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Themes and Transparent Overlays
Prism themes control the visual system shared by the desktop app, DAW plugins, and Terminal UI. Desktop window backgrounds can then make that theme opaque, blurred, or transparent for a normal workspace or an overlay.
Open Settings > Appearance and select a theme. Prism ships with theme files and a template that can be copied and edited.
Use:
- Refresh after adding or editing a theme file;
- Folder to reveal the theme directory;
- the theme menu to select a successfully loaded theme.
Theme files use the .iro extension and live by default in:
Documents/Prism Themes
The folder includes _TEMPLATE.iro as a starting point. Current themes use format version 2.
A theme can describe its display name and optionally credit its author with a website and description. Prism shows available metadata in the theme interface.
When a theme supplies a website, its By author credit is a link that opens that site in the default browser. Treat links in third-party themes as you would any other external link.
Keep the .iro file extension, preserve its required keys, and use the supplied template's value formats. If an edit cannot be parsed, Prism reports the error and leaves that theme unavailable until it is corrected and refreshed.
The built-in Default theme is protected. Copy the template or another user theme instead of trying to overwrite the built-in entry.
Theme selection is global and is not stored in desktop .prsm profiles. Switching layout profiles therefore keeps the current theme.
DAW plugin windows follow the theme currently selected in the Prism desktop app. Their analyzer settings remain per instance, but theme selection is not frozen into the DAW project.
The TUI reads the same Prism theme directory. Use its appearance setting or the --theme command-line option to choose a theme for a terminal session.
Open Settings > Window to choose:
| Mode | Result | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Solid | Normal opaque theme background | All supported desktop platforms |
| Blurred | Desktop content shows through a blurred tinted surface | macOS and Windows 11 build 22621 or later |
| Clear | Desktop content shows through without blur | Supported desktop platforms |
The percentage control sets how much of the desktop shows through. It is disabled in Solid mode.
Switching background modes may recreate Prism's windows because transparent and opaque windows require different native configuration. Prism restores the rack and detached modules afterward.
Transparent modes disable ordinary window snapping. On native Wayland, the compositor also controls exact placement and stacking behavior.
A reliable overlay workflow is:
- Create a dedicated profile with only the modules the scene needs.
- Arrange widths or detach modules into separate windows.
- Select a high-contrast theme whose foreground remains readable over the scene.
- Choose Clear for direct transparency or Blurred for separation from a busy background.
- Adjust the desktop-show-through percentage.
- Pin the required windows to the top.
- Capture the Prism window or transparent window in streaming software.
Save the layout profile after arranging it. Background mode and theme remain global preferences, so note those separately when recreating a setup on another computer.
If the capture application cannot preserve transparent windows, create or select a theme with a flat, distinctive background color and use Solid mode. Key that color in the capture software.
Avoid using a key color that also appears in scope lines, heatmaps, cover art, or other content you intend to retain. Disable Now Playing cover art if it makes a consistent key impossible.
Transparent displays can become difficult to read over bright or rapidly changing content. Favor a strong contrast between foreground, grid, and background; hide nonessential grids; and test the actual encoded output rather than relying only on the local preview.
For long-running static overlays on susceptible displays, periodically reposition or hide the rack to reduce image-retention risk.