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hyprpaper

Hyprpaper is a blazing fast wallpaper utility for Hyprland with the ability to dynamically change wallpapers through sockets. It will work on all wlroots-based compositors, though.

Features

Installation

Arch Linux: pacman -S hyprpaper

OpenSuse Linux: zypper install hyprpaper

Manual:

Dependencies

The development files of these packages need to be installed on the system for hyprpaper to build correctly. (Development packages are usually suffixed with -dev or -devel in most distros' repos).

To install all of these in Fedora, run this command:

sudo dnf install wayland-devel wayland-protocols-devel hyprlang-devel pango-devel cairo-devel file-devel libglvnd-devel libglvnd-core-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libwebp-devel gcc-c++ hyprutils-devel hyprwayland-scanner

On Arch:

sudo pacman -S ninja gcc wayland-protocols libjpeg-turbo libwebp pango cairo pkgconf cmake libglvnd wayland hyprutils hyprwayland-scanner hyprlang

On OpenSUSE:

sudo zypper install ninja gcc-c++ wayland-protocols-devel Mesa-libGLESv3-devel file-devel hyprutils-devel hyprwayland-scanner

Building

Building is done via CMake:

cmake --no-warn-unused-cli -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr -S . -B ./build
cmake --build ./build --config Release --target hyprpaper -j`nproc 2>/dev/null || getconf _NPROCESSORS_CONF`

Install with:

cmake --install ./build

Usage

Hyprpaper is controlled by the config, like this:

~/.config/hypr/hyprpaper.conf

preload = /path/to/image.png
#if more than one preload is desired then continue to preload other backgrounds
preload = /path/to/next_image.png
# .. more preloads

#set the default wallpaper(s) seen on initial workspace(s) --depending on the number of monitors used
wallpaper = monitor1,/path/to/image.png
#if more than one monitor in use, can load a 2nd image
wallpaper = monitor2,/path/to/next_image.png
# .. more monitors

#enable splash text rendering over the wallpaper
splash = true

#fully disable ipc
# ipc = off

Preload will tell Hyprland to load a particular image (supported formats: png, jpg, jpeg, webp). Wallpaper will apply the wallpaper to the selected output (monitor is the monitor's name, easily can be retrieved with hyprctl monitors. You can leave it empty to set all monitors without an active wallpaper. You can also use desc: followed by the monitor's description without the (PORT) at the end)

You may add contain: or tile: before the file path in wallpaper= to set the mode to either contain or tile, respectively, instead of cover:

wallpaper = monitor,contain:/path/to/image.jpg

A Wallpaper cannot be applied without preloading. The config is not reloaded dynamically.

Important note to the inner workings

Preload does exactly what it says. It loads the entire wallpaper into memory. This can result in around 8 - 20MB of mem usage. It is not recommended to preload every wallpaper you have, as it will be a) taking a couple seconds at the beginning to load and b) take 100s of MBs of disk and RAM usage.

Preload is meant only for situations in which you want a wallpaper to switch INSTANTLY when you issue a wallpaper keyword (e.g. wallpaper per workspace)

In any and all cases when you don't mind waiting 300ms for the wallpaper to change, consider making a script that:

IPC

You can use hyprctl hyprpaper (if on Hyprland) to issue a keyword, for example

Example:

If your wallpapers are stored in ~/Pictures, then make sure you have already preloaded the desired wallpapers in hyprpaper.conf.

~/.config/hypr/hyprpaper.conf

preload = ~/Pictures/myepicpng.png
preload = ~/Pictures/myepicpngToo.png
preload = ~/Pictures/myepicpngAlso.png
#... continue as desired, but be mindful of the impact on memory.

In the actual configuration for Hyprland, hyprland.conf, variables can be set for ease of reading and to be used as shortcuts in the bind command. The following example uses $w shorthand wallpaper variables:

~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf

$w1 = hyprctl hyprpaper wallpaper "DP-1,~/Pictures/myepicpng.png"
$w2 = hyprctl hyprpaper wallpaper "DP-1,~/Pictures/myepicpngToo.png"
$w3 = hyprctl hyprpaper wallpaper "DP-1,~/Pictures/myepicpngAlso.png"
#yes use quotes around desired monitor and wallpaper
#... continued with desired amount

With the variables created we can now "exec" the actions.

Remember in Hyprland we can bind more than one action to a key so in the case where we'd like to change the wallpaper when we switch workspace we have to ensure that the actions are bound to the same key such as...

~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf

bind=SUPER,1,workspace,1  #Superkey + 1 switches to workspace 1
bind=SUPER,1,exec,$w1     #SuperKey + 1 switches to wallpaper $w1 on DP-1 as defined in the variable

bind=SUPER,2,workspace,2  #Superkey + 2 switches to workspace 2
bind=SUPER,2,exec,$w2     #SuperKey + 2 switches to wallpaper $w2 on DP-1 as defined in the variable

bind=SUPER,3,workspace,3  #Superkey + 3 switches to workspace 3
bind=SUPER,3,exec,$w3     #SuperKey + 3 switches to wallpaper $w3 on DP-1 as defined in the variable

#... and so on

Because the default behavior in Hyprland is to also switch the workspace whenever movetoworkspace is used to move a window to another workspace you may want to include the following:

bind=SUPERSHIFT,1,movetoworkspace,1  #Superkey + Shift + 1 moves windows and switches to workspace 1
bind=SUPERSHIFT,1,exec,$w1           #SuperKey + Shift + 1 switches to wallpaper $w1 on DP-1 as defined in the variable

Getting information from hyprpaper

You can also use hyprctl hyprpaper to get information about the state of hyprpaper using the following commands:

listloaded - lists the wallpapers that are currently preloaded (useful for dynamically preloading and unloading)
listactive - prints the active wallpapers hyprpaper is displaying, along with its accociated monitor

Battery life

Since the IPC has to tick every now and then, and poll in the background, battery life might be a tiny bit worse with IPC on. If you want to fully disable it, use

ipc = off

in the config.

Misc

You can set splash = true to enable the splash rendering over the wallpaper.

The value for splash_offset sets, in percentage, the splash rendering offset relative to the bottom of the display.

Unloading

If you use a lot of wallpapers, consider unloading those that you no longer need. This will mean you need to load them again if you wish to use them for a second time, but will free the memory used by the preloaded bitmap. (Usually 8 - 20MB, depending on the resolution)

You can issue a hyprctl hyprpaper unload [PATH] to do that.

You can also issue a hyprctl hyprpaper unload all to unload all inactive wallpapers.

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For other compositors, the socket works like socket1 of Hyprland, and is located in /tmp/hypr/.hyprpaper.sock (this path only when Hyprland is not running!)