(anticipated) FAQ

Can we OCR from images?

This seems wasteful to implement here, it's possible to use OCR tools on DE/compositor level. That way, you're not limited to screenshots. Sway example:

bindsym $mod+$alt+r exec grim -g "$(slurp -d)" -t png - | tesseract - - | wl-copy && notify-send -i dialog-information -u low -t 5999 "ocr" "Copied ocr result to clipboard (if any)"

I cannot enter accented characters/composed characters/characters from dead keys on Wayland

See #531. GTK changed to leave handling of dead keys and compose to the compositor on Wayland, but not all compositors handle this. As a workaround, you can use the environment variable GTK_IM_MODULE=simple.

Alternatively, you can try to use ibus via ibus-setup, it contains further instructions.

Image copied to clipboard does not persist after Satty closes

Wayland does not intend for clipboard content to survive their owning applications. wl-copy solves this by leaving an active process. With some Satty workflows, e.g. when using --early-exit, losing copied images after application exits may be impractical. In that case, we'd recommend to use --copy-command wl-copy. The default config leaves this empty and makes Satty use gtk clipboard which has the afforementioned issue.

I'd like a colour picker!

See #248, there is one, but it is a slightly hidden.

NVidia dGPU wakes up from suspend when starting Satty

This can result in considerably slower program start. The reason is a known issue in the NVidia driver: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/550-67-nvidia-vulkan-icd-wakes-up-dgpu-on-initialization-and-exit/288095/15

In a nutshell, this happens when apps use Vulkan and discover Vulkan devices. The NVidia driver can currently not report the GPU's capabilities without waking it up. This was also discussed here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/work_items/6689

If this affects you, try starting with VK_LOADER_DRIVERS_DISABLE=nvidia_icd.json.

However, if the dGPU doesn't sleep, this is not going to save time. Depending on how the laptop is built, or rather, which ports are wired into which GPU, using an external screen may prevent sleep of the dGPU altogether.

The window no longer floats after upgrading Satty to 0.20.1

Before 0.20.1, Satty tried to use a hack by temporary resizing itself to 80% screen size to achieve floating state. Due to implementation of explicit resizing options with PR #302, automatically applying this hack did no longer fit. It's possible to use --floating-hack to achieve pre-0.20.1 behaviour. We'd recommend to use a window rule within the compositor instead, because it is, after all, a hack.

Satty uses Vulkan, I thought you said it uses GL

Our custom femtovg area GTK widget utilizes GL. But GTK itself defaults to using Vulkan unless GSK_RENDERER and/or GDK_DISABLE=vulkan says otherwise.

Satty's start is slow

• --profile-startup can measure time, anything up to just south of a second is relatively normal and due to image and GTK initialization.
• Some time can be shaved off by using ppm over png, because ppm is uncompressed.
• Also, see above if you got an NVidia dGPU in a laptop.
• Beyond that, it can be useful to record strace -f -tt -T, to see if anything sticks out.

There is a border in the screenshot in Satty (Hyprland)

This is, apparently, related to Hyprland's window animation happening during selection, see (https://www.reddit.com/r/hyprland/comments/1eu3qdv/screenshot_captures_selection_outline_with_grim/), #500 and #504. Satty does not add any borders.

Weird bright toolbar with dark buttons post 0.21.0

Satty is using adwaita vars in the default css. The reason for this weird appearance is a dark gtk theme and unconfigured or light adwaita setting.

Check with gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme and set to gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark' or override .toolbar in $XDG_CONFIG_DIR/satty/overrides.css. See #551 and #620