# cde-wallpaper

Demo

A Rust/GTK4 wallpaper picker for Wayland that reads authentic CDE (Common Desktop Environment) wallpaper files (.xbm, .xpm) and applies them via KDE Plasma’s D-Bus API or Hyprland’s hyprctl/swww/awww.

# Features

Parses original CDE .xbm (X BitMap) and .xpm (X PixMap) wallpaper files
Tiled rendering for bitmap patterns; scaled rendering for full-screen XPM images
Built-in CDE color palettes with foreground/background color pickers
Live preview before applying
Sets wallpaper on KDE Plasma (D-Bus) or Hyprland (swww/awww)
GUI + scriptable CLI in a single binary
Config persisted to ~/.config/cde-wallpaper/config.toml

# Requirements

Wayland compositor (tested on KDE Plasma 6)
GTK 4.12+
D-Bus session (for KDE wallpaper apply)
CDE wallpaper files (.xbm / .xpm) — default set included (see below)

# Dependencies

gtk4 = "0.9"       # GUI + GDK texture
zbus = "5"         # D-Bus (KDE PlasmaShell)
image = "0.25"     # PNG rendering
serde + toml       # Config serialization
anyhow             # Error handling

# Building

cargo build --release

# Running

cargo run --release

A default set of CDE wallpapers is embedded in the binary and shown on startup. Optionally click Add folder… to include your own wallpaper directory (files appear above the built-in defaults). Use the Hide defaults checkbox to hide the embedded set. Select a wallpaper, choose foreground/background colors from the CDE palette or a custom color picker, preview it, then click Apply.

# CLI

The same cde-wallpaper binary exposes a CLI for scripting — passing any argument skips GTK and runs headlessly. Invoke with no args to launch the GUI.

cde-wallpaper                       launch GUI
cde-wallpaper apply [opts]          render + set wallpaper headlessly
cde-wallpaper show                  print active config
cde-wallpaper help                  print usage

# `apply` options

Flag	Description
`--file NAME`	Wallpaper to render. Resolves as: absolute/relative path (contains `/`), basename in your saved `wallpaper_dir`, then embedded asset name (e.g. `abicus.xbm`).
`--fg RRGGBB`	Foreground color (hex, `#` optional).
`--bg RRGGBB`	Background color.
`--scale F`	Scale factor for tiled bitmaps (e.g. `1.5`).
`--no-save`	Render and apply without persisting overrides to `config.toml`.

Without any overrides, apply re-renders the saved selection at the current screen size — useful as a startup hook after resolution changes.

Screen size is detected via hyprctl monitors when on Hyprland; falls back to 1920×1080. The compositor target is chosen by HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE (Hyprland) or KDE Plasma D-Bus otherwise.

# Examples

# Apply an embedded wallpaper with custom colors, persist selection
cde-wallpaper apply --file abicus.xbm --fg ff8800 --bg 220033

# One-shot preview without touching config
cde-wallpaper apply --file Block.xbm --no-save

# Apply a file by absolute path
cde-wallpaper apply --file ~/wallpapers/custom.xbm --scale 2

# Re-apply current selection (e.g. on login)
cde-wallpaper apply

# Inspect saved config
cde-wallpaper show

Exits non-zero on errors (unknown flags, bad hex, missing wallpaper) with a message on stderr.

# How It Works

Parser — reads .xbm (1-bit bitmap) and .xpm (indexed color) formats
Renderer — tiles bitmaps across the screen resolution; scales select XPM images (Concave, Convex, SkyDark, SkyLight) to fill
GUI — GTK4 window with file list, CDE palette swatches, live preview
Apply — renders to a temporary PNG, then calls KDE Plasma’s evaluateScript D-Bus method to set it as the wallpaper

# CDE Palettes

The built-in palette list mirrors the original CDE palette set (Broica, Cactus, Default, Desert, EarthTones, Galactic, GrassyMeadow, Ivory, Maple, Monsoon, Ocean, Pumpkin, Sandstone, Slate, Spring, Sulphur, Sunshine, Tropical, Tundra, Wheat).

# Bundled Wallpapers

The default wallpaper files embedded in this binary (.bm, .xbm, .pm, .xpm files in assets/wallpapers/) originate from the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. These files were not created by the author of this project. Source: CDE on SourceForge.

The color palettes are also derived from CDE and are not original works of this project’s author.

# License

MIT — see LICENSE