Provided by: rofi_1.7.5-0.1build2_amd64 
NAME
rofi-theme - Rofi theme format files
GETTING STARTED WITH THEMING
The easiest way to get started theming rofi is by modifying your existing theme.
Themes can be modified/tweaked by adding theming elements to the end of the
config file. The default location of this file is ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi, if the file does not
exists, you can create it.
A basic config:
configuration {
modes: [ combi ];
combi-modes: [ window, drun, run ];
}
@theme "gruvbox-light"
/* Insert theme modifications after this */
For example if we want to change the Type to filter text in the entry box we append the following:
entry {
placeholder: "Type here";
}
In the above section, entry indicates the widget, placeholder is the property we want to modify and we
set it to the string "Type here". To find the commonly available widgets in rofi, see the 'Basic
structure' section.
To change the mouse over cursor to a pointer, add:
entry {
placeholder: "Type here";
cursor: pointer;
}
For the next modification, we want to add the icon after each text element and increase the size. First
we start by modifying the element widget:
element {
orientation: horizontal;
children: [ element-text, element-icon ];
spacing: 5px;
}
Resulting in the following packing:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ element │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │
│ │element─text │ │ element─icon │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The element (container) widget hold each entry in the listview, we add the two pre-defined children in
the order we want to show. We also specify the packing direction (orientation) and the spacing between
the children (spacing). We specify the space between the two children in absolute pixels (px).
To increase the icon-size, we need to modify the element-icon widget.
element-icon {
size: 2.5em;
}
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ element │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │
│ │element─text │ │ element │ │
│ │ │ │ ─ │ │
│ │ │ │ icon │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
In this example we specify the size in the em ⟨https://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos3e/em⟩ unit.
Now lets change the text color of both the entry and the element-text widget to red and background to
blue.
entry, element-text {
text-color: red;
background-color: rgb(0,0,255);
}
Here we use two different methods of writing down the color, for text-color we used a named color, for
background-color we specify it in rgb. We also specify the property for multiple widgets by passing a
comma separated list of widget names.
If you want to center the text relative to the icon, we can set this:
element-text {
vertical-align: 0.5;
}
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ element │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │
│ │ │ │ element │ │
│ │element-text │ │ ─ │ │
│ │ │ │ icon │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If you want to see the complete theme, including the modification you can run:
rofi -dump-theme
DEFAULT THEME LOADING
By default, rofi loads the default theme. This theme is always loaded. The default configuration
contains:
@theme "default"
To unload the default theme, and load another theme, add the @theme statement to your config.rasi file.
If you have a theme loaded via @theme or use the default theme, you can tweak it by adding overriding
elements at the end of your config.rasi file.
For the difference between @import and @theme see the Multiple file handling section in this manpage.
To see the default theme, run the following command:
rofi -no-config -dump-theme
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. Therefore, a new file format has been
created, replacing the old one.
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, this comment can span multiple lines.
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 rofi advanced
style information.
Basic Structure
Each element has a section with defined properties. Global properties can be defined in section * { }.
Sub-section names begin with an optional 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 multiple 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 can optionally start with
a # (for historic reasons). Multiple elements can be specified by a ,.
This is a valid element name:
element normal.normal {
background-color: blue;
}
button {
background-color: blue;
}
And is identical to:
element normal normal, button {
background-color: blue;
}
Each section inherits the global properties. Properties can be explicitly inherited from their parent
with the inherit keyword. In the following example:
window {
a: 1;
b: 2;
children: [ mainbox ];
}
mainbox {
a: inherit;
b: 4;
c: 8;
}
The element mainbox will have the following set of properties (if mainbox is a child of window):
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 mandatory 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
• image
• text style
• line style
• a distance
• a padding
• a border
• a position
• a reference
• an orientation
• a cursor
• a list of keywords
• an array of values
• an environment variable
• Inherit
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, special characters can be escaped:
text {
content: "Line one\n\tIndented line two";
}
The following special characters can be escaped: \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, \ and ".
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;
Image
rofi support a limited set of background-image formats.
• Format: url("path to image");
• Format: url("path to image", scale); where scale is: none, both, width, height
• Format: linear-gradient(stop color,stop1, color, stop2 color, ...);
• Format: linear-gradient(to direction, stop color,stop1, color, stop2 color, ...); where
direction is: top,left,right,bottom.
• Format: linear-gradient(angle, stop color,stop1, color, stop2 color, ...); Angle in deg,rad,grad
(as used in color).
Where the path is a string, and stop color is of type color.
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 hexadecimal 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,transparent
For example:
background-color: #FF0000;
border-color: rgba(0,0,1, 0.5);
text-color: SeaGreen;
or
background-color: transparent;
text-color: Black;
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 text.
• strikethrough: put a line through the text.
The following options are available on pango 1.50.0 and up:
• uppercase: Uppercase the text.
• lowercase: Lowercase the text.
The following option is disabled as pango crashes on this if there is eel
upsizing or wrapping. This will be re-enabled once fixed:
• capitalize: Capitalize the text.
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}ch
• Format: {Real}%
• Format: {Integer}mm
A distance can be specified in 3 different units:
• px: Screen pixels.
• em: Relative to text height.
• ch: Relative to width of a single number.
• mm: Actual size in millimeters (based on dpi).
• %: 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.
Calculating sizes
Rofi supports some maths in calculating sizes. For this it uses the CSS syntax:
width: calc( 100% - 37px );
width: calc( 20% min 512 );
It supports the following operations:
• + : Add
• - : Subtract
• / : Divide
• * : Multiply
• % : Modulo
• min : Minimum of lvalue or rvalue;
• max : Maximum of lvalue or rvalue;
• floor : Round down lvalue to the next multiple of rvalue
• ceil : Round up lvalue to the next multiple of rvalue
• round : Round lvalue to the next multiple of rvalue
It uses the C precedence ordering.
Padding
• Format: {Integer}
• Format: {Distance}
• Format: {Distance} {Distance}
• Format: {Distance} {Distance} {Distance}
• Format: {Distance} {Distance} {Distance} {Distance}
If no unit is specified, pixels are assumed.
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.
When no unit is specified, pixels are assumed.
Position
Indicate a place on the window/monitor.
┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ north west │ north │ north east │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ west │ center │ east │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ south west │ south │ south east │
└─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
• Format: (center|east|north|west|south|north east|north west|south west|south east)
Visibility
It is possible to hide widgets:
inputbar {
enabled: false;
}
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;
}
• Format: var(PROPERTY NAME, DEFAULT)
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.
Example:
window {
width: var( width, 30%);
}
If the property width is set globally (*{}) that value is used, if the property width is not set, the
default value is used.
Orientation
• Format: (horizontal|vertical)
Specify the orientation of the widget.
Cursor
• Format: (default|pointer|text)
Specify the type of mouse cursor that is set when the mouse pointer is over 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.
List of values
• Format: [ value, value, ... ]
An list starts with a '[' and ends with a ']'. The entries in the list are comma-separated.
Environment variable
• Format: ${:alnum:}
This will parse the environment variable as the property value. (that then can be any of the above
types). The environment variable should be an alphanumeric string without white-space.
* {
background-color: ${BG};
}
• Format: env(ENVIRONMENT, default)
This will parse the environment variable as the property value. (that then can be any of the above
types). The environment variable should be an alphanumeric string without white-space. If the
environment value is not found, the default value is used.
window {
width: env(WIDTH, 40%);
}
If environment WIDTH is set, then that value is parsed, otherwise the default value (40%).
Inherit
• Format: inherit
Inherits the property from its parent widget.
mainbox {
border-color: inherit;
}
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:
element selected {
}
Here element selected 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:
element .selected {
element.selected {
}
element selected {
}
SUPPORTED ELEMENT PATH
Name
The current widgets available in rofi:
• window
• overlay: the overlay widget.
• mainbox: The mainbox box.
• inputbar: The input bar box.
• box: the horizontal @box packing the widgets
• case-indicator: the case/sort indicator @textbox
• prompt: the prompt @textbox
• entry: the main entry @textbox
• num-rows: Shows the total number of rows.
• num-filtered-rows: Shows the total number of rows after filtering.
• textbox-current-entry: Shows the text of the currently selected entry.
• icon-current-entry: Shows the icon of the currently selected entry.
• listview: The listview.
• scrollbar: the listview scrollbar
• element: a box in the listview holding the entries
• element-icon: the widget in the listview's entry showing the (optional) icon
• element-index: the widget in the listview's entry keybindable index (1,2,3..0)
• element-text: the widget in the listview's entry showing the text.
• mode-switcher: the main horizontal @box packing the buttons.
• button: the buttons @textbox for each mode
• message: The container holding the textbox.
• textbox: the message textbox
Note that these path names match the default theme. Themes that provide a custom layout will have
different elements, and structure.
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:
button selected.normal { }
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:
nametotextbox selected.active {
background-color: #003642;
text-color: #008ed4;
}
Sets all selected textboxes marked active to the given text and background color. Note that a state
modifies the original element, it therefore contains all the properties of that element.
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:
• enabled: enable/disable rendering of the widget
• 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: color Background color
• background-image: image Background image
• border-color: color Color of the border
• cursor: cursor Type of mouse cursor that is set when the mouse pointer is hovered
over the 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.
• location: 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:
• background-color: color
• handle-width: distance
• handle-color: color
• border-color: color
box:
• orientation: orientation
Set the direction the elements are packed.
• spacing: distance
Distance between the packed elements.
textbox:
• background-color: color
• border-color: the color used for the border around the widget.
• font: the font used by this textbox (string).
• str/content: the string to display by this textbox (string).
• vertical-align: Vertical alignment of the text. A number between 0 (top) and 1 (bottom).
• horizontal-align: Horizontal alignment of the text. A number between 0 (left) and 1 (right).
• text-color: the text color to use.
• text-transform: text style {color} for the whole text.
• highlight: text style {color}. color is optional, multiple highlight styles can be
added like: bold underline italic #000000; This option is only available on the element-text
widget.
• width: override the desired width for the textbox.
• content: Set the displayed text (String).
• placeholder: Set the displayed text (String) when nothing is entered.
• placeholder-color: Color of the placeholder text.
• blink: Enable/Disable blinking on an input textbox (Boolean).
• markup: Force markup on, beware that only valid pango markup strings are shown.
• tab-stops: array of distances Set the location of tab stops by their distance from the
beginning of the line. Each distance should be greater than the previous one. The text appears
to the right of the tab stop position (other alignments are not supported yet).
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.
• reverse: boolean Reverse the ordering (top down to bottom up).
• flow: orientation The order the elements are layed out. Vertical is the original
'column' view.
• fixed-columns: boolean Do not reduce the number of columns shown when number of visible
elements is not enough to fill them all.
• require-input: boolean Listview requires user input to show up.
Each element is a box called element. Each element can contain an element-icon and element-text.
listview text highlight:
The element-text widget in the listview is the one used to show the text. On this widget set the
highlight property (only place this property is used) to change the style of highlighting. The highlight
property consist of the text-style property and a color.
To disable highlighting:
element-text {
highlight: None;
}
To set to red underlined:
element-text {
highlight: underline red;
}
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} │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ mainbox {BOX:vertical} │ │
│ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ inputbar {BOX:horizontal} │ │ │
│ │ │ ┌─────────┐ ┌─┐ ┌───────────────────────────────┐ ┌───┐ ┌───┐ ┌───┐ ┌───┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ prompt │ │:│ │ entry │ │#fr│ │ / │ │#ns│ │ci │ │ │ │
│ │ │ └─────────┘ └─┘ └───────────────────────────────┘ └───┘ └───┘ └───┘ └───┘ │ │ │
│ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ message │ │ │
│ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ textbox │ │ │ │
│ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │
│ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ listview │ │ │
│ │ │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ element │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │element─icon │ │element─text │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │
│ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ mode─switcher {BOX:horizontal} │ │ │
│ │ │ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Button │ │ Button │ │ Button │ │ Button │ │ │ │
│ │ │ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └───────────────┘ │ │ │
│ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
• ci is the case-indicator
• fr is the num-filtered-rows
• ns is the num-rows
Error message structure
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ window {BOX:vertical} │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ error─message {BOX:vertical} │ │
│ │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ textbox │ │ │
│ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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
• overlay
• case-indicator
• message
• listview
• mode-switcher
• num-rows
• num-filtered-rows
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, mode-switcher
• 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.
There are several special widgets that can be used by prefixing the name of the widget:
textbox
This is a read-only textbox widget. The displayed string can be set with content.
Example:
textbox-custom {
expand: false;
content: "My Message";
}
Icon
This is an icon widget. The displayed icon can be set with filename and size with size. If the property
action is set, it acts as a button. action can be set to a keybinding name and completes that action.
(see rofi -show keys for a list).
If the squared property is set to false the widget height and width are not forced to be equal.
Example:
icon-paste {
expand: false;
filename: "gtk-paste";
size: 24;
vertical-align: 0.5;
action: "kb-primary-paste";
}
button
This is a textbox widget that can have a 'clickable' action. The action can be set to: keybinding:
accepts a keybinding name and completes that action. (see rofi -show keys for a list).
button-paste {
expand: false;
content: "My Clickable Message";
vertical-align: 0.5;
action: "kb-primary-paste";
}
Children
To specify children, set the children property (this always happens on the box child, see example below):
inputbar {
children: [prompt,entry,overlay,case-indicator];
}
The theme needs to be updated to match the hierarchy specified.
Below is an example of a theme emulating dmenu:
* {
background-color: Black;
text-color: White;
border-color: White;
font: "Times New Roman 12";
}
window {
anchor: north;
location: north;
width: 100%;
padding: 4px;
children: [ horibox ];
}
horibox {
orientation: horizontal;
children: [ prompt, entry, listview ];
}
listview {
layout: horizontal;
spacing: 5px;
lines: 10;
}
entry {
expand: false;
width: 10em;
}
element {
padding: 0px 2px;
}
element selected {
background-color: 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 border-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: true; │ │ │ │ expand: true; │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ └───────────────┘ └────────┘ └───────────────┘ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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
Another syntax to modify theme properties is:
rofi -theme+window+fullscreen true -show run
To print the current theme, run:
rofi -dump-theme
Media support
Parts of the theme can be conditionally loaded, like the CSS @media option.
@media ( min-width: 120 ) {
}
It supports the following keys as constraint:
• min-width: load when width is bigger or equal then value.
• max-width: load when width is smaller then value.
• min-height: load when height is bigger or equal then value.
• max-height: load when height is smaller then value.
• min-aspect-ratio load when aspect ratio is over value.
• max-aspect-ratio: load when aspect ratio is under value.
• monitor-id: The monitor id, see rofi -help for id's.
• enabled: Boolean option to enable. Supports environment variable.
@media takes an integer number or a fraction, for integer number px can be added.
@media ( min-width: 120 px ) {
}
@media ( enabled: env(DO_LIGHT, false ) {
}
Font Parsing
Rofi uses pango ⟨https://pango.gnome.org/⟩ for font rendering. The font should be specified in a format
that pango understands. This normally is the font name followed by the font size. For example:
mono 18
Or
FontAwesome 22
Icon Handling
Rofi supports 3 ways of specifying an icon:
• Filename
• icon-name, this is looked up via the icon-theme.
• Markup String. It renders a string as an icon.
For the first two options, GdkPixbuf is used to open and render the icons. This in general gives support
for most required image formats. For the string option it uses Pango to render the string. The string
needs to start with a <span tag, that allows you to set color and font.
Markup string:
echo -en "testing\0icon\x1f<span color='red'>⏻</span>" | ./rofi -dmenu
Getting supported icon formats:
G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=Helpers.IconFetcher rofi
This uses the debug framework and prints out a list of supported image file extensions.
Multiple file handling
The rasi file format offers two methods of including other files. This can be used to modify existing
themes, or have multiple variations on a theme.
• import: Import and parse a second file.
• theme: Discard theme, and load file as a fresh theme.
Syntax:
@import "myfile"
@theme "mytheme"
The specified file can either by name, filename,full path.
If a filename is provided, it will try to resolve it in the following order:
• ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/rofi/themes/
• ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/rofi/
• ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/rofi/themes/
• ${INSTALL PREFIX}/share/rofi/themes/
A name is resolved as a filename by appending the .rasi extension.
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), rofi-script(5), rofi-theme-selector(1)
rofi-theme ROFI-THEME(5)