Skip to content
Tsumiki

Theming Tips

A few tips to get the most out of Making Themes and Matugen.

Keep Contrast High

Section titled “Keep Contrast High”

Text must stay readable on every surface: bar, popups, notifications, quick settings. Use the text* and background* groups together and verify with a contrast check.

Test Common Surfaces

Section titled “Test Common Surfaces”

At minimum, check these after editing a theme:

  • Main bar
  • Quick settings popup
  • Notification toast
  • Launcher and dock

Use Semantic Accents

Section titled “Use Semantic Accents”

Reserve strong accent* colors for important states (errors, success, active workspace). Avoid using neon accents for static text.

Matugen Workflow

Section titled “Matugen Workflow”
  1. Set matugen.enabled = true in config.toml.
  2. Point wallpaper at your image.
  3. Restart Tsumiki to generate the palette.
  4. Recompile styles if colors look stale: ./init.sh -recompile.

Learn from Existing Themes

Section titled “Learn from Existing Themes”

Browse styles/themes/ for references such as nord.scss, dracula.scss, and gruvbox.scss. Copy a nearby theme and adjust gradually.