The need for a new theme format was motivated by the fact that the way rofi handled widgets has changed\. From a very static drawing of lines and text to a nice structured form of packing widgets\. This change made it possible to provide a more flexible theme framework\. The old theme format and config file is not flexible enough to expose these options in a user\-friendly way\. Therefor a new file format has been created, replacing the old one\. The new format is loosely based on css \fIhttps://en\.wikipedia\.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets\fR, a format widely known, which allows e\.g\. web developers to create their own rofi themes without the need to learn a new markup language\.
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.SH"FORMAT SPECIFICATION"
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.SH"Encoding"
The encoding of the file is utf\-8\. Both unix (\fB\en\fR) and windows (\fB\er\en\fR) newlines format are supported\. But unix is preferred\.
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.SH"Comments"
C and C++ file comments are support\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
Anything after \fB//\fR and before a newline is considered a comment\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
Everything between \fB/*\fR and \fB*/\fR is a comment\.
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.IP""0
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.P
Comments can be nested and the C comments can be inline\.
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.P
The following is valid:
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.IP""4
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.nf
// Magic comment\.
property: /* comment */ value;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
However this is not:
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.IP""4
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.nf
prop/*comment*/erty: value;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.SH"White space"
White space and newlines, like comments, are ignored by the parser\.
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.P
This:
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.IP""4
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.nf
property: name;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
Is identical to:
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.IP""4
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.nf
property :
name
;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.SH"File extension"
The preferred file extension for the new theme format is \fBrasi\fR\. This is an abbreviation for \fBr\fRofi \fBa\fRdvanced \fBs\fRtyle \fBi\fRnformation\.
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.SH"BASIC STRUCTURE"
Each element has a section with defined properties\. Properties can be inherited to sub\-sections\. Global properties can be defined in section \fB* { }\fR\. Sub\-section names begin with a hash symbol \fB#\fR\.
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.P
It is advised to define the \fIglobal properties section\fR on top of the file to make inheritance of properties clearer\.
A theme can have one or more global properties sections (If there is more than one they will be merged)
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.P
The global properties section denotes the defaults for each element\. Each property of this section can be referenced with \fB@{identifier}\fR (See Properties section)
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.P
A global properties section is indicated with a \fB*\fR as element path\.
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.SH"Element theme section"
A theme can have multiple element theme sections\.
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.P
The element path can consist of multiple names separated by whitespace or dots\. Each element may contain any number of letters, numbers and \fB\-\fR\. The first element in the element path should always start with a \fB#\fR\.
Each section inherits the properties of its parents\. Inherited properties can be overridden by defining them again in the section itself\. So \fB#window mainbox\fR will contain all properties of \fB#window\fR and \fB#window mainbox\fR\.
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.P
In the following example:
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.IP""4
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.nf
#window {
a: 1;
b: 2;
}
#window mainbox {
b: 4;
c: 8;
}
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
The element \fB#window mainbox\fR will have the following set of properties:
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.IP""4
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.nf
a: 1;
b: 4;
c: 8;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
If multiple sections are defined with the same name, they are merged by the parser\. If multiple properties with the same name are defined in one section, the last encountered property is used\.
The \fBidentifier\fR names the specified property\. Identifiers can consist of any combination of numbers, letters and \'\-\'\. It must not contain any whitespace\. The structure of the \fBvalue\fR defines the type of the property\. The current parser does not define or enforce a certain type of a particular \fBidentifier\fR\. When used, values with the wrong type that cannot be converted, are ignored\.
Indicates how a line should be drawn\. It currently supports: * \fBdash\fR: A dashed line\. Where the gap is the same width as the dash\. * \fBsolid\fR: A solid line\.
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.SH"Distance"
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.IP"\(bu"4
Format: \fB{Integer}px\fR
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.IP"\(bu"4
Format: \fB{Real}em\fR
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.IP"\(bu"4
Format: \fB{Real}%\fR
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.IP""0
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.P
A distance can be specified in 3 different units:
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBpx\fR: Screen pixels\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBem\fR: Relative to text width\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fB%\fR: Percentage of the \fBmonitor\fR size\.
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.IP""0
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.P
Distances used in the horizontal direction use the monitor width\. Distances in the vertical direction use the monitor height\. For example:
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.IP""4
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.nf
padding: 10%;
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
On a full\-hd (1920x1080) monitor defines a padding of 192 pixels on the left and right side and 108 pixels on the top and bottom\.
A reference can point to another reference\. Currently the maximum number of redirects is 20\. A property always refers to another property\. It cannot be used for a subpart of the property\. e\.g\. this is not valid:
A list starts with a \'[\' and ends with a \']\'\. The entries in the list are comma separated\. The \fBkeyword\fR in the list refers to an widget name\.
Currently only the entrybox and scrollbar have states:
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.SS"Entrybox:"
\fB{visible modifier}\.{state}\fR
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.P
Where \fBvisible modifier\fR can be: * normal: No modification\. * selected: The entry is selected/highlighted by user\. * alternate: The entry is at an alternating row\. (uneven row)
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.P
Where \fBstate\fR is: * normal: No modification\. * urgent: This entry is marked urgent\. * active: This entry is marked active\.
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.P
These can be mixed\.
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.P
Example:
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.IP""4
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.nf
#name\.to\.textbox selected\.active {
background: #003642;
foreground: #008ed4;
}
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.fi
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.IP""0
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.P
Sets all selected textboxes marked active to the given foreground and background color\.
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.SS"Scrollbar"
The scrollbar uses the \fBhandle\fR state when drawing the small scrollbar handle\. This allows the colors used for drawing the handle to be set independently\.
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.SH"SUPPORTED PROPERTIES"
The following properties are currently supports:
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.SS"all widgets:"
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBpadding\fR: padding Padding on the inside of the widget\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBmargin\fR: padding Margin on the outside of the widget\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBborder\fR: border Border around the widget (between padding and margin)/
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBborder\-radius\fR: padding Sets a radius on the corners of the borders\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBbackground\fR: color Background color\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBforeground\fR: color Foreground color\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBindex\fR: integer (This one does not inherits it value from the parent widget)
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.IP""0
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.SS"window:"
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBfont\fR: string The font used in the window\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBtransparency\fR: string Indicating if transparency should be used and what type: \fBreal\fR\- True transparency\. Only works with a compositor\.\fBbackground\fR\- Take a screenshot of the background image and use that\.\fBscreenshot\fR\- Take a screenshot of the screen and use that\.\fBPath\fR to png file \- Use an image\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBposition\fR: position The place of the anchor on the monitor\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBanchor\fR: anchor The anchor position on the window\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBfullscreen\fR: boolean Window is fullscreen\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBwidth\fR: distance The width of the window\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBx\-offset\fR: distance
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.IP"\(bu"4
\fBy\-offset\fR: distance The offset of the window to the anchor point\. Allowing you to push the window left/right/up/down\.
The new format allows the layout of the \fBrofi\fR window to be tweaked extensively\. For each widget the themer can specify padding, margin, border, font and more\. It even allows, as advanced feature, to pack widgets in a custom structure\.
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.SS"Basic structure"
The whole view is build up out of boxes that pack other boxes or widgets\. The box can be either vertical or horizontal\. This is loosely inspired GTK \fIhttp://gtk\.org/\fR\.
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.P
The current layout of \fBrofi\fR is structured as follow:
Any widget name starting with \fBtextbox\fR is a textbox widget, all others are a box widget and can pack other widgets\. To specify children, set the children property (this always happens on the \fBbox\fR child, see example below):
Padding \- Clears an area around the widget\. The padding shows the background color of the widget\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
Border \- A border that goes around the padding and content\. The border use the foreground color of the widget\.
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.IP"\(bu"4
Margin \- Clears an area outside the border\. The margin is transparent
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.IP""0
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.P
The box model allows us to add a border around elements, and to define space between elements\.
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.P
The size, on each side, of margin, border and padding can be set\. For the border a linestyle and radius can be set\.
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.SS"Spacing"
Widgets that can pack more then one child widget, currently box and listview, the \fBspacing\fR property exists\. This determines the space between the packed widgets (both in horizontal as vertical direction)\.
If both dummy widgets are set to expanding, \fBchild\fR will be centered\. Depending on the \fBexpand\fR flag of child the remaining space will be equally divided between both dummy and child widget (expand enabled), or both dummy widgets (expand disabled)\.
Several examples are installed together with \fBrofi\fR\. These can be found in \fB{datadir}/rofi/themes/\fR where \fB{datadir}\fR is the install path of \fBrofi\fR data\. When installed using a package manager this is usually: \fB/usr/share/\fR\.
