Look(7x)

📦
version 2.2.12 · 4 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

Look(7x) — AfterStep X11 window manager, part 1 💖✨

okay so bestie, this is literally the Look page for AfterStep, and it's where all the visual vibe lives: decor, menus, backgrounds, icons, the whole aesthetic. Part 1 is right here, and part 2 is coming, so don't go anywhere. 🫶

💖 NAME 💖

Look — the AfterStep look. That's the whole name, no cap. 💅

✨ CONFIGURATION OPTIONS ✨

Now for the actual options, in order, no skips, no cuts. Let's go!! 🎀

  • ButtonAlign — FIXME: add proper description here. See Also: Look Alignment flags for further details.
  • ButtonBevel — Specifies the bevel to be drawn around iconified windows. See Also: Look Bevel flags for further details.
  • ButtonIconSpacing — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • ButtonSize width height — Specifies the size of iconified windows. Every iconified window button will be exactly width pixels wide and height pixels high. This includes titles drawn at the top, but not the separate title window created by SeparateButtonTitle. If either width or height is less than one, that dimension will not be fixed. The default is ButtonSize 0 0. 💅
  • CursorBack — use with CursorFore setting to adjust color of the mouse cursor.
  • CursorFore — use with CursorBack setting to adjust color of the mouse cursor.
  • DefaultFrame "name" — MyFrame to use as default for all windows. Note: if you want a different framing for any window, you need to specify it in the database file using the Frame keyword.
  • DefaultStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use when no style has been specifically defined for a given situation. Note that if a style named "default" has been defined and DefaultStyle has not, the "default" style will be used as the default.
  • DeskBack desk# "name" — Specifies what background to use for desk#. "name" can be either image filename in double-quotes, or the name of background definition (see MyBackground definition for details).
  • DontAnimateBackground — disables non-blocking root background changing of full-screen backgrounds, that looks like slow animation. This is recommended for fast machines.
  • DontDrawBackground — If specified, will not display background image, use this with xearth or xfishtank.
  • DrawMenuBorders 0|1|2 — Specifies the look of the (start)menu. Using 0 will draw the menu with no border on either the menu label or menu item portions. Using 1 will draw a border around each menu label and around the menu item. Using 2 will draw a border around the menu label and the entire menu item list. The border colors are calculated from the BackColor under MyStyle menu_item of the look.name. The "hilight" (top & left) color is one half lighter than the BackColor color and the "shadow" (bottom & right) is one half darker than the BackColor color. If the BackColor color is black, the color grey is used.
  • FWindowStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for the focused window decorations.
  • IconBox left top right bottom — Specifies a region of the screen in which to place iconified windows. Up to four icon boxes can be defined. If an IconBox is provided, icons will automatically be placed in them, if possible. Otherwise, they will be placed in the upper left corner of the screen. Each time a window is iconified, a new place is found for it, unless the icon has been moved manually. An available space is searched for from left to right, then top to bottom. Icons will not be automatically placed on top of other icons, but they may be placed underneath application windows if StubbornIconPlacement has not been specified. If left or right is negative, then AfterStep will add the screen width to it. If top or bottom is negative, then AfterStep will add the screen height to it. Note that -0 is not parsed as the right or bottom pixel on the screen. Use -1 instead. The IconBox will normally be filled from left to right, then top to bottom. However, if the right edge of the IconBox is closer to the right edge of the screen than the left edge of the IconBox is to the left edge of the screen, then it will be filled from right to left. Similarly for top to bottom. For example, "2 2 -1 -1" will result in an IconBox which fills from right to left, then bottom to top.
  • IconsGrowVertically — Specifies that the Iconbox(es) should be filled vertically first.
  • KillBackgroundThreshold size — Here size is the maximum number of pixels in root background image. If image is bigger than this — it will be unloaded from memory when desktop is switched and image is no longer in use. Use it on systems with low memory.
  • MArrowPixmap pixmap_name — Specifies a pixmap to use as the submenu indicator in popup menus.
  • MenuBalloonBorderHilite — FIXME: add proper description here. See Also: Look Bevel flags for further details.
  • MenuBalloonCloseDelay — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonDelay — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonStyle — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonTextPaddingX — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonTextPaddingY — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonXOffset — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloonYOffset — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuBalloons — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuHiTitleStyle "style_name" — AfterStep now allows you to specify a MyStyle to be used for the titlebar of the currently highlighted menu. As soon as the menu goes out of focus its titlebar will be rendered using MenuTitleStyle.
  • MenuHiliteCompositionMethod 130-145 — This is a funny feature - try it and see how you like different values :) If you use shades of grey for your item text - you may not see any difference for some of this values.
  • MenuHiliteStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for highlighted menu items.
  • MenuItemCompositionMethod 130-145 — This is a funny feature - try it and see how you like different values :) If you use shades of grey for your item text - you may not see any difference for some of this values.
  • MenuItemStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for menu items.
  • MenuMiniPixmaps minis — Specifies whether mini pixmaps should be included in menus. If minis is 0, mini pixmaps are not included. If minis is 1, mini pixmaps are included. Note that mini pixmaps will not be added to menus until the next time menus are updated. Mini pixmaps can cause AS to take much longer to load over a network.
  • MenuNoBalloons — FIXME: add proper description here.
  • MenuPinOn pixmap_name — MenuPinOn is deprecated and AfterStep will reinterpret it, and it will create new TitleButton using last unused TitleButton context. It will then assign PinMenu function to this button. This button will only be shown on titlebars belonging to menu windows. This button behaves just like any other TitleButton - for example you can use TitleButtonOrder to specify where it should go. Problem is you may not know what context AfterStep had chosen for it. The better way would be to explicitly define TitleButton, and assign PinMenu to it in your feel.
  • MenuStippleCompositionMethod 130-145 — This is a funny feature - try it and see how you like different values :) If you use shades of grey for your item text - you may not see any difference for some of this values.
  • MenuStippleStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for stippled menu items.
  • MenuSubItemStyle "style_name" — AfterStep now includes this new feature: when you select an item from the menu - this item will be marked as recently used, and next time the menu is opened it will show all the recently used items from its SUBMENU. For example you do :

Menu->Applications->rxvt

Next time you open the Main menu, it will display rxvt just under the "Applications" item with some offset.

It looks much better when this subitems are shown with different (smaller) font. To achieve that - specify a MyStyle with a smaller font using the MenuSubItemStyle option in your look file.

This feature could be turned off or altered by using the RecentSubmenuItems option in your feel file: set it to 0 to disable this feature.

  • MenuTitleStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for menu titles.
  • MinipixmapSize x y — Changes the default maximum MiniPixmap size (24x24) to a user-specified value. See Also: MiniPixmap, MenuMiniPixmaps.
  • MyBackground "background_name" — Specifies a background definition. Please note that only desktops can have different backgrounds - the viewports inside of a desktop are limited to the same background. See Also: MyBackground definition for further details.
  • MyFrame "frame_name" — Specifies a frame definition (window decor in general) and is covered in the MyFrame section of the documentation. Please also note that window decor can be defined on a per window basis if needed in the database. See Also: MyFrame definition for further details.
  • MyStyle "style_name" — Specifies a MyStyle definition (which covers text and/or gradients and/or background pixmaps), which can later be reused and is covered in the MyStyle section of the documentation. See Also: MyStyle definition for further details.
  • ResizeMoveGeometry geom — Specifies the location of the resize/move window. If this option is not specified, the move/resize window will be centered on the screen. geom may be any one of the following:
    • ++: upper-left corner
    • -+: upper-right corner
    • +-: lower-left corner
    • --: lower-right corner
  • RubberBand — Specifies the RubberBand type to use when moving or resizing non-opaque windows. There are 3 styles: 0: the window is represented as a number of rectangles 1: one rectangle the size of the window 2: one crossed-out rectangle the size of the window.
  • SWindowStyle "style_name" — Specifies the MyStyle to use for the sticky window decorations.
  • SeparateButtonTitle 0|1 — the original just drops the option name and leaves it at that, no description. iconic behavior tbh 😭

Fine. Carry on. 💖

  • StartMenuSortMode number — how does the start menu sort itself? 1 = alphabetical order, 0 = date. That's it, that's the whole vibe check. ✨
  • SupportedHints — honestly? FIXME: add proper description here. 🙈 The original docs literally said that, bestie, I'm not making it up.
See Also: Supported hints list for further details.
  • TitleButton button unclicked_image clicked_image — sets up one titlebar button, three args at a time. 💅
    • button is the button's location number, 1 through 10, laid out like this: [1] [3] [5] [7] [9] (title) [10] [8] [6] [4] [2].
    • unclicked_image is the bitmap or pixmap used while that button location is just sitting there in its static state.
    • clicked_image is the bitmap or pixmap used while that button location is in a clicked state. 🖱️
  • TitleButtonBalloonBorderHilite None|[Left,Top,Right,Bottom,Extra,NoOutline — defines the bevel drawn around balloons, and yes, it replaces the BorderWidth setting. (Not "replaces" like a soft suggestion — it replaces it.) The value is None or any combo of [Left,Top,Right,Bottom,Extra,NoOutline.
See Also: Bevel flags for further details.
  • TitleButtonBalloonCloseDelay milliseconds — how long to wait before a TitleButtonBalloon auto-closes itself. ⏱️
  • TitleButtonBalloonDelay milliseconds — how long the mouse pointer has to hover over a TitleButton before the Balloon pops up. 🎈
  • TitleButtonBalloonStyle "mystyle_name" — the MyStyle to use when drawing the balloon. Heads up: balloons can be shaped — that's BackPixmap 125 and 126 doing the work. 🦋
  • TitleButtonBalloonTextPaddingX — FIXME: add proper description here. 😭
  • TitleButtonBalloonTextPaddingY — FIXME: add proper description here. 😭
  • TitleButtonBalloonXOffset offset — the horizontal offset (in pixels) to use when displaying balloons.
  • TitleButtonBalloonYOffset offset — the <em>horizontal</em> offset (in pixels) to use when displaying balloons. (Yes it says horizontal again, that's what the page says, I'm not editing the ancestors' typo fr fr. 💀)
  • TitleButtonBalloons — turns on displaying balloons for the buttons in the titlebar. 🎈✨
  • TitleButtonNoBalloons — do not show Balloons for TitleButtons. The anti-balloon setting, if you must. 🙈
  • TitleButtonOrder context_sequence — decides the layout of the titlebar. Default is 13579t08642, no cap. 👑
  • TitleButtonSpacing number — how much space (in pixels) to put between each button of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonSpacingLeft number — how much space (in pixels) to put between the left buttons and titlebar.
  • TitleButtonSpacingRight number — how much space (in pixels) to put between the titlebar and the right buttons.
  • TitleButtonStyle num — how much space goes between the leftmost/rightmost titlebar buttons and the edges of the titlebar. The deets:
    • num is 0 → there's a two pixel buffer between the buttons and the edge.
    • num is 1 → there's no space between the buttons and the edge.
    • num is 2 → the distance between titlebar edge and titlebuttons is determined by TitleButtonXOffset and TitleButtonYOffset. 🌸
  • TitleButtonXOffset x_offset_val — distance of the titlebar buttons from the edge of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonXOffsetLeft x_offset_val — distance of the left block of titlebar buttons from the side of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonXOffsetRight x_offset_val — distance of the right block of titlebar buttons from the side of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonYOffset y_offset_val — distance of the titlebar buttons from the top/bottom of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonYOffsetLeft y_offset_val — distance of the left block of titlebar buttons from the top/bottom of the titlebar.
  • TitleButtonYOffsetRight y_offset_val — distance of the right block of titlebar buttons from the top/bottom of the titlebar.
  • TitleTextAlign align — how the titlebar text gets aligned: Left, Right or Center. Pick your character development. 💅
  • TitlebarNoPush — says the titlebar should not look "pushed in" when you click it with a mouse button. The docs say this is useful for reducing video strain, or when you're using textured pixmaps that just do not look good "pushed in". Aesthetics are valid. 🎀
  • UWindowStyle — the MyStyle to use for the unfocused window decorations.

okay and then the page closes with a little flex about everything that changed: 🤩

Frame decoration settings have been greately enhanced. It is now fashioned after the MyStyle option and is called MyFrame. It allows for several named structures, with inheritance, and the ability to assign a different structure to different apps using the database. Slay.

As mentioned above, root background settings have been moved into look — hence MyBackground and Desk are back as look options. 👑

MyStyle has a far greater number of BackPixmap types, reflecting the new functionality in libAfterImage. 🌈

CompositionMethod setting has been added to different aspects of look. ✨

New options for more flexible placing of titlebar buttons have been added. 💅

Balloons now support both X and Y offset as well as MyStyle, instead of simple back and fore colors. 🎈

And that's the whole thing, bestie — the page signs off as the 3rd Berkeley Distribution, AfterStep v.2.2.12, section Look(7x). Go forth and configure your titlebar, you absolute main character. 🫶💖

📦 where this page comes from