picom
picom is a standalone compositor for Xorg, suitable for use with window managers that do not provide compositing. picom is a fork of compton, which is a fork of xcompmgr-dana, which in turn is a fork of xcompmgr.
Configuration
The default configuration is available in /etc/xdg/picom.conf. For modifications, it can be copied to ~/.config/picom/picom.conf or ~/.config/picom.conf.
To use another custom configuration file with picom, use the following command:
$ picom --config path/to/picom.conf
See picom(1) § CONFIGURATION FILES for details.
Disable shadows for some windows
The shadow-exclude option can disable shadows for windows if required. For currently disabled windows, see .
To disable shadows for menus add the following to wintypes in picom.conf:
# menu = { shadow = false; };
dropdown_menu = { shadow = false; };
popup_menu = { shadow = false; };
utility = { shadow = false; };
The other WINDOW_TYPE values that can be used are defined in the EWMH standard: , , , , menu, utility, , , , , , , , , and dnd.
Opacity
To set opacity (in effect transparency) for focused and unfocused windows (for example terminal emulators), add the following to your picom.conf:
opacity-rule = [ "90:class_g = 'URxvt' && focused", "60:class_g = 'URxvt' && !focused" ];
Usage
picom may be manually enabled or disabled at any time during a session, or autostarted as a background process for sessions. There are also several optional arguments that may be used to tweak the compositing effects provided. These include:
- : Run as a background process for a session (e.g. when autostarting for a window manager such as Openbox)
- : Enable shadow effects
-C: Disable shadow effects on panels and docks (deprecated, use #Disable shadows for some windows)- : Disable shadow effects for application windows and drag-and-drop objects (deprecated, use #Disable shadows for some windows)
- : Use a specified configuration file
Many more options are available, including setting timings, displays to be managed, the opacity of menus, window borders, and inactive application menus. See .
To manually enable default compositing effects during a session, use the following command:
$ picom &
To autostart picom as a background process for a session, the argument can be used (may cause a display freeze):
$ picom -b
Here is an example where additional arguments that require values to be set have been used:
$ picom -cfF -o 0.38 -O 200 -I 200 -t 0 -l 0 -r 3 -D2 -m 0.88
Multihead
If a multihead configuration is used without xinerama - meaning that X server is started with more than one screen - then picom will start on only one screen by default. It can be started on all screens by using the environment variable. For example, to run on X screen 0 in the background:
DISPLAY=":0" picom -b
The above should work on all monitors, but if it does not try an older method that manually specifies each one:
seq 0 3 | xargs -l1 -I@ picom -b -d :0.@
Grayscale
It is possible to convert windows to grayscale by use of shaders.
As per , start by editing the default shader from the picom's sources.
Then start picom by including the full text of the shader. The backend will also, probably, be necessary.
$ picom --backend glx --glx-fshader-win "$(cat /path/to/shader/file.glsl)"
Troubleshooting
Recent versions of picom had some problem with DRI2 acceleration and exhibited severe flickering when DRI2 is in use (picom bug, mesa bug). This has been worked around and reported to be working, but may still affect some users. DRI3 is unaffected by this particular issue.
The use of compositing effects may on occasion cause issues such as visual glitches when not configured correctly for use with other applications and programs.
Conky
To disable shadows around Conky windows, have the following in ~/.conkyrc:
own_window_class conky
In the case this solution fail with blur effect, you can try this in ~/.conkyrc:
own_window_type= 'desktop'
dwm and dmenu
dwm's statusbar is not detected by any of picom's functions to automatically exclude window manager elements. Neither dwm statusbar nor dmenu have a static window id. If you want to exclude it from inactive window transparency (or other), you will have to either patch a window class into the source code of each, or exclude by less precise attributes. The following example is with dwm's status on top, which allows a resolution independent of location exclusion:
$ picom <any other arguments> --focus-exclude "x = 0 && y = 0 && override_redirect = true"
Otherwise, where using a configuration file:
focus-exclude = "x = 0 && y = 0 && override_redirect = true";
The override redirect property seems to be false for most windows- having this in the exclusion rule prevents other windows drawn in the upper left corner from being excluded (for example, when dwm statusbar is hidden, x0 y0 will match whatever is in dwm's master stack).
Firefox
See #Disable shadows for some windows.
To disable shadows for Firefox elements add the following to shadow-exclude in picom.conf:
"class_g = 'firefox' && argb",
slock
Where inactive window transparency has been enabled (the argument when running as a command), this may provide troublesome results when also using slock. One solution is to amend the transparency to . For example, where running picom arguments as a command:
$ picom <any other arguments> -i 0.2
Otherwise, where using a configuration file:
inactive-dim = 0.2;
Alternatively, you may try to exclude slock by its window id, or by excluding all windows with no name.
Exclude all windows with no name from picom using the following options:
$ picom <other arguments> --focus-exclude "! name~=''"
Find your slock's window id by running the command:
$ xwininfo & slock
Quickly click anywhere on the screen (before slock exits), then type your password to unlock. You should see the window id in the output:
xwininfo: Window id: 0x1800001 (has no name)
Take the window id and exclude it from picom with:
$ picom <any other arguments> --focus-exclude 'id = 0x1800001'
Otherwise, where using a configuration file:
focus-exclude = "id = 0x1800001";
Flicker
Applies to fully maximized windows (in sessions without any panels) with the default picom.conf caused and resolved by the following option:
unredir-if-possible = false;
Fullscreen tearing
If you observe screen tearing of video playback only in fullscreen, see #Flicker.
Lag when using xft fonts
If you experience heavy lag when using Xft fonts in applications such as xterm or urxvt try:
--xrender-sync --xrender-sync-fence
or the xrender backend.
Screen artifacts/screenshot issues when using AMD's Catalyst driver
Try running picom with:
--backend xrender
or add
backend = "xrender";
to your picom.conf file.
Tabbed windows (shadows and transparency)
When windows with transparency are tabbed, the underlying tabbed windows are still visible because of transparency. Each tabbed window also draws its own shadow resulting in multiple shadows.
Removing the multiple shadows issue can be done by adding the following to the already existing shadow-exclude list:
"_NET_WM_STATE@:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'"
Not drawing underlying tabbed windows can be enabled by adding the following to your picom.conf:
opacity-rule = [ "95:class_g = 'URxvt' && !_NET_WM_STATE@:32a", "0:_NET_WM_STATE@[0]:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'", "0:_NET_WM_STATE@[1]:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'", "0:_NET_WM_STATE@[2]:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'", "0:_NET_WM_STATE@[3]:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'", "0:_NET_WM_STATE@[4]:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'" ];
Note that URxvt is the Xorg class name of your terminal. Change this if you use a different terminal. You can query a window's class by running the command and clicking the window.
Unable to change the background color with xsetroot
Currently, picom is incompatible with 's option, a workaround is to use to set the background color:
$ hsetroot -solid '#000000'
Screentearing with NVIDIA's proprietary drivers
Try this setting in picom.conf:
vsync = true;
Lag with NVIDIA proprietary drivers and FullCompositionPipeline
See #Screen artifacts/screenshot issues when using AMD's Catalyst driver.
Another option to reduce lag with the glx backend is to disable "allow flipping" in nvidia settings (OpenGL section). This can also be done from the command line:
$ nvidia-settings -a 'AllowFlipping=0'
To load settings after reboot (see Autostarting) run
$ nvidia-settings --load-config-only
Xorg leaking GPU memory with NVIDIA proprietary drivers
See #Screen artifacts/screenshot issues when using AMD's Catalyst driver.
Slock after suspend
When using a systemd service to trigger slock on a suspend or hibernate action, one may find the screen unlocked for a few seconds after resume. To prevent, disable window fading:
$ picom --no-fading-openclose
Testing with old compton
Many issues are regressions from the old compton, which picom is a fork of. As a last resort you can try compton-old-gitAUR and see if it helps.
Screen sharing
A shadowed overlay on screen sharing and shadows of Zoom Meetings pop-up windows might be avoided by adding the following to shadow-exclude.
shadow-exclude = [ "name = 'cpt_frame_xcb_window'", "class_g ?= 'zoom'", ];
Blurred screen sharing is disabled by adding Zoom Meetings to with
blur-background-exclude = [ "class_g ?= 'zoom'", ];
For Microsoft Teams, the red border around the shared content is implemented with a mostly transparent window. Having blur enabled makes it impossible to work with and should be disabled as follows:
shadow-exclude = [ "name = 'rect-overlay'", ]; blur-background-exclude = [ "name = 'rect-overlay'", ];
Disable window fade in and fade out effect when switching between workspaces
Adding flag can disable the fade in and fade out effect when switching to a new workspace.