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ThayLoser edited this page Oct 8, 2026 · 5 revisions

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Install pywal16

This setup uses pywal16, a fork of pywal to generates a color palette from the dominant colors in an image. It then applies the colors system-wide and on-the-fly in all of your favourite programs.

You can install pywal16 using the installation instructions provided in the pywal16 repository, or follow the steps below:

  • Make sure you have Python 3.5+ installed. Check your Python version:
python --version
  • Install ImageMagick, which is required for pywal16 to work. You can download it from the official website or install it with winget:
winget install ImageMagick.ImageMagick
  • Finally, install pywal16 using pip:
pip install pywal16
  • Verify the installation:
wal --help

After this, you should be ready to use Pywal.

Choose a wallpaper and generate a color palette

Pick a wallpaper image to use as the base for your color palette. This image is what pywal16 analyzes to generate matching colors for your system.

  • Use one of the included wallpapers in the project.
  • Choose any JPG/PNG image from your computer.
  • Prefer images with strong contrast and clear dominant colors.
  • Higher-resolution images usually produce better themes.

Instead of manually setting the wallpaper in the system settings, you can now use wal to apply the wallpaper and generate a color palette. For more information, visit pywal16's getting started page or follow these simple steps:

  • Locate your wallpaper directory and copy the path to the image you want to use.
  • Run the following command in your terminal, replacing C:/path/to/wallpaper.jpg with the actual path to your wallpaper image:
wal -i "C:/path/to/wallpaper.jpg"
  • Your wallpaper will be set, and a color palette will be generated. Next, head to C:\Users\<username>\.cache\wal (replace <username> with your actual Windows username).
  • The wallpaper's color palette will be saved in mutiple file formats, including .json. Example:
{
    "checksum": "345700430452355fd27b7b2f620e6cf9",
    "wallpaper": "F:/Art/Wallpaper/142970434_p7.jpg",
    "alpha": "100",

    "special": {
        "background": "#151d33",
        "foreground": "#c4c6cc",
        "cursor": "#c4c6cc"
    },
    "colors": {
        "color0": "#151d33",
        "color1": "#5290B6",
        "color2": "#6EA7C6",
        "color3": "#A5A6A6",
        "color4": "#C2C1BA",
        "color5": "#8DB9CE",
        "color6": "#B2C7CD",
        "color7": "#c4c6cc",
        "color8": "#646b7b",
        "color9": "#5290B6",
        "color10": "#6EA7C6",
        "color11": "#A5A6A6",
        "color12": "#C2C1BA",
        "color13": "#8DB9CE",
        "color14": "#B2C7CD",
        "color15": "#c4c6cc"
    }
}
  • And wola! You now have a color palette generated from your wallpaper. You can use this palette to customize your system and applications to match your wallpaper's colors.

Use the color palette

Windows 11 native applications, such as the taskbar, start menu, and settings, are very limited in terms of customization, and they don't support custom color palettes (as far as I know). We will instead use alternative software and cli tools that allows us to use the color palette generated by pywal16 to customize. Conveniently, the software we will use is also open-source and cli-based.

Continue here.

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