 resources from themes and the corresponding theme engine. If you would rather run your GTK+ 2 applications in a non-GNOME environment then you will need to create a file named ~/.gtkrc-2.0.

To use the widgets from a GTK+ 2 theme when in a non-GNOME environment, simply include the theme's gtk-2.0/gtkrc in your ~/.gtkrc-2.0. For example:

include "/usr/X11R6/share/themes/Crux/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

If you prefer, you can use the same GTK+ 1.2 theme for both GTK+ 1.2 and GTK+ 2 applications, which will give your GTK+ programs a consistent look. For the most part, you can transfer your settings from your ~/.gtkrc file (used for GTK+ 1.2) with a couple of caveats.

If you have any theme engine references, you will have to make sure there is a corresponding GTK+ 2 theme engine. Otherwise, remove the engine entries.

The default font specification should be outside of any style blocks and should be specified with the gtk-font-name keyword. For example:

gtk-font-name = "Verdana 11"

Note that while a GTK+ 1.2 gtkrc file will work in a GTK+ 2 gtkrc-2.0 file, the opposite is not true: the contents of a GTK+ 2 gtkrc-2.0 file will not work inside a GTK+ 1.2 gtkrc file.

For simply switching GTK+ themes without needing to edit your ~/.gtkrc files, you can use the x11/gtk-theme-switch and x11/gtk2-theme-switch ports.