cwal is a command-line utility for generating dynamic colour schemes from images and applying the resulting palette across a desktop.
It is designed around a 16-colour palette and configurable templates. The program can either produce complete configuration files or update selected sections of existing files, which makes it useful where most of an application’s configuration should remain under manual control.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Extracts a 16-colour palette from wallpaper and other image files.
- Uses ImageMagick or libimagequant for colour quantisation.
- Supports custom colour-generation backends written in Lua.
- Provides dark and light modes with controls for saturation, contrast and alpha transparency.
- Uses templates to generate configuration data for terminals, editors, window managers and desktop components.
- Offers marker-based configuration injection that replaces only a designated section of an existing file.
- Can reload affected applications automatically after applying a generated theme.
- Supports custom post-processing commands and scripts.
- Includes a terminal palette preview.
- Can select random wallpapers and remember the previously selected wallpaper directory.
- Supports predefined themes and can restore the previously generated setup.
- Follows the XDG Base Directory Specification for configuration, data and cache files.
- Provides completions for Bash, Zsh and Fish.
Website: github.com/nitinbhat972/cwal
Support:
Developer: Nitin Bhat
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
cwal is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Color Scheme Generators | |
|---|---|
| pastel | Work with colours from the command line |
| wpgtk | Manage wallpapers, themes and application templates |
| Matugen | Create Material You themes from images |
| wallust | Build terminal palettes from wallpaper colours |
| lule | Fast ANSI theme creator written in Rust |
| Rickrack | Design and manage colour palettes |
| Pywal16 | Generate and apply colour schemes from wallpapers |
| KDE Material You Colors | Automatically theme KDE Plasma from your wallpaper |
| Hellwal | Fast, extensible wallpaper-based theming |
| walrs | Build themes from an image’s dominant colours |
| Aether | Customise and coordinate desktop themes visually |
| cwal | Create dynamic themes from image colours |
| K’uychi | Generate harmonious colour palettes from images |
| Tinct | Extract reusable palettes from images |
| clrsync | Synchronise themes across applications |
| rong | Extract Material You colours from images |
| Colorway | Discover complementary colour pairings |
| Colorice | Wallpaper-driven colour scheme generator |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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