path: root/doc/fluxboxstyle.1

.\"
.\" Manual page for Fluxbox Styles
.\"
.\" Fluxbox is Copyright (c) 2001-2004 Henrik Kinnunen
.\" Fluxstyle(1) is Copyright (c) 2004 Curtis Micol
.\"
.\" This manual page is freely distrubted and modified.
.\" Parts of the text are taken from websites and style
.\" files on http://www.fluxbox.org and http://www.fluxmod.dk
.\"
.\" Created and Updated for version 0.9.7 by Curtis Micol <asenchi@asenchi.com>
.\"
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.TH fluxstyle 1 "January 7th, 2004" "0.9.7"
.SH NAME
fluxstyle \- all you need to know about Fluxbox styles
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\"
.\" Taken from the documentation
.\"
.SS What is a Style?
A style is basically a theme for the 
.IR Fluxbox(1)
window manager. It is a simple ASCII text file that tells Fluxbox how
to generate the appearance of the different components of the window manager.
The default installation of Fluxbox is shipped with many classic styles that
show the customization of current Fluxbox versions. They are usually located in
.IR ~/.fluxbox/styles
and in the global Fluxbox share directory
.IR /usr/local/share/fluxbox/styles
which may vary depending on the method of installation used. To use one of
the styles shipped with Fluxbox, look in your root menu under the configure
part of the menu for 'System Styles'.
.PP
Fluxbox uses its own graphics class to render its images on the fly.  By using
style files, you can determine at a great level of configurability what your
desktop will look like.  Fluxbox styles are compatible with those of the
Blackbox window manager (where Fluxbox originated).  Users migrating from
Blackbox can use their current favourite themes.

.SH STRUCTURE OF STYLES
The style is made up of a few major components which then have their own
sub-directives. The toolbar, menu, slit and window are the major components.  The
.IR window.*
directives control the appearance of your window frames,
.IR window.tab.*
controls the appearance of the window tabs.
.IR menu.*
controls the appearance of the popup menu that you see when you right click
on the desktop.
.IR toolbar.*
is the bar you will see at the top or bottom of your screen. Finally the
.IR slit.*
has options you can use to customize the appearance of the slit. However
if you don't set the slit directives specifically, the slit's appearance is controlled
by the
.IR toolbar.*
directives instead.
.PP
To understand how the style mechanism works, it is nice to know a litte about how
X11 resources work.
.PP
X11 resources consist of a key and a value.  The key si constructed of several smaller
keys (sometimes referred to as children), delimited by a period (.).  Keys may also
contain a asterisk (*) to serve as a wildcard, which means that one line of typed text
will match several keys.  This is useful for styles that are based on one or two colors.

.SH LOCATION OF STYLES
We'll cover quickly where styles can be found and placed after you create your own.
.PP
There are a number of default styles that come with the installation, while we have already
covered this, we will again just provide a central location for all style locations.  These
default styles are located in
.IR /usr/local/share/fluxbox/styles
providing a default configureation at installation.
.PP
Once you create your own, you can create a directory in
.IR ~/.fluxbox/
called 'styles'.  Place your styles here and you will be able to access them from the configure
portion of the Root Menu called 'User Styles'.  This goes true for any directories associated
with your style.  An example being, if you create a style with pixmaps, create
.IR ~/.fluxbox/pixmaps
and place your pixmaps here.  Of course, this means that the path to your pixmaps in your style
file will be the same.

.SH CREATING STYLES
As discussed in the
.IR STRUCTURE
section of this man page, Fluxbox allows you to configure its four main components: the toolbar, the menus, the
slit and the window decorations.  Remember that you can customize the slit with its own
directives, but if you don't, it will take the appearance of the toolbar.
.PP
Here are some quick examples to illustrate basic syntax:
.EX
toolbar.clock.color: green
.EE
This sets the color resource of the toolbar clock to 'green'.  Another example:
.EX
menu*color:	rgb:3/4/5
.EE
This sets the color resource of the menu
.I and all of its 'children'
to `rgb:3/4/5'.  
(For a description of color names, see
.IR X (1).)
So this one also applies to
.IR menu.title.color " and " menu.frame.color .
And with   
.EX
*font:  -b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-*-*-140-*
.EE
you set the font resource for all keys to this font name all at once.
(For information about the fonts installed on your system, you can use a program like
.IR xfontsel "(1), " gtkfontsel ", or " xlsfonts "(1).)"
.PP
This last example brings up wildcards and overrides.  In a Fluxbox style you can set a value
with a wild card.  The previous example means that every font in the style will be what is
specified.  You can do this with any value.  For example if you wanted all of the text to be one
color you could do:
.EX
*textColor:  rgb:3/4/5
.EE
This means you can setup a very simple style with very few properties.  See
.IR EXAMPLES
below for an example of this in practice.  You can also override wildcards in the style
file.  Lets take our example above and add an override for the toolbar.clock.textColor:
.EX
*textColor: rgb:3/4/5
toolbar.clock.textColor: rgb:255/0/0
.EE
With that all of the text will be 'rgb:3/4/5' except the toolbar clock text which will be 'rgb:255/0/0'
.PP
Now, what makes Fluxbox just so spectacular, is its ability to render textures
on the fly.
Texture descriptions are specified directly to the key that they
should apply to, e.g.:
.ta \w'toolbar.clock.colorTo:\ 'u
.EX
toolbar.clock:  Raised Gradient Diagonal Bevel1
toolbar.clock.color:    rgb:8/6/4
toolbar.clock.colorTo:  rgb:4/3/2
.EE
Don't worry, we will explain right now!
A texture description consists of up to five fields, which are as follows:
.TP
.B Flat / Raised / Sunken
gives the component either a flat, raised or sunken appearance.
.TP
.B Gradient / Solid
tells Fluxbox to draw either a solid color or a gradient texture.
.TP
.B Horizontal / Vertical / Diagonal / Crossdiagonal / Pipecross / Elliptic / Rectangle / Pyramid
Select one of these texture types. They only work when also
.B Gradient
is specified!
.TP
.B Interlaced
tells Fluxbox to interlace the texture (darken every other line).
This option is most commonly used with gradiented textures, but from Fluxbox
version 0.60.3 on, it also works in solid textures.
.TP
.B Bevel1 / Bevel2
tells Fluxbox which type of bevel to use.
Bevel1 is the default bevel.
The shading is placed on the edge of the image.
Bevel2 is an alternative.
The shading is placed one pixel in from the edge of the image.
.PP
Instead of a texture description, also the option
.B ParentRelative
is available, which makes the component appear as a part of its parent, e.g.
totally transparent.
.PP
Or for even more possibilities
.B Pixmap .
If pixmap texture is specified (it might not be necessary on every occasion)
the pixmap file is specified in a separate pixmap resource.
.EX
toolbar.clock: pixmap
toolbar.clock.pixmap: .fluxbox/styles/mine/clock_background.xpm
.EE
This feature might need some investigation, reports say that sometimes
the resources color and colorTo must be set and then they may not be set.
.PP
All gradiented textures are composed of two color values: the
.IR color " and " colorTo " resources."
When
.B Interlaced
is used in
.B Solid
mode, the
.I colorTo
resource is used to find the interlacing color.
.PP
Here is the complete component list, also all components together with
which kind of value they can contain.
Comments are preceded with an exclamation sign (!), which is also used for
comments in Fluxbox style c.q. X resource files.
.PP
.ta \w'window.button.unfocus.picColor:\ 'u
.nf
.\"
.\" The comments also to be translated!
.\"
! The toolbar itself
toolbar:        Texture
toolbar.color:  Color
toolbar.colorTo:        Color

! The buttons on the toolbar
toolbar.button: Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
toolbar.button.color:   Color
toolbar.button.colorTo: Color

! Color of the button arrows
toolbar.button.picColor:        Color

! Buttons in pressed state
toolbar.button.pressed: Texture \fI(e.g. Sunken)\fR or \fIParentRelative\fR
toolbar.button.pressed.color:   Color
toolbar.button.pressed.colorTo: Color

! Color of pressed button arrows
toolbar.button.pressed.picColor:        Color

! The toolbar workspace label
toolbar.label:  Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
toolbar.label.color:    Color
toolbar.label.colorTo:  Color
toolbar.label.textColor:        Color

! The toolbar window label
toolbar.windowLabel:    Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
toolbar.windowLabel.color:      Color
toolbar.windowLabel.colorTo:    Color
toolbar.windowLabel.textColor:  Color

! The toolbar clock
toolbar.clock:  Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
toolbar.clock.color:    Color
toolbar.clock.colorTo:  Color
toolbar.clock.textColor:        Color

! How the toolbar's text should be justified.
toolbar.justify:        \fIcenter\fR, \fIleft\fR, or \fIright\fR

! Font to be used for all toolbar components
toolbar.font:   Font \fI(e.g. -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-*-100-*)\fR

! The menu titlebar
menu.title:     Texture
menu.title.color:       Color
menu.title.colorTo:     Color
menu.title.textColor:   Color
menu.title.font:        Font
menu.title.justify:     \fIcenter\fR, \fIleft\fR, or \fIright\fR

! The menu frame
menu.frame:     Texture
menu.frame.color:       Color
menu.frame.colorTo:     Color
menu.frame.textColor:   Color
menu.frame.disableColor:        Color
menu.frame.font:        Font
menu.frame.justify:     \fIcenter\fR, \fIleft\fR, or \fIright\fR

! Bullets for submenu items
menu.bullet:    \fIempty\fR, \fItriangle\fR, \fIsquare\fR, or \fIdiamond\fR
menu.bullet.position:   \fIright\fR or \fIleft\fR

! The highlighted menu item
menu.hilite:    Texture (e.g. \fIRaised\fR)
menu.hilite.color:      Color
menu.hilite.colorTo:    Color
menu.hilite.textColor:  Color

! A focused window
window.title.focus:     Texture
window.title.focus.color:       Color
window.title.focus.colorTo:     Color

! An unfocused window
window.title.unfocus:   Texture
window.title.unfocus.color:     Color
window.title.unfocus.colorTo:   Color

! Window label in window.title
window.label.focus:     Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
window.label.focus.color:       Color
window.label.focus.colorTo:     Color
window.label.focus.textColor:   Color

window.label.unfocus:   Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
window.label.unfocus.color:     Color
window.label.unfocus.colorTo:   Color
window.label.unfocus.textColor: Color

! Handlebar
window.handle.focus:    Texture
window.handle.focus.color:      Color
window.handle.focus.colorTo:    Color

window.handle.unfocus:  Texture
window.handle.unfocus.color:    Color
window.handle.unfocus.colorTo:  Color

! Resize grips
window.grip.focus:      Texture
window.grip.focus.color:        Color
window.grip.focus.colorTo:      Color

window.grip.unfocus:    Texture
window.grip.unfocus.color:      Color
window.grip.unfocus.colorTo:    Color

! Window buttons
window.button.focus:    Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
window.button.focus.color:      Color
window.button.focus.colorTo:    Color
window.button.focus.picColor:   Color

window.button.unfocus:  Texture or \fIParentRelative\fR
window.button.unfocus.color:    Color
window.button.unfocus.colorTo:  Color
window.button.unfocus.picColor: Color

window.button.pressed:  Texture (e.g. \fISunken\fR)
window.button.pressed.color:    Color
window.button.pressed.colorTo:  Color

! Frame around window
window.frame.focusColor:        Color
window.frame.unfocusColor:      Color

! Font and justification for window labels
window.font:    Font
window.justify: \fIcenter\fR, \fIleft\fR, or \fIright\fR

! Slit resources
slit:
slit.color:                     Color
slit.colorTo:                   Color

! Miscellaneous resources

! A border can be drawn round all components
borderWidth:    a number of pixels, e.g. \fI1\fR
borderColor:    Color

bevelWidth:     a number of pixels > 0
handleWidth:    a number of pixels > 0

! Width of the window frame
! When not specified, frameWidth defaults to the value of bevelWidth
frameWidth:     a number of pixels >= 0

! This command is executed whenever this style is selected.
! Typically it sets the root window to a nice picture.
rootCommand:    Shell command, e.g. \fIbsetroot -mod 4 4 -fg rgb:       5/6/6 -bg grey20\fR

! Some of the bbtools read these old 0.51 resources
menuFont:       Font
titleFont:      Font
.fi
.SH EXAMPLES
This may seem like a long list, but remember, when you create your own style, you
can easily set lots of keys with a single command, e.g.
.EX
.ta \w'*unfocus.textColor:\ 'u
*color: slategrey
*colorTo:       darkslategrey
*unfocus.color: darkslategrey
*unfocus.colorTo:       black
*textColor:     white
*unfocus.textColor:     lightgrey
*font:  lucidasans-10
.EE
This sets already nice defaults for many components.

.SH COLOR FORMATS
These are the color formats for styles:
.EX
#000000 (Hexadecimal)
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt
.EE

.SH AUTHOR and CREDITS
Blackbox was written and maintained by Brad Hughes
.nh \" hyphenation off
<blackbox@alug.org>
.hy \" on again
and Jeff Raven
.nh
<jraven@psu.edu>,
.hy
.PP
Fluxbox is written and maintained by Henrik Kinnunen
.nh
<fluxgen@linuxmail.org>
.hy
with contributions and patches merged from
many individuals around the world.
.PP
The Official Fluxbox website:
.nh
.B http://www.fluxbox.org/
.hy
.PP
Flumod is a Fluxbox community site where you can find many new styles that
work with this version of Fluxbox and take advantage of all the new features.
You can find Fluxmod here:
.nh
.B http://www.fluxmod.dk/
.hy
.PP
You can also find more styles here:
.nh
.B http://themes.freshmeat.net/
.PP
This manpage was composed from various resources including the documentation, fluxbox
man page and numerous other resources by Curtis Micol
.nh
<asenchi@asenchi.com>
.hy 
and using the great contributions of
.hy
<grubert@users.sourceforge.net>.
.nh
Numerous other languages could be available if someone jumps in.
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR fluxbox (1) 
.IR bsetroot (1)