velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

Sector11 · 2015-02-28 17:28:15

Some people have expressed a keen interest of continuing with the default velvet-noise wallpaper but they have problems with seeing the default conky with it.

Left: conkyrc_vnd - tweaked - VelvetNoiseDark

draw_shades yes
default_shade_color 2F4F4F # DarkSlateGray
default_color 000000 # Black

Right: conkyrc_vnl - tweaked - VelvetNoiseLight

draw_shades yes
default_shade_color 000000
default_color C0C0C0 # Silver

Middle: conkyrc_cb - default "layout" - but still tweaked

draw_shades yes
default_shade_color 000000
default_color C0C0C0 # Silver

Since this is about "velvet-noise" the idea was to get a nice combination that works on the dark and light areas so "conkyrc_vnl" and "conkyrc_cb" are the same

I have bifocals and computer glasses, I need a larger font or make the Liberation Sans:size=9 bold to see it. Persoanlly I prefer the "monofur" font, a mono font with style and has "most" characters, but that's my choice.

Now not everyone will be using the velvet noise wallpaper so here's a mix to see what it looks like on other walls.:
F-35 Flight Deck «--» SR-71 - I had to do it. «--» BunsenLabs - Text/Flame «--» damo's light blue swirl
Minion Wars «--» Coffee Lovecups «--» Calvin & Hobbs «--» A Geyser «--» Linux Crystal
omns' Linux Keyboard with coffee

On some super busy walls a conky can be hard to see. There are three ways to add "shadows" behind the conky that I know of:

images - semi-transparent - I have 10x10 images at 10%, 20% --> 90% (after that may was well use non transparent)
ARGB settings - for real transparency - a composite manager is required**
LUA scripts. -draw-bg.lua - needs special settings and works great but for a default conky?***

** Is compton going to be the default in Bunsen? If so I have the setting to turn off shadows in conky:

## Remove Shadow from CONKY WINDOW ##
## compliments mrpeachy and falldown
# use wininfo to determine window name -OR- in the conky:
#		own_window_class conky_logo
# Then just simply use:
#		shadow-exclude = "n:e:window-name";
# Use brackets and comma for more then one window
#		shadow-exclude = "n:e:Conky";
#		shadow-exclude = ["n:e:conky_logo","n:e:conkyw","n:e:S11","n:e:test"];
############## try this #################
shadow-exclude = "i:e:Conky";

Even though "conky" is the default all my conkys are:

own_window_class Conky

*** The "draw-bg.lua" has some really nice advantages - rounded corners, different colours, use multiple instances for special affects, but for a default conky? If you want to see samples - look down - white background for conkyrc_vnd at 30% with 15 for rounded corners

As an idea, a "busy" wallpaper with and without using "bk_30.png" (30% black) background image
«--»

My conkys on the bottom are using ARGB settings for true transparency and the shadow effect.

Comments, suggestions are welcome, these still need to be added to the "blc" zenity script.

johnraff · 2015-02-28 23:25:58

Following this with interest.

Sector11 · 2015-03-01 01:05:51

I was hoping for feed back. After all we have conky threads ... but this is for a "default" ... I have a setup at GitHub - already out dated with the images. But have had no feed back to date. Everyone else is busy building BunsenLabs.

Did you see them? Here's three of them with the script running "yad" for the conkys and "zenity" for the tint2 - in case there were options for picking tint2 layouts as well.

If people like the "colours" with the "silver & black" or "black and silver" I can redo those as well. They are also using the "monofur" (or read here) font I like. Personal choice, I've come to appreciate "mono" fonts in conky for spacing reasons. And with my eyes, I need something larger than a lot of people.

I will however build any "default" BunsenLabs conky the way people want it/them with whatever font they want for default.
If people really want the "default" #! conky that's cool too.

Can't do anything like this for a default conky because there are some very "machine" specific elements in there as well as the bash script for that little "current weather" at the top - city specific.

My default: ~/.conkyrc --> better flame coming soon!

damo · 2015-03-01 01:23:14

@S11

Sorry for lack of feedback - I've been busy, and leaving the conky stuff for the conky afficionados

FWIW I think a basic plain conky a la waldorf works fine as a default, with the colours lightened to suit dark backgrounds.
We should probably stick with a default font though? (I've been working with Open Sans so far)

I like this combo though:

johnraff · 2015-03-01 02:25:04

Yes, likewise. (Trying to wrap my rusty old brain round the byzantine intricacies of debian packaging atm )

I don't consider myself qualified to say much beyond "I don't know anything about graphics design but I know what I like" type stuff. fwiw I've got so used to the standard #! conky that it does have a certain comfort-zone appeal. In your first post I liked the right-hand conky in the left-hand image of the two at the top the best. The middle one looks nice, but is harder to read.

The conky colours/shades are going to have to be adjusted to match the final choice of default wallpaper I'd say. Many users will just leave it like that. Maybe alternative conkyrc files could be included somewhere in ~/ to match the other provided wallpapers? Even a little script to switch conkyrc's when a different wallpaper is chosen??

tknomanzr · 2015-03-01 02:35:16

Agreed. Perhaps we could showcase one of Sector11's killer conkies as well. I am supposing I could learn a lot just looking at the source

Sector11 · 2015-03-01 02:44:11

@ damo and johnraff - Yup, I understand that you guys are busy doing what your doing ... it's been an impossible task keeping up with everything going on these days. - damo you picked the one I like best as well.

@ tknomanzr - Thanks for the compliment, my conkys are all over the place, and those Bunsen Lab conkys (not totally official yet) are available at the BunsenLabs GitHub.

The default font in the CB conky is Liberation Sans size 9 I'll have to check out Open Sans.
And one NEEDS a mono font for the calendar alignment:

${alignc}Test Conky

monofur bold 12
${alignc}${time %X}
${goto 35}${color0}SU MO ${color5}${time %b %Y}${color0} FR SA
${goto 35}${color1}${execpi 7200 LAR=`date +%-d`; ncal -bh | sed '2d' | sed -e '1d' -e 's/\<'$LAR'\>/${color5}&${color1}/' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\n${goto 35}/g'}${color}
${font Liberation Sans:bold:size=10}Liberation San bold 10
${alignc}${time %X}
${goto 35}${color0}SU MO ${color5}${time %b %Y}${color0} FR SA
${goto 35}${color1}${execpi 7200 LAR=`date +%-d`; ncal -bh | sed '2d' | sed -e '1d' -e 's/\<'$LAR'\>/${color5}&${color1}/' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\n${goto 35}/g'}${color}
${font Anonymous Pro:size=10}Anonymous Pro 10
${alignc}${time %X}
${goto 35}${color0}SU MO ${color5}${time %b %Y}${color0} FR SA
${goto 35}${color1}${execpi 7200 LAR=`date +%-d`; ncal -bh | sed '2d' | sed -e '1d' -e 's/\<'$LAR'\>/${color5}&${color1}/' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\n${goto 35}/g'}${color}
${font Open Sans:bold:size=9}Open Sans bold 9
${alignc}${time %X}
${goto 35}${color0}SU MO ${color5}${time %b %Y}${color0} FR SA
${goto 35}${color1}${execpi 7200 LAR=`date +%-d`; ncal -bh | sed '2d' | sed -e '1d' -e 's/\<'$LAR'\>/${color5}&${color1}/' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\n${goto 35}/g'}${color}
${font FreeMono:bold:size=10}FreeMono bold 10
${alignc}${time %X}
${goto 35}${color0}SU MO ${color5}${time %b %Y}${color0} FR SA
${goto 35}${color1}${execpi 7200 LAR=`date +%-d`; ncal -bh | sed '2d' | sed -e '1d' -e 's/\<'$LAR'\>/${color5}&${color1}/' | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\n${goto 35}/g'}${color}
${font}

tknomanzr · 2015-03-01 03:08:05

OK. Cool. I will check them out soon, I promise. Be looking for some info up in development on Live Build probably tomorrow a.m. I finally got all of the pieces together into a build. It still needs more testing to make sure the install works and all but I do have a build working that themes the boot screen, gtk themes and icon themes work now. In short, I have a Live Iso working that is nearly a clone of my debian netinstall. Once I test some more and post the walkthrough, hopefully it will become apparent how we can begin to merge it into BunsenLabs.

Sector11 · 2015-03-01 03:31:18

johnraff wrote:

1 . Maybe alternative conkyrc files could be included somewhere in ~/ to match the other provided wallpapers?
2. Even a little script to switch conkyrc's when a different wallpaper is chosen??

Yea I understand the "comfort zone". The one you like:

xftfont Liberation Sans:size=11

draw_shades yes
default_shade_color 000000

default_color C0C0C0 # Silver

Give that a try on your "default" CB conky and see if it looks similar.

1. That's what the "zenity" script is all about ... now as a default .. it will come with s few select conkys. After that it's up to the user to edit it if they want adding, deleting or replacing conkys.

Example: you are running conky #1 on the list but want to run conky #3 Open the zenity script, click on 1 and 3 and [OK]
Because #1 is running - it will be killed, and because #3 is not running, it will be started. That easy!

2. Way beyond my capabilities but a good script writer might be able to do ir.

smacz · 2015-03-01 10:28:23

Talking strictly on the color here, wouldn't the colors of the theme for the default B^L be pertinent to the color of the conky setup? Seeing as backgrounds such as "velvet noise" are, in essence, gradients of grayscale, one of any number of colors should work out fine. Matching the color to the chosen default theme would be not only easier, but deterministic.

And +1 for the Calvin and Hobbes wallpaper. I didn't even know that was floating around.

Last edited by smacz (2015-03-01 10:28:59)

Sector11 · 2015-03-01 11:30:20

@smacz

The problem is with the default conky that came with #! where velvet noise came from as well, the default settings made it difficult to see on that particular wallpaper. I set out to make it more visible and as visible as possible on all wallpapers. As johnraff said about the conky, "it does have a certain comfort-zone appeal." because he's used it for so long.

And since I'm a conky nut I jump at the chance to bend/fold and mutilate it whenever I get the chance.

The original conky on velvet noise, do you see it between the dots? In the corner it's better but still hard for my old eyes.

In post #60, I tweaked the layout a little and change the "config" a bit to be more visible on other wallpapers. I was just showing the results on "different" wallpapers - not mine.

EDIT:
Forgot to touch on this:

wouldn't the colors of the theme for the default B^L be pertinent to the color of the conky setup?

That's what this is all about.

Sector11 · 2015-03-01 17:47:56

damo wrote:

@S11
We should probably stick with a default font though? (I've been working with Open Sans so far)

Yes, that's true and created some work for me because it makes sense.

Sector11 was heard screaming at the Devs:
OK folks install these 16 fonts to cover the default conky!

... doesn't cut it. So "Liberation Sans" size 11 so johnraff and I can see them and Liberation Mono where spacing is critical - bold.

And the velvet noise results are in ... running 3 conkys (the 1 liner: hard coded line shown for spacing):

opening "blc" via OpenBox and clicking on those for lines seen above causes:

OK, that's 5 conkys ... 2 more than I wanted, but at least people have options now and the old CB conky lives - kinda. O:)
"= = = =" does nothing - spacer
time and date commands are locked in to your "locale" setting.

Thoughts?

johnraff · 2015-03-02 03:03:38

OK to be honest I think I prefer the more compact appearance of the traditional style. ie the first screenshot.
That doesn't mean I'm wanting a clone of the #! conky though...
The calendar is a nice idea.

Sector11 · 2015-03-02 03:49:46

^ When you think about it, they are only "examples" anyway. Most conky enthusiasts build their own to include things unique to their machines anyway. The idea here is to come up with a few portions that at least look good with nothing but commands that will work on all machine (running BunsenLabs or #!)

johnraff · 2015-03-02 05:42:06

Yes, let's keep all the keyboard shortcuts the same.

Sector11 · 2015-03-02 09:35:56

?? Those are the keyboard shortcuts from the default conky.

smacz · 2015-03-02 10:21:47

I waste more time on conky now than I did putting off doing homework in high school.

Early in development cycle scrot proof:

It hasn't gotten that much simpler from there

The default color for conky in the github repos ATM is #656667 (line 35), which on "velvet-noise" is inconceivably dark. Even for #!. Also, I have no clue where that value came from.

The deb-8 theme that is currently the default in the github repos includes, in the openbox-3 themerc and the gtk-2.0 gtkrc, has a value of #d4d4d4 for the backgrounds that is nice and readable on velvet noise.

johnraff wrote:

The conky colours/shades are going to have to be adjusted to match the final choice of default wallpaper I'd say.

I would extend that statement to include one other factor. If the conky colors/shades are to be constrained to within certain limits based on the wallpaper, might they also be reflective of the overall theme itself and use one of the hex color values that is specified in the overarching theme already?

EDIT: +1 for the calendar addition

Last edited by smacz (2015-03-02 10:23:02)

Sector11 · 2015-03-02 11:33:37

I have to work on getting the "new conkys" up at GitHib later today. I have a full plate this day.

nore · 2015-03-02 11:45:03

If default wallpaper and OB/GTK themes are going to be all or nearly grayscale, how about matching conky colors with a terminal colourscheme? Thin characters against gray wall are not going to sting your eye in low saturation colour.

Sector11 · 2015-03-02 12:48:59

smacz wrote:

The default color for conky in the github repos ATM is #656667 (line 35), which on "velvet-noise" is inconceivably dark. Even for #!. Also, I have no clue where that value came from.

That colour comes from the #! default conky found in /etc/skel/.conkyrc or in ~/.conkyrc of fresh #! Waldorf installs.

The reason this thread was started was to get something that worked with "velvet-noise.jpg" that is one of the default #! Waldorf wallpapers and continue working on a larger variety of wallpapers without having to edit the conky..

The latest renditions use:

xftfont Liberation Sans:size=11
draw_shades yes
default_shade_color 000000
default_color C0C0C0 # Silver

which is close to the d4d4d4 you mention - that came from a colour list I have here: colours_web_safe_2.txt

 Gray colors
DCDCDC #220 220 220 Gainsboro
D3D3D3 #211 211 211 LightGrey
C0C0C0 #192 192 192 Silver
A9A9A9 #169 169 169 DarkGray
808080 #128 128 128 Gray
696969 #105 105 105 DimGray
778899 #119 136 153 LightSlateGray
708090 #112 128 144 SlateGray
2F4F4F # 47  79  79 DarkSlateGray
000000 #  0   0   0 Black

smacz wrote:

If the conky colors/shades are to be constrained to within certain limits based on the wallpaper, might they also be reflective of the overall theme itself and use one of the hex color values that is specified in the overarching theme already?
EDIT: +1 for the calendar addition

Some like the calendar, some don't. Since the "SU MO --- FR SA" are hard coded it's not really "locale" friendly.

Conky is just too configurable and people that like conky usually make their own. Originally this idea was to be three conkys left/right and a one liner. The talk about the "original" #! conky. OK, so those were tweaked and added - 5 - more than enough.

Now if the powers to be deem this is too much and just include the original #! conky, I have no problem with that either. I enjoyed making them.

damo · 2015-03-02 12:55:30

Sector11 wrote:

smacz wrote:
The default color for conky in the github repos ATM is #656667 (line 35), which on "velvet-noise" is inconceivably dark. Even for #!. Also, I have no clue where that value came from.
That colour comes from the #! default conky found in /etc/skel/.conkyrc or in ~/.conkyrc of fresh #! Waldorf installs.
The reason this thread was started was to get something that worked with "velvet-noise.jpg" that is one of the default #! Waldorf wallpapers and continue working on a larger variety of wallpapers without having to edit the conky..
....

I've started a thread about colours Default colours and overall look

Sector11 · 2015-03-02 15:54:38

Well, I'll wait for the 'artists' to figure out what colours they want for the default - then apply them to the conkys here.

johnraff · 2015-03-02 23:36:46

Sector11 wrote:

The idea here is to come up with a few portions that at least look good with nothing but commands that will work on all machine (running BunsenLabs or #!)

That's where the misunderstanding about keyboard shortcuts came from. I thought that's what you meant by "commands".

Sector11 · 2015-03-03 01:53:53

^ Oh no those are shortcuts - commands are ${time %X} things for conky.

smacz · 2015-03-04 08:12:25

@Sector11

Can you please post (or link if already posted) your default .conkyrc? I am especially interested in the Net Stats up/dn graphs. I'm sure it's trivial to you, but it's so elegant (especially with the multiple colors) that I wanted to sneak a peek at the source, and was disappointed when it didn't show up on your github repo

Also, did you hard-code the bunsen flame button in there? (...and did you make it do anything if you clicked on it???)

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#1 2015-02-28 17:28:15

velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#2 2015-02-28 23:25:58

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#3 2015-03-01 01:05:51

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#4 2015-03-01 01:23:14

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#5 2015-03-01 02:25:04

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#6 2015-03-01 02:35:16

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#7 2015-03-01 02:44:11

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#8 2015-03-01 03:08:05

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#9 2015-03-01 03:31:18

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#10 2015-03-01 10:28:23

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#11 2015-03-01 11:30:20

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#12 2015-03-01 17:47:56

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#13 2015-03-02 03:03:38

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#14 2015-03-02 03:49:46

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#15 2015-03-02 05:42:06

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#16 2015-03-02 09:35:56

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#17 2015-03-02 10:21:47

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#18 2015-03-02 11:33:37

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#19 2015-03-02 11:45:03

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#20 2015-03-02 12:48:59

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#21 2015-03-02 12:55:30

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#22 2015-03-02 15:54:38

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#23 2015-03-02 23:36:46

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#24 2015-03-03 01:53:53

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

#25 2015-03-04 08:12:25

Re: velvet-noise wallpaper and conky

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