Lazy Ubuntu

Visibility is really a nifty little utility for Linux desktop users. It’s very lightweight and easy configuration. The following is brief introduction of Visibility:

Visibility is a pager-like thing for your desktop, showing the icons of open windows.

Visibility screenshot

Click to enlarge

Installing Visibility

On Ubuntu 8.04 hardy, after downloading .deb package, you can run this command:

sudo dpkg -i visibility20070502-1i386.deb

Configuring Visibility

First, run the following commands: mkdir ~/.config/visibility/ vim ~/.config/visibility/config

Then, you need to add the following contents:

# a sample config file for visibility. # this file goes in ~/.config/visibility/config # it can be used to set a theme and override specific options. # uncomment this option to use the theme ‘magicaltheme’ # themes are stored in ~/.themes/theme_name/visibility/theme # theme syntax is identical to the syntax of this config file. # (yes, a theme could ‘inherit’ from another theme by specifying a theme!) #theme magicaltheme orientation top_left # set this to the corner of the desktop that you # would like visibility to be placed. valid options: # top_left, top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right gap_x 0 # the amount of space to leave between the pager and # the side of the desktop. gap_y 0 # the amount of space to leave between the pager and # the top or bottom of the desktop. image_size 16 # the pixel size of an icon; icons are square. spacing 3 # the amount of space to leave between icons as well # as between the edge of the window and the icons. border_width 0 # the width of the border around the window. can be # set to 0 if your window manager (like openbox!) # can provide its own borders for borderless # windows. desktop_separation 3 # the amount of space to leave between desktops. show_desktop_names true # whether or not to show desktop names. these names # are specified by your window manager. valid # options are ‘true’ and ‘false’. single_desktop_mode false # whether or not to show only windows from the # current desktop. bg_colour d2d2d2 # the background colour Defaulet:292929 border_colour 7e7e7e # the border colour active_text_colour ffffff # the colour of the name of the active desktop. inactive_text_colour 888888 # the colour of the name an inactive desktop. font snap-8 # the name of the font to use. this is an xft name, # so one could use ‘verdana:pixelsize=10′ or # ‘verdana-10′. inactive_bg_colour d2d2d2 # the background colour of inactive desktops. Defaulet: 4c4c4c active_bg_colour d2d2d2 # the background colour of active desktops. # if you hate this setting, set it to the same as # bg_colour and inactive_bg_colour, and you will # probably be a happy camper. set_partial_strut false # whether or not to reserve space on the desktop # edge. this is useful if you do not want windows # to maximize over visibility. set_window_type true # if true, visibility sets itself to be of ‘dock’ # type, which is meant for panels. this is useful if # you want it to be ‘always on top’, and other # panel-like things. tooltip_padding 3 # the amount of padding to have inside tooltips. tooltip_time 0.5 # the number of seconds before a tooltip shows up. tooltip_bg_colour 000000 # the tooltip background colour. tooltip_border_colour 00ff00 # the tooltip border colour. tooltip_text_colour ffffff # the colour of text in tooltips tooltip_font snap # the font to use in tooltips text_spacing 3 # the amount of spacing to leave between the # desktop name and first icon. active_tint 000000 # the colour to tint the active window with active_tint_amount 0 # the amount to tint the active window (0..1) inactive_tint ffffff # the colour to tint inactive windows with inactive_tint_amount 0.3 # the amount to tint active windows (0..1) iconified_tint 0 # the colour to tint iconified (and ‘hidden’) # windows with iconified_tint_amount 0.55 # the amount to tint iconified windows (0..1)