🎨 Rice System: Theme Management

The rice system provides a comprehensive theme management solution that allows you to switch between different desktop aesthetics with a single command.

[!TIP] "Rice" is a term from the Linux customization community meaning to customize and theme your desktop environment. Each rice is a complete visual theme that transforms your entire desktop experience.

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📋 Overview

The rice system manages:

• Complete desktop themes with coordinated colors and wallpapers
• Polybar configurations specific to each theme
• Application theming via pywal color generation
• Window manager integration (i3, Openbox, XFCE4)
• Automatic wallpaper and color coordination

Current Available Rices

Your dotfiles include these beautiful rice themes:

• flowers: Vibrant floral-inspired nature theme
• gruvbox-anime: Retro warm colors with anime aesthetics
• gruvbox-light: Light variant of classic gruvbox theme
• gruvbox-minimalistic: Clean and simplified gruvbox aesthetic
• gruvbox-mix: Mixed gruvbox palette with varied earth tones
• gruvbox-painting: Artistic gruvbox with painterly aesthetics
• gruvbox-pixelart: 8-bit inspired gruvbox with pixel art styling
• gruvbox-videogame-3d-art: Modern gaming gruvbox with 3D art elements
• landscape-dark: Dark nature-inspired earth tones
• landscape-light: Light variant with natural colors
• machines: Cyberpunk industrial technology theme
• red-blue: High contrast red and blue color scheme
• space: Cosmic theme with deep blues and starry aesthetics

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🎨 Smart Colors Integration

Automatic Color Optimization

When you switch rice themes, the system now automatically applies smart color optimization:

# Theme switching process:
# 1. Apply rice theme → 2. Generate pywal colors → 3. Apply smart colors → 4. Update applications
dots rofi-rice-selector

What Gets Optimized

🧠 Intelligent Color Selection:

• Error colors: Always red-ish and high contrast
• Success colors: Always green-ish and visible
• Warning colors: Always orange/yellow-ish
• Info colors: Always blue-ish and readable
• Accent colors: Always purple/highlight colors

🔄 Automatic Application Updates:

• EWW widgets: Enhanced colors.scss with semantic variables
• Polybar modules: Smart environment variables
• i3 window manager: Generated colors-smart.conf
• GTK applications: Automatic theme coordination with brightness detection
• Scripts: Weather, player, and other polybar scripts

Smart Colors vs Pywal

Feature	Pywal Only	Smart Colors
Color extraction	✅ From wallpaper	✅ From wallpaper
Semantic meaning	❌ Random assignment	✅ Intelligent mapping
Readability	⚠️ Sometimes poor	✅ Always optimized
Theme adaptation	⚠️ Basic	✅ Advanced
Fallback system	❌ None	✅ Robust

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🎨 GTK Theme Integration

Automatic GTK Theme Management

When you switch rice themes, the system now automatically applies GTK theme coordination:

# Complete theme switching process:
# 1. Apply rice theme → 2. Generate pywal colors → 3. Apply GTK theme → 4. Apply smart colors → 5. Update all applications
dots rofi-rice-selector

What Gets Coordinated

🎯 Intelligent GTK Selection:

• Theme brightness: Automatically detects wallpaper brightness for optimal light/dark theme selection
• Rice preferences: Each rice can specify preferred GTK themes or use auto-detection
• Icon coordination: Icon themes automatically coordinate with the overall aesthetic
• Application consistency: All GTK applications instantly adopt the new theme

🔄 Automatic GTK Updates:

• GTK2/GTK3: Both GTK versions updated simultaneously
• gsettings: GNOME settings updated for running applications
• XFCE integration: Automatic XFCE4 theme coordination when running
• Live updates: Running applications reload themes without restart

Rice GTK Configuration

Each rice can specify GTK preferences in its config.sh:

# Explicit theme specification
GTK_THEME="Orchis-Dark-Compact"    # Specific theme name
ICON_THEME="Numix-Circle"          # Icon theme
PREFER_DARK_THEME="true"           # Dark preference

# Auto-detection (recommended)
GTK_THEME="auto"                   # Auto-detect based on wallpaper
PREFER_DARK_THEME="auto"           # Auto-detect light/dark preference

Manual GTK Management

# List available GTK themes
dots gtk-theme list

# Show current theme
dots gtk-theme current

# Apply specific theme
dots gtk-theme apply Orchis-Light-Compact

# Auto-detect optimal theme
dots gtk-theme auto

# Apply GTK theme for specific rice
dots gtk-theme rice space

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🔄 Rice Switching

Quick Switch with Rofi

The fastest way to change themes is using the visual rice selector:

# Launch rice selector with visual previews
dots rofi-rice-selector

# Or use the keyboard shortcut (typically configured in WM)
# Default: Super + R

Rice Selector Interface

The rofi rice selector provides:

• Visual previews of each rice theme
• Current theme highlighting
• Background image selection for chosen rice
• Instant preview of color schemes
• Easy keyboard navigation

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🏗️ Rice Architecture

Directory Structure

Each rice is organized in a modular structure:

~/.local/share/dots/rices/
├── flowers/
│   ├── config.sh              # Polybar configuration
│   ├── apply.sh               # Theme application script
│   ├── backgrounds/           # Wallpaper collection
│   │   ├── flowers-magic-1.jpg
│   │   ├── flowers-magic-2.jpg
│   │   └── flowers-wizard.jpg
│   └── preview.png           # Rice preview image
├── gruvbox-anime/
│   ├── config.sh
│   ├── apply.sh
│   ├── backgrounds/
│   └── preview.png
└── [other rices...]

Rice Configuration (config.sh)

Each rice defines its Polybar configuration:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Polybar bars to use for this rice
POLYBARS=("polybar-top" "polybar-bottom")

# Detect window manager and adjust bars accordingly
WM=$(wmctrl -m | grep -oE 'Name: .*' | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
if [ "${WM}" = "i3" ]; then
  POLYBARS=("i3-polybar-top" "i3-polybar-bottom")
fi

Apply Script (apply.sh)

Handles the complete theme application:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Set wallpaper and generate colors
wpg -s "$SELECTED_BACKGROUND_IMAGE"

# Apply colors to applications
dots-wal-reload

# Restart polybar with rice-specific configuration
~/.config/polybar/launch.sh

# Additional rice-specific customizations
# (compositor settings, custom scripts, etc.)

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🎨 Color System Integration

Pywal Integration

The rice system integrates with pywal/wpg for automatic color generation:

1. Wallpaper Selection: Choose from rice-specific backgrounds
2. Color Extraction: Pywal generates color scheme from wallpaper
3. Application Theming: Colors propagate to all applications
4. Cache Management: Colors cached for fast theme switching

Color Flow

Wallpaper → Pywal → Color Cache → Applications
    ↓                               ↑
Rice System ← Manual Colors ← Override Files

Supported Applications

Colors automatically theme:

• Polybar: Status bar modules and backgrounds
• Rofi: Application launcher and menus
• Terminal: Kitty, Alacritty color schemes
• i3: Window manager color scheme
• EWW: Dashboard and powermenu widgets
• Dunst: Notification styling
• Zsh: Terminal prompt colors

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🎯 Rice Management

Creating New Rices

1. Create rice directory:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/dots/rices/my-theme
   cd ~/.local/share/dots/rices/my-theme
   

2. Add configuration:

   # Create config.sh
   cat > config.sh << 'EOF'
   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   POLYBARS=("polybar-top" "polybar-bottom")
   WM=$(wmctrl -m | grep -oE 'Name: .*' | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
   if [ "${WM}" = "i3" ]; then
     POLYBARS=("i3-polybar-top" "i3-polybar-bottom")
   fi
   EOF
   

3. Create apply script:

   # Create apply.sh
   cat > apply.sh << 'EOF'
   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   wpg -s "$SELECTED_BACKGROUND_IMAGE"
   dots-wal-reload
   ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh
   EOF
   
   chmod +x apply.sh
   

4. Add wallpapers:

   mkdir backgrounds
   # Copy your wallpaper images to backgrounds/
   

5. Generate preview:

   # Take screenshot after applying rice
   scrot -z preview.png
   

Rice Backup and Restore

# Backup current rice configuration
dots rice backup my-rice-backup

# Restore rice from backup
dots rice restore my-rice-backup

# Export rice for sharing
dots rice export my-theme rice-export.tar.gz

# Import shared rice
dots rice import rice-export.tar.gz

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🔧 Advanced Configuration

Custom Polybar Layouts

Create rice-specific polybar configurations:

# Create rice-specific polybar config
mkdir -p ~/.config/polybar/rices/my-theme/bars

Then reference in config.sh:

POLYBARS=("my-theme-custom-bar")

Multiple Background Support

Add multiple wallpapers for variety:

backgrounds/
├── morning-theme.jpg     # Different moods/times
├── evening-theme.jpg
├── minimal-variant.jpg   # Different styles
└── detailed-variant.jpg

Window Manager Specific Settings

# In apply.sh - conditional customization
if [ "${WM}" = "i3" ]; then
    # i3-specific theming
    i3-msg reload
elif [ "${WM}" = "openbox" ]; then
    # Openbox-specific theming
    openbox --reconfigure
fi

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🚨 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Rice not switching:

# Check current rice
dots rice current

# Manually apply rice
dots rice apply

# Check rice directory permissions
ls -la ~/.local/share/dots/rices/

Colors not updating:

# Force color regeneration
wpg -s /path/to/wallpaper

# Reload all applications
dots-wal-reload

# Restart desktop environment

Missing rice files:

# Verify rice structure
tree ~/.local/share/dots/rices/rice-name/

# Check for required files
ls ~/.local/share/dots/rices/rice-name/{config.sh,apply.sh}

Performance Optimization

Faster rice switching:

# Preload color caches
for rice in ~/.local/share/dots/rices/*/; do
    echo "Preloading $(basename "$rice")..."
    dots rice set "$(basename "$rice")"
done

Reduce startup time:

• Use lightweight wallpapers (< 2MB)
• Cache generated colors
• Optimize apply scripts

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✨ Rice Gallery

Popular Combinations

Minimal Productivity (gruvbox):

• Warm, easy-on-eyes colors
• Clean polybar with essential modules
• Perfect for long coding sessions

Vibrant Creative (flowers):

• Bright, inspiring colors
• Rich visual elements
• Great for design work

Dark Focus (space):

• Deep blues and cosmic themes
• Minimal distractions
• Ideal for night sessions

High Contrast (red-blue):

• Bold, attention-grabbing colors
• Perfect for presentations
• High visibility interface

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✅ Integration

Works With

• ✅ All window managers (i3, Openbox, XFCE4)
• ✅ GTK applications with automatic theme coordination
• ✅ Multiple monitors with per-monitor wallpapers
• ✅ Different screen resolutions
• ✅ Various image formats (JPG, PNG, WebP)

Pairs Well With

• Polybar configurations for status bar theming
• EWW widgets for dashboard coordination
• Rofi launchers for unified visual experience
• GTK applications for complete theme consistency
• Terminal themes for complete coordination

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Transform your desktop with beautiful, coordinated themes! 🌈

[!TIP] Start with existing rices to understand the system, then create your own custom themes. The visual rice selector makes switching effortless, so experiment with different aesthetics for different moods and tasks.