multibg-sway

Set a different wallpaper for the background of each Sway workspace

Usage

$ multibg-sway <WALLPAPER_DIR>

Wallpapers should be arranged in the following directory structure:

wallpaper_dir/output/workspace_name.{jpg|png|...}

Eg.

~/my_wallpapers/HDMI-A-1/1.jpg

In more detail:

• wallpaper_dir: A directory, this will be the argument for the multibg-sway command

• output: A directory with the same name as a sway output eg. eDP-1, HDMI-A-1

  • If one has multiple outputs with the same resolution this can be a symlink to the directory of the other output.

  • To get the name of current outputs from sway one may run:

    $ swaymsg -t get_outputs
    

• workspace_name: The name of the sway workspace, by sway defaults: 1, 2, 3, ..., 10

  • Can be a manually defined workspace name (eg. in sway config), but renaming workspaces while multibg_sway is running is not supported currently
  • Can define a fallback wallpaper with the special name: _default
  • Can be a symlink to use a wallpaper image for multiple workspaces

Wallpaper images are not resized by multibg-sway currently, so they should have the same resolution as the output

Example

For one having a laptop with a built-in display eDP-1 and an external monitor HDMI-A-1, wallpapers can be arranged such as:

~/my_wallpapers
    ├─ eDP-1
    │    ├─ _default.jpg
    │    ├─ 1.jpg
    │    ├─ 2.png
    │    └─ browser.jpg
    └─ HDMI-A-1
         ├─ 1.jpg
         └─ 3.png

Then start multibg_sway:

$ multibg-sway ~/my_wallpapers

It is recommended to edit the wallpaper images in a dedicated image editor. Nevertheless the contrast and brightness might be adjusted here:

$ multibg-sway --contrast=-25 --brightness=-60 ~/my_wallpapers

In case of errors multibg-sway logs to stderr and tries to continue. One may wish to redirect stderr if multibg-sway is being run as a daemon.

Installation

• With Rust:

  $ cargo install --locked multibg-sway
  

• For Arch Linux from AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/multibg-sway

  • eg. with paru

    $ paru -S multibg-sway
    

Alternatives

• swaybg
• swww
• mpvpaper
• oguri