KDE Blur: How Does It Work?
It would be handy if you’d give us the timestamp from when it appears, so we know what to look for!
The blur effect is included in Plasma 6 by default, and no external script or module is needed.
However, do note that in order to get translucency and blur, your application theme and window manager theme need to support this as well.
Your application theme should either way be a kvantum
theme, because the stock KDE Breeze theme engine does not support translucency.
It does though?
From konsole to desktop widgets … I just dont think it has translucency for the window itself. Then again I think it may, if the right settings are in effect. I just flipped a few switches … and transparency galore.
Seems to me that kvantum is not needed. At least for translucency of most things.
I was talking of the application theme, not of konsole
or the Plasma style.
It depends. There are two different types of translucency in Plasma — one that supports blur (because it’s a style element) and one that doesn’t (because it’s indiscriminate with regard to the individual UI elements of an application and affects the whole window, including the window decoration).
And then there’s konsole
(and yakuake
), which is yet another and completely separate subsystem — one that also happens to support blur.
Yes, it’s confusing.
So what you meant to say initially was that breeze does support translucency, but just not in a way you like, I guess ?
I have no opinion on the matter and dont use it … so dont care to go looking deeper about how it exactly works.
The original statement of ‘breeze does not support translucency’ was what surprised me. It obviously does.
Perhaps a better explanation would be…
-
Breeze — which is a theme — does not support translucency in and of itself on account of the application style. The translucency you illustrated in your screenshot comes from the window manager, not from the theme engine, and will thus work regardless of what application style is being used.
-
The Breeze Plasma style — i.e. widgets and panels — does support a mild degree of translucency.
-
konsole
andyakuake
support translucency — with blur, even — but this is completely independent from the chosen application style.
I am having a stinging headache right now, which is why I probably didn’t express myself as verbosely as I otherwise tend to do.
Click the pencil. Then you will get a dialog like this…
If you click the button labeled None, then you can choose those different options from a pop-up list.
Ok, adjusted.
Is there a way to have that where you can see how it changes the whole screen like in the video?
Maybe in Plasma 6.1 or 6.2 — I don’t know. But you have to keep in mind that he’s a KDE developer, and that he will always be on the latest version, as well as that he may be using development tools and/or experimental widgets in the making of his videos.
I like that 1, if it is out, would love to have it.
Well, 6.1.4 is now in the Testing branch. So if you’re feeling adventurous, you can switch over and run a full update.
Nope, I want to stick to stablr. Hopefully that tool is in the next KDE. Many times in GIMP on a pic, if I mess with brightness & contrast, I can get the image a lot easier to see. That would be nice to habe a tool to do that sys wide, with a Saturation & intensity slider too. This vision peob. sucks, I just want a way to make things clearer.
For what it’s worth, I’m not sure whether doing it “system-wide” — actually, desktop-wide, because it’s only happening in your own user account — would be the right way of doing it, given that certain application windows with translucency may become clearer or less clear depending on what’s being displayed behind it.
I use a theme that deploys ample bits of translucency — with blur — but I have found that certain things look better with one wallpaper and other things look better with a different wallpaper. Likewise, depending on the wallpaper, some things may look better on one side of the screen than on another side of the screen.
So it’s probably best to set those levels on a per-application basis, I think.
How do I check if my theme has any blur effects & turn them off if it does?
Blur is not part of the theme itself. At most, the theme has translucent areas. The blur effect is a special effect in kwin
— see the Desktop Effects section in System Settings — which blurs those translucent areas.
Most kvantum
themes have translucent areas, and if blur is enabled, then those translucent areas will indeed be blurred.
Here’s an example…
[How do I see if translucent effects are on?