wezterm/docs/config/appearance.markdown

### Color Scheme

WezTerm ships with the full set of over 200 color schemes available from
[iTerm2-Color-Schemes](https://github.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes#screenshots).
You can select a color scheme with a line like this:

```lua
return {
  color_scheme = "Batman",
}
```

You can find a list of available color schemes and screenshots
in [The Color Schemes Section](../colorschemes/index.md).

The `color_scheme` option takes precedence over the `colors` section below.

### Defining your own colors

Rather than using a color scheme, you can specify the color palette using the
`colors` configuration section.  Note that `color_scheme` takes precedence
over this section.

You can configure colors with a section like this.  In addition to specifying
[SVG/CSS3 color names](https://docs.rs/palette/0.4.1/palette/named/index.html#constants),
you can use `#RRGGBB` to specify a color code using the
usual hex notation; eg: `#000000` is equivalent to `black`:

```lua
return {
  colors = {
      -- The default text color
      foreground = "silver",
      -- The default background color
      background = "black",

      -- Overrides the cell background color when the current cell is occupied by the
      -- cursor and the cursor style is set to Block
      cursor_bg = "#52ad70",
      -- Overrides the text color when the current cell is occupied by the cursor
      cursor_fg = "black",
      -- Specifies the border color of the cursor when the cursor style is set to Block,
      -- of the color of the vertical or horizontal bar when the cursor style is set to
      -- Bar or Underline.
      cursor_border = "#52ad70",

      -- The color of the scrollbar "thumb"; the portion that represents the current viewport
      scrollbar_thumb = "#222222",

      -- The color of the split lines between panes
      split = "#444444",

      ansi = {"black", "maroon", "green", "olive", "navy", "purple", "teal", "silver"},
      brights = {"grey", "red", "lime", "yellow", "blue", "fuchsia", "aqua", "white"},
  }
}
```

### Defining a Color Scheme in your `.wezterm.lua`

If you'd like to keep a couple of color schemes handy in your configuration
file, rather than filling out the `colors` section, place it in a
`color_schemes` section as shown below; you can then reference it using the
`color_scheme` setting.

Color schemes names that you define in your `wezterm.lua` take precedence
over all other color schemes.

All of the settings available from the `colors` section are available
to use in the `color_schemes` sections.

```lua
return {
  color_scheme = "Red Scheme",

  color_schemes = {
    ["Red Scheme"] = {
      background = "red",
    }
    ["Blue Scheme"] = {
      background = "blue",
    }
  },
}
```

### Defining a Color Scheme in a separate file

If you'd like to factor your color schemes out into separate files, you
can create a file with a `[colors]` section; take a look at [one of
the available color schemes for an example](https://github.com/wez/wezterm/blob/master/assets/colors/Builtin%20Dark.toml).

You then need to instruct wezterm where to look for your scheme files;
the `color_scheme_dirs` setting specifies a list of directories to
be searched:

```lua
return {
  color_scheme_dirs = {"/some/path/to/my/color/schemes"},
}
```

Color scheme names that are defined in files in your `color_scheme_dirs` list
take precedence over the built-in color schemes.

### Dynamic Color Escape Sequences

Wezterm supports dynamically changing its color palette via escape sequences.

[The dynamic-colors directory](https://github.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes/tree/master/dynamic-colors)
of the color scheme repo contains shell scripts that can change the color
scheme immediately on the fly.  This can be used in your own scripts to alter
the terminal appearance programmatically:

```bash
$ git clone https://github.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes.git
$ cd iTerm2-Color-Schemes/dynamic-colors
$ for scheme in *.sh ; do ; echo $scheme ; \
   bash "$scheme" ; ../tools/screenshotTable.sh; sleep 0.5; done
```

  <video width="80%" controls src="../screenshots/wezterm-dynamic-colors.mp4" loop></video>

### Tab Bar Appearance & Colors

The following options control the appearance of the tab bar:

```lua
return {
  -- set to false to disable the tab bar completely
  enable_tab_bar = true,

  -- set to true to hide the tab bar when there is only
  -- a single tab in the window
  hide_tab_bar_if_only_one_tab = false,

  colors = {
    tab_bar = {

      -- The color of the strip that goes along the top of the window
      background = "#0b0022",

      -- The active tab is the one that has focus in the window
      active_tab = {
        -- The color of the background area for the tab
        bg_color = "#2b2042",
        -- The color of the text for the tab
        fg_color = "#c0c0c0",

        -- Specify whether you want "Half", "Normal" or "Bold" intensity for the
        -- label shown for this tab.
        -- The default is "Normal"
        intensity = "Normal",

        -- Specify whether you want "None", "Single" or "Double" underline for
        -- label shown for this tab.
        -- The default is "None"
        underline = "None",

        -- Specify whether you want the text to be italic (true) or not (false)
        -- for this tab.  The default is false.
        italic = false,

        -- Specify whether you want the text to be rendered with strikethrough (true)
        -- or not for this tab.  The default is false.
        strikethrough = false,
      },

      -- Inactive tabs are the tabs that do not have focus
      inactive_tab = {
        bg_color = "#1b1032",
        fg_color = "#808080",

        -- The same options that were listed under the `active_tab` section above
        -- can also be used for `inactive_tab`.
      },

      -- You can configure some alternate styling when the mouse pointer
      -- moves over inactive tabs
      inactive_tab_hover = {
        bg_color = "#3b3052",
        fg_color = "#909090",
        italic = true,

        -- The same options that were listed under the `active_tab` section above
        -- can also be used for `inactive_tab_hover`.
      }
    }
  }
}
```


### Window Padding

You may add padding around the edges of the terminal cells:

```lua
return {
  window_padding = {
    left = 2,
    -- This will become the scrollbar width if you have enabled the scrollbar!
    right = 2,

    top = 0,
    bottom = 0,
  }
}
```

## Window Background Image

<img width="100%" height="100%" src="../screenshots/wezterm-vday-screenshot.png" alt="Screenshot">

*since: nightly builds only*

You can attach an image to the background of the wezterm window:

```lua
return {
  window_background_image = "/path/to/wallpaper.jpg"
}
```

If the path is a relative path then it will be expanded relative
to the directory containing your `wezterm.lua` config file.

PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIFF, PNM, DDS, TGA and farbfeld files
can be loaded.

The image will be scaled to fit the window contents.  Very large
images may decrease render performance and take up VRAM from the
GPU, so you may wish to resize the image file before using it.

You can optionally transform the background image by specifying
a hue, saturation, brightness multiplier:

```lua

return {
  window_background_image = "/path/to/wallpaper.jpg",

  window_background_image_hsb = {
    -- Darken the background image by reducing it to 1/3rd
    brightness = 0.3,

    -- You can adjust the hue by scaling its value.
    -- a multiplier of 1.0 leaves the value unchanged.
    hue = 1.0,

    -- You can adjust the saturation also.
    saturation = 1.0,
  },
}
```

## Window Background Opacity

*since: nightly builds only*

If your Operating System provides Compositing support then WezTerm is able to
specify the alpha channel value for the background content, rendering the
window background translucent and causing the windows/desktop behind it to show
through the window.

macOS, Windows and Wayland support compositing out of the box. X11 may require
installing or configuring a compositing window manager. XWayland under
Mutter/Wayland also works without any additional configuration.

`window_background_opacity` specifies the alpha channel value
with floating point numbers in the range `0.0` (meaning completely
translucent) through to `1.0` (meaning completely opaque).

Setting this to a value other than the default `1.0` may
impact render performance.

```lua
return {
  window_background_opacity = 1.0,
}
```

## Text Background Opacity

*since: nightly builds only*

When using a background image or background opacity, the image content can
have relatively low contrast with respect to the text you are trying to
read in your terminal.

The `text_background_opacity` setting specifies the alpha channel value to use
for the background color of cells other than the default background color.

The default for this setting is `1.0`, which means that the background
color is fully opaque.

The range of values permitted are `0.0` (completely translucent)
through to `1.0` (completely opaque).

```lua
return {
  text_background_opacity = 0.3,
}
```