Themes

A theme sets the colours of the launcher. It also sets the corner radius of fields and dialogs, and the interface fonts. The launcher uses one theme for light appearance and one theme for dark appearance.

Select a theme

1. Open Settings › Appearance.
2. In the Light theme row, click Edit.
3. In the dialog, select a theme.
4. In the Dark theme row, click Edit.
5. In the dialog, select a theme.

The launcher applies and saves your selection immediately. When Light or dark is System, the launcher changes between the two themes with the system. To use the built-in theme again, click Restore defaults in the dialog.

The launcher includes these themes:

Theme	Appearance	Source
Aluminium	Light	Launcher default
Night	Dark	Launcher default
Glass	Light	Launcher, translucent: Aluminium over the blurred desktop. Clearest over a light desktop
Tinted Glass	Dark	Launcher, translucent: Night over the blurred desktop. Clearest over a dark desktop
Birch	Light	Launcher: a warm cream body
Deepslate	Dark	Launcher: a cool slate body
Catppuccin Latte	Light	Catppuccin, MIT License
Catppuccin Mocha	Dark	Catppuccin, MIT License
Rosé Pine Dawn	Light	Rosé Pine, MIT License
Rosé Pine	Dark	Rosé Pine, MIT License

Add a local theme

1. In Settings › Appearance › Local themes, click the folder button. On macOS, the button is Show in Finder. On Windows, the button is Show in File Explorer. On Linux, the button is Show in file manager.
2. Put your .json theme file in the themes folder.
3. Click Reload.
4. Select the new theme in Light theme or Dark theme.

If the themes folder does not exist, the launcher makes it. The default locations of the folder are:

System	Location
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/LumilioCL/themes
Windows	%APPDATA%\LumilioCL\themes
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/lumilio/themes, or ~/.local/share/lumilio/themes if XDG_DATA_HOME is not set

If you set the LUMILIO_HOME environment variable, the folder is $LUMILIO_HOME/themes. The Local themes row shows the path that the launcher uses.

The launcher reads only the .json files at the top level of the folder. The folder also contains the Home wallpaper picture. Do not delete the wallpaper picture. The launcher shows each file or theme that it cannot use below Local themes, with the reason. An error in one theme does not stop the other themes in the same file.

File format

A theme file is JSON. Its structure follows the theme files of Zed. A file has one themes array, which can contain many themes.

This file defines one light theme. It gives only some colours. The built-in Aluminium theme supplies the other colours.

{
  "themes": [
    {
      "name": "Paper",
      "appearance": "light",
      "source": "My own palette",
      "colors": {
        "page": "#f4f1ea",
        "panel": "#faf8f3",
        "ink": "#1f1d1a",
        "orange": "#2f6fdb",
        "orange_text": "#1f56b3"
      },
      "radius": 6,
      "radius_lg": 10,
      "fonts": { "sans": "Inter" }
    }
  ]
}

For complete examples, read the included rose-pine.json and catppuccin.json files. To make a file without writing JSON, use the theme studio. It shows a preview while you change the theme.

Theme fields

Field	Necessary	Description
name	Yes	The theme name in the theme list
appearance	Yes	"light" or "dark". It sets the list for the theme and the built-in theme that supplies missing colours
source	No	The source and license of the colours. Use it when you adapt colours from a different theme
colors	No	The colours in the table below. The built-in theme of the same appearance supplies missing colours
radius	No	The corner radius of fields, lists, and menus, in pixels. The default is 4. The keys and panels of the launcher keep their own corners
radius_lg	No	The corner radius of dialogs and notifications, in pixels. The default is 6
fonts	No	Font family names: sans for the interface, mono for monospace text, and cjk for Chinese text
window_background	No	The window material behind the page: "opaque" (default), "transparent", or "blurred". You can see it only through colours with opacity. If the system cannot blur (most Linux desktops), a "blurred" theme shows its colours on the built-in page colour, and the window is opaque

Colours

Write each colour as #rrggbb, or as #rrggbbaa for a colour with opacity. The # is optional. Only page, panel and hairline can have opacity. The launcher shows other colours with opacity as opaque, because buttons, displays and tags must stay easy to read. The colour names come from the default colours. For example, orange is the accent colour, but its value can be any colour.

Colour	Use
page	The page background
panel	Panels, list blocks, and fields
hairline	Rules and borders
ink	Text
muted	Captions and secondary values
key_white	White keys: secondary keys and segment keys
key_black	Black keys: the More key and secondary keys on pictures
key_grey	Grey keys: tabs that are not open, disabled keys, and plain tags
on_white	Text on white keys
on_black	Text on black keys
orange	Accent fill: the primary key, the open tab, and lit LEDs
orange_text	Accent colour for text
on_orange	Text on the accent fill
danger	The key that confirms a destructive action
danger_text	Text of destructive menu items and failure messages
led_off	LEDs that are off
ok	The LED that shows success
display	The background of display windows, for example the game cover window
display_ink	Lit segments and bars in a display window
display_dim	Segments that are not lit in a display window
display_label	Labels and units in a display window

Rules and limits

• The corner radius is between 0 and 16 pixels. The launcher uses 16 for a larger value.
• A font that you select in Settings › Appearance has priority over the theme font.
• If a theme font is not installed, the launcher uses its own font.
• The launcher ignores a local theme that has the same name and appearance as a known theme.
• The launcher ignores fields that it does not know.
• If a theme does not give all colours, Settings › Appearance shows the number of missing colours. An incorrect colour name also causes this message.
• "blurred" needs a system that can blur the window. On other systems, the window does not change.
• After you change a theme file, click Reload.
• If you remove the theme that is in use and reload, the launcher uses the built-in theme of the same appearance.