Theming

Themes are defined in config/themes.toml. Change the active theme and save to update dwm, Quickshell, terminal, GTK, and Qt styling. No restart needed.

[active]
theme = "nord"   # ← change this line to switch themes

The managed transaction helper is the safe command-line interface for theme changes:

dwm-settings-theme preview preview-1 15 dracula
dwm-settings-theme keep preview-1       # confirm before the timeout
dwm-settings-theme revert preview-1     # or restore immediately
dwm-settings-theme abandon preview-1    # accept a conflicting external edit
dwm-settings-theme apply gruvbox
dwm-settings-theme reset                # restore the managed default selection

An unconfirmed preview restores the exact previous themes.toml bytes and mode automatically. Apply and reset preserve comments, custom theme sections, and unrelated appearance settings. If an operation is interrupted after its atomic write, inspect and restore it with:

dwm-settings-theme recovery-status
dwm-settings-theme recover

Recovery refuses to overwrite an externally changed theme file.

Available Themes

Dark

Light

Border Size

[appearance]
borderpx = 1   # 0 = no border, 1 = thin (default), 2-3 = thicker

What Each Theme Controls

Each [theme.name] section sets colors for all components:

Quickshell derives its opaque surfaces, text, borders, accent, success, warning, and danger colors from the active theme’s existing dwm and terminal color keys.

Creating a Custom Theme

Add a new section to themes.toml:

[theme.mytheme]
normfgcolor     = "#cdd6f4"
normbgcolor     = "#1e1e2e"
normbordercolor = "#313244"
selfgcolor      = "#cdd6f4"
selbgcolor      = "#89b4fa"
selbordercolor  = "#89b4fa"

term_bg         = "#1e1e2e"
term_fg         = "#cdd6f4"
term_cursor     = "#f5e0dc"
# ... term_color0-15 ...
dark_mode       = true
gtk_theme       = "Nordic"

Then set theme = "mytheme" under [active] and save.

Applying Themes via Control Center

Open the Control Center with Super + F1, navigate to Appearance → Select Theme, and pick from the list. The theme switches immediately.

Wallpapers

Place images in ~/Pictures/backgrounds/. Open Settings → Appearance to select an image, choose its fit, preview it for 30 seconds, apply it, or reset to the random session default. Use Super + Shift + W or dwm-settings-wallpaper randomize for a one-off random wallpaper in the current session, or persist a specific image and fit from a terminal:

dwm-settings-wallpaper apply "$HOME/Pictures/backgrounds/mywall.jpg" fill

Supported fit modes are center, fill, max, scale, and tile. Preview a choice for 30 seconds before keeping it:

token="wallpaper-$$"
dwm-settings-wallpaper preview "$token" 30 \
  "$HOME/Pictures/backgrounds/mywall.jpg" max
dwm-settings-wallpaper keep "$token"

Use dwm-settings-wallpaper reset to return to the session’s random-fill default. If a saved image is removed, login remains usable and falls back to that default until another image is selected or the setting is reset.

Fonts and Text Size

Open Settings -> Appearance -> Font and text size to choose one font and text scale for the shell and desktop applications. Type an installed font family or choose one of the suggestions. Available scales are 75, 87.5, 100, 112.5, 125, 150, 175, and 200 percent. Use Apply font or Apply text size, or return to Follow system font/scale. Applications that cache toolkit settings may need reopening.

The shell observes desktop font and scale changes even while Settings is closed. Qt’s native DPI scale is counted once, so 200 percent does not become 400 percent in the shell. Follow system scale preserves the native display DPI instead of forcing a 100 percent display. External system text scales outside 75-200 percent are clamped to that range in the shell. The icon font remains the shipped Meslo Nerd Font, so changing the text family cannot remove panel or menu glyphs.

The same shared settings are available from a terminal:

dwm-settings-personalization apply font "Noto Sans"
dwm-settings-personalization apply text-size 1.25
dwm-settings-personalization reset font
dwm-settings-personalization reset text-size

Existing font.conf files are preserved as a startup fallback when desktop typography cannot be read. A later read failure keeps the last valid choice. The legacy shell-only helper remains available for recovery and compatibility; its settings no longer take precedence over readable desktop typography:

token="font-$$"
dwm-settings-font preview "$token" 30 "Noto Sans" 1.25
dwm-settings-font keep "$token"

dwm-settings-font apply "Noto Sans" 1.10
dwm-settings-font reset

The setting owns only font.conf under the dwm-titus XDG configuration directory. A malformed file falls back to the existing Meslo family at 100 percent without preventing shell startup.

Desktop Application Appearance

The Desktop applications area provides cursor and icon choices. Font and text size live in the single section above. GTK and Qt styling is normally set by the selected theme, so their separate selectors are hidden. Existing saved toolkit overrides remain preserved and can still be reset from a terminal. Application status cards and the keyboard/pointer access summary are hidden; actionable errors and recovery controls remain visible.

Use Follow system icons or Follow DWM theme for the cursor to remove a saved override. Asset discovery runs only while Appearance is open.

The same fixed actions are available from a terminal:

dwm-settings-personalization apply cursor Adwaita
dwm-settings-personalization apply gtk Adwaita-dark
dwm-settings-personalization apply qt gtk3
dwm-settings-personalization reset cursor
dwm-settings-personalization reset gtk
dwm-settings-personalization reset qt
dwm-settings-personalization status

If status reports that the project-owned personalization state is malformed, Settings exposes Repair personalization state. The equivalent dwm-settings-personalization repair command resets only the persisted overrides to follow-source preferences; it does not silently rewrite current desktop settings. Apply or reset the desired choices afterward. Files carrying a reserved newer personalization protocol are left untouched; use a compatible newer dwm-titus version rather than repairing them.

The apply and reset paths share the theme transaction and integration locks. If rollback cannot safely restore a changed output, recovery data remains under the dwm-titus appearance state directory for the existing theme recovery flow.