rofi/doc/rofi-theme.5.markdown

# ROFI-THEME 5 rofi-theme

## NAME

**rofi-theme** - Rofi theme format files

## DESCRIPTION

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 are 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets), a widely known format, which allows web developers
for example to create their own **rofi** themes without the need to learn a new markup language.


## FORMAT SPECIFICATION

## Encoding

The encoding of the file is utf-8. Both unix (`\n`) and windows (`\r\n`) newlines format are supported. But unix is
preferred.

## Comments

C and C++ file comments are supported.

* Anything after  `// ` and before a newline is considered a comment.
* Everything between `/*` and `*/` is a comment.

Comments can be nested and the C comments can be inline.

The following is valid:

```
// Magic comment.
property: /* comment */ value;
```

However, this is not:

```
prop/*comment*/erty: value;
```

## White space

White space and newlines, like comments, are ignored by the parser.

This:

```
property: name;
```

Is identical to:

```
     property             :
name

;
```

## File extension

The preferred file extension for the new theme format is **rasi**. This is an
abbreviation for **r**ofi **a**dvanced **s**tyle **i**nformation.

## BASIC STRUCTURE

Each element has a section with defined properties. Properties can be inherited
to sub-sections. Global properties can be defined in section `* { }`.
Sub-section names begin with a hash symbol `#`.

It is advised to define the *global properties section* on top of the file to
make inheritance of properties clearer.

```
/* Global properties section */
* {
    // list of properties
}

/* Element theme section. */
#{element path} {
    // list of properties
}
#{elements... } {
    // list of properties
}
```

If there are mulitple sections with the same name, they are merged. Duplicate properties are overwritten and the last
parsed entry kept.

## Global properties section

A theme can have one or more global properties sections. If there is more than one,
they will be merged.

The global properties section denotes the defaults for each element.
Each property of this section can be referenced with `@{identifier}`
(See Properties section)

A global properties section is indicated with a `*` as element path.

## Element theme section

A theme can have multiple element theme sections.

The element path can consist of multiple names separated by whitespace or dots.
Each element may contain any number of letters, numbers and `-`'s.
The first element in the element path should always start with a `#`.

This is a valid element name:

```
#window mainbox listview element normal.normal {
}
```

And is identical to:

```
#window.mainbox.listview.element normal.normal {
}
```

Each section inherits the properties of its parents. Inherited properties
can be overridden by defining them again in the section itself.
So `#window mainbox` will contain all properties of `#window` and `#window
mainbox`.

In the following example:

```
#window {
 a: 1;
 b: 2;
}
#window mainbox {
    b: 4;
    c: 8;
}
```

The element `#window mainbox` will have the following set of properties:

```
a: 1;
b: 4;
c: 8;
```

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.

## PROPERTIES FORMAT

The properties in a section consist of:

```
{identifier}: {value};
```

Both fields are manditory for a property.

The `identifier` names the specified property. Identifiers can consist of any
combination of numbers, letters and '-'. It must not contain any whitespace.
The structure of the `value` defines the type of the property. The current
parser does not define or enforce a certain type of a particular `identifier`.
When used, values with the wrong type that cannot be converted are ignored.

The current theme format supports different types:

 * a string
 * an integer number
 * a fractional number
 * a boolean value
 * a color
 * text style
 * line style
 * a distance
 * a padding
 * a border
 * a position
 * a reference
 * an orientation
 * a list of keywords

Some of these types are a combination of other types.

## String

* Format:  `"[:print:]+"`

A string is always surrounded by double quotes (`"`). Between the quotes there can be any printable character.

For example:

```
font: "Awasome 12";
```

The string must be valid UTF-8.

## Integer

* Format: `[-+]?[:digit:]+`

An integer may contain any number.

For examples:

```
lines: 12;
```

## Real

* Format: `[-+]?[:digit:]+(\.[:digit:]+)?`

A real is an integer with an optional fraction.

For example:

```
real: 3.4;
```

The following is not valid: `.3`, `3.` or scientific notation: `3.4e-3`.

## Boolean

* Format: `(true|false)`

Boolean value is either `true` or `false`. This is case-sensitive.


For example:

```
dynamic: false;
```

## Color

**rofi** supports the color formats as specified in the CSS standard (1,2,3 and some of CSS 4)

* Format: `#{HEX}{3}` (rgb)
* Format: `#{HEX}{4}` (rgba)
* Format: `#{HEX}{6}` (rrggbb)
* Format: `#{HEX}{8}` (rrggbbaa)
* Format: `rgb[a]({INTEGER},{INTEGER},{INTEGER}[, {PERCENTAGE}])`
* Format: `rgb[a]({INTEGER}%,{INTEGER}%,{INTEGER}%[, {PERCENTAGE}])`
* Format: `hsl[a]( {ANGLE}, {PERCENTAGE}, {PERCENTAGE} [, {PERCENTAGE}])`
* Format: `hwb[a]( {ANGLE}, {PERCENTAGE}, {PERCENTAGE} [, {PERCENTAGE}])`
* Format: `cmyk( {PERCENTAGE}, {PERCENTAGE}, {PERCENTAGE}, {PERCENTAGE} [, {PERCENTAGE} ])`
* Format: `{named-color} [ / {PERCENTAGE} ]`

The white-space format proposed in CSS4 is also supported.

The different values are:

 * `{HEX}` is a hexidecimal number ('0-9a-f' case insensitive).
 * `{INTEGER}` value can be between 0 and 255 or 0-100 when representing percentage.
 * `{ANGLE}` is the angle on the color wheel, can be in `deg`, `rad`, `grad` or `turn`. When no unit is specified, degrees is assumed.
 * `{PERCENTAGE}` can be between 0-1.0, or 0%-100%
 * `{named-color}` is one of the following colors:

    AliceBlue, AntiqueWhite, Aqua, Aquamarine, Azure, Beige, Bisque, Black, BlanchedAlmond, Blue, BlueViolet, Brown,
    BurlyWood, CadetBlue, Chartreuse, Chocolate, Coral, CornflowerBlue, Cornsilk, Crimson, Cyan, DarkBlue, DarkCyan,
    DarkGoldenRod, DarkGray, DarkGrey, DarkGreen, DarkKhaki, DarkMagenta, DarkOliveGreen, DarkOrange, DarkOrchid, DarkRed,
    DarkSalmon, DarkSeaGreen, DarkSlateBlue, DarkSlateGray, DarkSlateGrey, DarkTurquoise, DarkViolet, DeepPink, DeepSkyBlue,
    DimGray, DimGrey, DodgerBlue, FireBrick, FloralWhite, ForestGreen, Fuchsia, Gainsboro, GhostWhite, Gold, GoldenRod,
    Gray, Grey, Green, GreenYellow, HoneyDew, HotPink, IndianRed, Indigo, Ivory, Khaki, Lavender, LavenderBlush, LawnGreen,
    LemonChiffon, LightBlue, LightCoral, LightCyan, LightGoldenRodYellow, LightGray, LightGrey, LightGreen, LightPink,
    LightSalmon, LightSeaGreen, LightSkyBlue, LightSlateGray, LightSlateGrey, LightSteelBlue, LightYellow, Lime, LimeGreen,
    Linen, Magenta, Maroon, MediumAquaMarine, MediumBlue, MediumOrchid, MediumPurple, MediumSeaGreen, MediumSlateBlue,
    MediumSpringGreen, MediumTurquoise, MediumVioletRed, MidnightBlue, MintCream, MistyRose, Moccasin, NavajoWhite, Navy,
    OldLace, Olive, OliveDrab, Orange, OrangeRed, Orchid, PaleGoldenRod, PaleGreen, PaleTurquoise, PaleVioletRed,
    PapayaWhip, PeachPuff, Peru, Pink, Plum, PowderBlue, Purple, RebeccaPurple, Red, RosyBrown, RoyalBlue, SaddleBrown,
    Salmon, SandyBrown, SeaGreen, SeaShell, Sienna, Silver, SkyBlue, SlateBlue, SlateGray, SlateGrey, Snow, SpringGreen,
    SteelBlue, Tan, Teal, Thistle, Tomato, Turquoise, Violet, Wheat, White, WhiteSmoke, Yellow, YellowGreen


For example:

```
background: #FF0000;
foreground: rgba(0,0,1, 0.5);
text: SeaGreen;
```

## Text style

* Format: `(bold|italic|underline|strikethrough|none)`

Text style indicates how the highlighted text is emphasized. `None` indicates that no emphasis
should be applied.

 * `bold`: make the text thicker then the surrounding text.
 * `italic`: put the highlighted text in script type (slanted).
 * `underline`: put a line under the highlighted text.
 * `strikethrough`: put a line through the highlighted text.
 * `small caps`: emphasise the text using capitalization.

> For some reason `small caps` does not work on some systems.

## Line style

* Format: `(dash|solid)`

Indicates how a line should be drawn.
It currently supports:
 * `dash`:  a dashed line, where the gap is the same width as the dash
 * `solid`: a solid line

## Distance

* Format: `{Integer}px`
* Format: `{Real}em`
* Format: `{Real}%`

A distance can be specified in 3 different units:

* `px`: Screen pixels.
* `em`: Relative to text width.
* `%`:  Percentage of the **monitor** size.

Distances used in the horizontal direction use the monitor width. Distances in
the vertical direction use the monitor height.
For example:

```
   padding: 10%;
```
On a full-HD (1920x1080) monitor, it defines a padding of 192 pixels on the left
and right side and 108 pixels on the top and bottom.

## Padding

* Format: `{Integer}`
* Format: `{Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance} {Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance} {Distance} {Distance}`

If no unit is specified, pixels are used.

The different number of fields in the formats are parsed like:

* 1 field: `all`
* 2 fields: `top&bottom` `left&right`
* 3 fields: `top`, `left&right`, `bottom`
* 4 fields: `top`, `right`, `bottom`, `left`


## Border

* Format: `{Integer}`
* Format: `{Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance} {Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Distance} {Distance} {Distance}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Line style}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style}`
* Format: `{Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style} {Distance} {Line style}`

Borders are identical to padding, except that each distance field has a line
style property.

## Position

Indicate a place on the window/monitor.

* Format: `(center|east|north|west|south|north east|north west|south west|south east)`

```

north west   |    north    |  north east
-------------|-------------|------------
      west   |   center    |  east
-------------|-------------|------------
south west   |    south    |  south east
```

## Reference

* Format: `@{PROPERTY NAME}`

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.
For example, this is not valid:

```
highlight: bold @pink;
```

But this is:

```
* {
    myhigh: bold #FAA;
}

#window {
    highlight: @myhigh;
}
```

## Orientation

 * Format: `(horizontal|vertical)`

Specify the orientation of the widget.

## List of keywords

* Format: `[ keyword, keyword ]`

A list starts with a '[' and ends with a ']'. The entries in the list are comma-separated.
The `keyword` in the list refers to an widget name.

## ELEMENTS PATHS

Element paths exists of two parts, the first part refers to the actual widget by name.
Some widgets have an extra state.

For example:

```
#window mainbox listview element .selected {
}
```

Here `#window mainbox listview element` is the name of the widget, `selected` is the state of the widget.

The difference between dots and spaces is purely cosmetic. These are all the same:

```
#window mainbox listview element .selected {
}
#window.mainbox.listview.element.selected {
}
#window mainbox listview element selected {
}
```

## SUPPORTED ELEMENT PATH

## Name

The current widgets available in **rofi**:

* `#window`
  * `#window.box`: the container holding the window
  * `#window.overlay`: the overlay widget
  * `#window.mainbox`
     * `#window.mainbox.box`: the main vertical @box
     * `#window.mainbox.inputbar`
       * `#window.mainbox.inputbar.box`: the horizontal @box packing the widgets
       * `#window.mainbox.inputbar.case-indicator`: the case/sort indicator @textbox
       * `#window.mainbox.inputbar.prompt`: the prompt @textbox
       * `#window.mainbox.inputbar.entry`: the main entry @textbox
     * `#window.mainbox.listview`
        * `#window.mainbox.listview.box`: the listview container
        * `#window.mainbox.listview.scrollbar`: the listview scrollbar
        * `#window.mainbox.listview.element`: the entries in the listview
     * `#window.mainbox.sidebar`
       * `#window.mainbox.sidebar.box`: the main horizontal @box packing the buttons
       * `#window.mainbox.sidebar.button`: the buttons @textbox for each mode
     * `#window.mainbox.message`
       * `#window.mainbox.message.textbox`: the message textbox
       * `#window.mainbox.message.box`: the box containing the message

Note that these path names match the default theme. Themes that provide a custom layout will have different
element paths.


## State

State: State of widget

Optional flag(s) indicating state of the widget, used for theming.

These are appended after the name or class of the widget.

### Example:

`#window.mainbox.sidebar.button selected.normal { }`

`#window.mainbox.listview.element selected.urgent { }`

Currently only the entrybox and scrollbar have states:

### Entrybox:

`{visible modifier}.{state}`

Where `visible modifier` can be:
 * normal: no modification
 * selected: the entry is selected/highlighted by user
 * alternate: the entry is at an alternating row (uneven row)

Where `state` is:
 * normal: no modification
 * urgent: this entry is marked urgent
 * active: this entry is marked active

These can be mixed.

Example:

```
#name.to.textbox selected.active {
    background: #003642;
    foreground: #008ed4;
}
```

Sets all selected textboxes marked active to the given foreground and background color.

### Scrollbar

The scrollbar uses the `handle` state when drawing the small scrollbar handle.
This allows the colors used for drawing the handle to be set independently.


## SUPPORTED PROPERTIES

The following properties are currently supported:

###  all widgets:

* **padding**:         padding
  Padding on the inside of the widget
* **margin**:          padding
  Margin on the outside of the widget
* **border**:          border
  Border around the widget (between padding and margin)/
* **border-radius**:    padding
  Sets a radius on the corners of the borders.
* **background**:      color
  Background color
* **foreground**:      color
  Foreground color
* **index**:           integer  (This one does not inherit it value from the parent widget)

### window:

* **font**:            string
  The font used in the window

* **transparency**:    string
  Indicating if transparency should be used and what type:
  **real** - True transparency. Only works with a compositor.
  **background** - Take a screenshot of the background image and use that.
  **screenshot** - Take a screenshot of the screen and use that.
  **Path** to png file - Use an image.

* **position**:       position
    The place of the anchor on the monitor
* **anchor**:         anchor
    The anchor position on the window
* **fullscreen**:     boolean
    Window is fullscreen.
* **width**:          distance
    The width of the window
* **x-offset**:  distance
* **y-offset**:  distance
    The offset of the window to the anchor point, allowing you to push the window left/right/up/down


### scrollbar:

* **foreground**:      color
* **handle-width**:    distance
* **handle-color**:    color
* **foreground**:      color

### box:

* **orientation**:      orientation
        Set the direction the elements are packed.
* **spacing**:         distance
        Distance between the packed elements.

### textbox:

* **background**:       color
* **foreground**:       color
* **font**:             the font used by this textbox (string)
* **str**:              the string to display by this textbox (string)
* **vertical-align**:   vertical alignment of the text (`0` top, `1` bottom)
* **horizontal-align**: horizontal alignment of the text (`0` left, `1` right)
* **text**:             the text color to use (falls back to foreground if not set)
* **highlight**:        text style {color}
    color is optional, multiple highlight styles can be added like: bold underline italic #000000;
* **width**:            override the desired width for the textbox

### listview:
* **columns**:         integer
    Number of columns to show (at least 1)
* **fixed-height**:    boolean
    Always show `lines` rows, even if fewer elements are available.
* **dynamic**:         boolean
    `True` if the size should change when filtering the list, `False` if it should keep the original height.
* **scrollbar**:       boolean
    If the scrollbar should be enabled/disabled.
* **scrollbar-width**: distance
    Width of the scrollbar
* **cycle**:           boolean
    When navigating, it should wrap around
* **spacing**:         distance
    Spacing between the elements (both vertical and horizontal)
* **lines**:           integer
    Number of rows to show in the list view.
* **layout**:           orientation
    Indicate how elements are stacked. Horizontal implements the dmenu style.

## Layout

The new format allows the layout of the **rofi** window to be tweaked extensively.
For each widget, the themer can specify padding, margin, border, font, and more.
It even allows, as an advanced feature, to pack widgets in a custom structure.

### Basic structure

The whole view is made out of boxes that pack other boxes or widgets.
The box can be vertical or horizontal. This is loosely inspired by [GTK](http://gtk.org/).

The current layout of **rofi** is structured as follows:

```
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| #window {BOX:vertical}                                                             |
| |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|  |
| | #window.mainbox  {BOX:vertical}                                               |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| | | #window.mainbox.inputbar {BOX:horizontal}                                 | |  |
| | | |--------| |-------------------------------------------------------| |--| | |  |
| | | | prompt | | entry                                                 | |ci| | |  |
| | | |--------| |-------------------------------------------------------| |--| | |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| |                                                                               |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| | | #window.mainbox.message                                                   | |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| |                                                                               |  |
| | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|  |
| | | #window.mainbox.listview                                                    |  |
| | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|  |
| |                                                                               |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| | | #window.mainbox.sidebar {BOX:horizontal}                                  | |  |
| | | |---------------|   |---------------|  |--------------| |---------------| | |  |
| | | | Button        |   | Button        |  | Button       | | Button        | | |  |
| | | |---------------|   |---------------|  |--------------| |---------------| | |  |
| | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |  |
| |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|  |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|


```
> ci is the case-indicator

### Advanced layout

The layout of **rofi** can be tweaked by packing the 'fixed' widgets in a custom structure.

The following widgets are fixed, as they provide core **rofi** functionality:

 * prompt
 * entry
 * case-indicator
 * message
 * listview
 * sidebar

The following keywords are defined and can be used to automatically pack a subset of the widgets.
These are used in the default theme as depicted in the figure above.

 * mainbox
   Packs: `inputbar, message, listview, sidebar`
 * inputbar
   Packs: `prompt,entry,case-indicator`

Any widget name starting with `textbox` is a textbox widget, others are box widgets and can pack other widgets.
To specify children, set the `children`
property (this always happens on the `box` child, see example below):

```
children: [prompt,entry,case-indicator];
```

The theme needs to be updated to match the hierarchy specified.

Below is an example of a theme emulating dmenu:

```css
* {
    background:      Black;
    foreground:      White;
    font:            "Times New Roman 12";
}

#window {
    anchor:     north;
    location:   north;
}

#window box {
    width:      100%;
    padding:    4px;
    children:   [ horibox ];
}

#window horibox box {
    orientation: horizontal;
    children:   [ prompt, entry, listview ];
}

#window horibox listview box {
    layout:     horizontal;
    spacing:    5px;
    lines:      10;
}

#window horibox entry {
    expand:     false;
    width:      10em;
}

#window horibox listview element {
    padding: 0px 2px;
}
#window horibox listview element selected {
    background: SteelBlue;
}
```

### Padding and margin

Just like CSS, **rofi** uses the box model for each widget.

```
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| margin                                                            |
|  |-------------------------------------------------------------|  |
|  | border                                                      |  |
|  | |---------------------------------------------------------| |  |
|  | | padding                                                 | |  |
|  | | |-----------------------------------------------------| | |  |
|  | | | content                                             | | |  |
|  | | |-----------------------------------------------------| | |  |
|  | |---------------------------------------------------------| |  |
|  |-------------------------------------------------------------|  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
```

Explanation of the different parts:

 * Content - The content of the widget.
 * Padding - Clears an area around the widget.
   The padding shows the background color of the widget.
 * Border - A border that goes around the padding and content.
   The border use the foreground color of the widget.
 * Margin - Clears an area outside the border.
   The margin is transparent.

The box model allows us to add a border around elements, and to define space between elements.

The size of each margin, border, and padding can be set.
For the border, a linestyle and radius can be set.

### Spacing

Widgets that can pack more then one child widget (currently box and listview) have the `spacing` property.
This property sets the distance between the packed widgets (both horizontally and vertically).

```
|---------------------------------------|
|  |--------| s |--------| s |-------|  |
|  | child  | p | child  | p | child |  |
|  |        | a |        | a |       |  |
|  |        | c |        | c |       |  |
|  |        | i |        | i |       |  |
|  |        | n |        | n |       |  |
|  |--------| g |--------| g |-------|  |
|---------------------------------------|
```

### Advanced box packing

More dynamic spacing can be achieved by adding dummy widgets, for example to make one widget centered:

```
|--------------------------------------------|
|  |-----------|  |--------|  |-----------|  |
|  | dummy     |  | child  |  | dummy     |  |
|  | expand: y |  |        |  | expand: y |  |
|  |           |  |        |  |           |  |
|  |           |  |        |  |           |  |
|  |           |  |        |  |           |  |
|  |-----------|  |--------|  |-----------|  |
|--------------------------------------------|
```

If both dummy widgets are set to expand, `child` will be centered. Depending on the `expand` flag of child the
remaining space will be equally divided between both dummy and child widget (expand enabled), or both dummy widgets
(expand disabled).

## DEBUGGING

To get debug information from the parser, run rofi like:

```
G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=Parser rofi -show run
```

Syntax errors are shown in a popup and printed out to command line with the above command.

To see the elements queried during running, run:

```
G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=Theme rofi -show run
```

To test minor changes, part of the theme can be passed on the command line, for example to set it to full-screen:

```
rofi -theme-str '#window { fullscreen:true;}' -show run
```

To print the current theme, run:

```
rofi -dump-theme
```


## EXAMPLES

Several examples are installed together with **rofi**. These can be found in `{datadir}/rofi/themes/`, where
`{datadir}` is the install path of **rofi** data. When installed using a package manager, this is usually: `/usr/share/`.

## SEE ALSO

rofi(1)