Screens

The screens configuration variable is where the physical screens, their associated bars, and the widgets contained within the bars are defined.

See Built-in Widgets for a listing of available widgets.

Example

Tying together screens, bars and widgets, we get something like this:

from libqtile.config import Screen
from libqtile import bar, widget

screens = [
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        ),
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        )
    ]

Bars support both solid background colors and gradients by supplying a list of colors that make up a linear gradient. For example, bar.Bar(..., background="#000000") will give you a black back ground (the default), while bar.Bar(..., background=["#000000", "#FFFFFF"]) will give you a background that fades from black to white.

Third-party bars

There might be some reasons to use third-party bars. For instance you can come from another window manager and you have already configured dzen2, xmobar, or something else. They definitely can be used with Qtile too. In fact, any additional configurations aren’t needed. Just run the bar and qtile will adapt.

Reference

Screen

class libqtile.config.Screen(top=None, bottom=None, left=None, right=None, x=None, y=None, width=None, height=None)[source]

A physical screen, and its associated paraphernalia.

Define a screen with a given set of Bars of a specific geometry. Note that bar.Bar objects can only be placed at the top or the bottom of the screen (bar.Gap objects can be placed anywhere). Also, x, y, width, and height aren’t specified usually unless you are using ‘fake screens’.

Parameters:

top: List of Gap/Bar objects, or None.

bottom: List of Gap/Bar objects, or None.

left: List of Gap/Bar objects, or None.

right: List of Gap/Bar objects, or None.

x : int or None

y : int or None

width : int or None

height : int or None

Bar

class libqtile.bar.Bar(widgets, size, **config)[source]

A bar, which can contain widgets

Parameters:

widgets :

A list of widget objects.

size :

The “thickness” of the bar, i.e. the height of a horizontal bar, or the width of a vertical bar.

key default description
background '#000000' Background colour.
opacity 1 Bar window opacity.

Gap

class libqtile.bar.Gap(size)[source]

A gap placed along one of the edges of the screen

If a gap has been defined, Qtile will avoid covering it with windows. The most probable reason for configuring a gap is to make space for a third-party bar or other static window.

Parameters:

size :

The “thickness” of the gap, i.e. the height of a horizontal gap, or the width of a vertical gap.