Posted on by Martin Flöser

A new KWin window decoration theme engine

I started to work on a new theme engine for window decoration. The goal is to make deco themes as easy as Plasma themes. So it’s using Plasma technologies, that is FrameSvg 😉 Well here is a screenshot of current state:

Von KWin

The decoration background is based on Air’s translucent background and the icons… well you see I’m not an artist. And there is only a minimize and a close button. As you can see it uses KWin’s new ARGB decoration and the theme paints it’s own shadows. The engine does not yet really support opaque decorations that’s one of the left todos. But it’s thought with ARGB decos in mind 🙂

Currently two things are still missing: a name and example themes. So if you have ideas for names please leave a comment and if you are interested in creating a theme, please contact me.

Ah I have not yet committed any code into SVN, but you will soon find the engine in playground. There are some blockers (like the name) which have to be fixed before I want to share the code.

29 Replies to “A new KWin window decoration theme engine”

  1. Pingback: Noch ein unnötiger Blog

  4. Will it become the default engine? KDE was lacking one for a long time. IceWM engine in KDE was not user friendly and Gnome “drag, dropa and lauch” is a lot better than the “download, compile, install as root, configure, go to systemsettings, 3 level or tabs, open a combobox without preview, click, configure again (ie, bespin), apply”. A them like that with KHNS integration as the default engine would be a great step foward for KDE. About the combobox problem, I might take care of it once the trunk is unfrozen.

  5. Excellent !

    Please, consider to add an opiton to change the backgrouund (i.e the gray area under the tool bar) to svg.
    Second thing please intgreate the KHNS to make getting new theme is easy.
    The Third one , what do you think about gmyl which means beautiful in Arabic.

  6. That would be great if it could be extended to the whole widgets theme (not only kwin).

    Keep up the excellent work!

  7. What would really cool, is if you could do curved window frames as well. Anti-aliased of course. Maybe not practical at all but cool (now i said it again 😉 )

    Is this something that could be possible with your new engine.

  8. Wie waere es mit “Visage” als Name? Kombinierung von die Buchstaben SVG und etwas um Sehen.

    Sorry for the German, I presume that’s your preferred language.

  10. Nice one!
    How about GVS? (SVG backwards)
    But I like Visage very much, could also be written ViSaGe to emphasize the SVG-letters.
    Or what about “Vectorator”, a mix of Vector and Decorator.

  14. Hi..
    great project. i like it and we don’t need to use beryl anymore to have transparent windows decor.

    my naming suggestion is …”Koral” .Again, have a K for coral. a beautiful organism, that “framed” the bottom of the see. It came in various color and shape, just like window border 🙂

  15. It’d be nice if KWin would get a “Reflection” plugin (Similar to the compiz one) along with this to add extra effects to the windec.

    It’s great to finally see an SVG based window decoration for kwin. This along with Quantum and Plasma will make the KDE desktop fully SVG themeable, which is no small feat.

    Visage sounds like a nice name, but it sounds way too much like Vista, you’re probably looking for someting more original, I assume. Seeing as it’s a window “decoration”, some fitting names might be Ornament, or PerspeKtive. Seeing as the ease that this would bring to creating a windeco, my personal favorite would be Expression.

    Looking forward to seeing this in the wild 😉

  16. Have you spoken to fredrikh? He was working on ARGB support for Qt styles so you’d have a combined ARGB kwin theme that matches the Qt style for toolbars and window decorations.

  18. Man you rock , the few window decoration problem is one of the most annoying KDE problem, you restored my faith in KDE 4, maybe I will use it after all[still using good old 3.5].

  20. Thanks for all the name suggestions. I’m still thinking about what it will be.

    To answer some questions:
    I want to have get hot new stuff support. But before I start working on it there have to be some themes. So that has to wait.

    About what’s possible with SVG I have no idea. I haven’t known that SVG supports things like filter (yeah I’m not an artist). Basically if Plasma supports it the engine will support it as well. But I can’t think that blurring will be possible as that requires to know the background.

    I don’t want the engine to become the default engine. I think for default something like Oxygen is much better. I have not yet decided if it will be part of kdebase, kdeartwork or extragear and I don’t think it realy matters.

  21. I’m having a bit of trouble posting. In case it didn’t go through before, here are a few name ideas:

    (1) Aerogel: a very lightweight, easily-sculptable material that can be transparent or opaque.

    (2) Seaglass: glass that has been shaped by waves.

    (3) Calcite: a transparent or opaque crystal with unusual optical properties.

    (4) Anthracene: a substance that gives of bursts of light when exposed to ionizing radiation.

    (5) Silica: the material that makes up quartz crystal and is one of the main components of glass.

    (6) Porcelain: a translucent ceramic.

    (7) Oxonium: ionized oxygen.

    (8) Peroxide: an unstable, reactive form of oxygen.

    (9) Cornea: the transparent part of the eye.

    (10) Stroma: the support network for tissues in the body.

  23. How about KVVin (K V V i n)

    Or VVindeco (V V i n d e c o)

    Or SVGVVin (S V G V V i n)

    Or VectorVVin (V e c t o r V V i n)

    Okay, enough of the two V.

    SVGWin

    VectorDecor

    VectorWin

  25. I’m currently thinking of Aurorae that is polar lights. The idea behind it is that polar lights are caused by Plasma and you can have polar lights in different colors and shapes. So we have themes.

  28. This looks AWESOME!
    Great job man, this is what KDE has been lacking – it looks great until you open Doliphin or Konqueror then it looks bad. Your theme engine will bring a universal look to KDE to match plasma.
    I like the name Aurorae too, think it goes well with the plasma integration.
    10/10 from me.

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