KDE Plasma Liquid Glass Theme 💎

A glossy KDE Plasma rice inspired by the macOS Tahoe / Liquid Glass look.

This repo collects the pieces of a full KDE Plasma Liquid Glass setup: transparent Layan files, Darkly, BreezeEnhanced, WhiteSur icons, Better Blur DX, KDE Rounded Corners, screenshots, and a modified Discord/Vesktop theme. The installer is meant to take a fresh KDE user profile as far toward the finished rice as the local distro and available submodules allow.

🖼 Preview

⚡ Features

• Liquid Glass inspired KDE Plasma desktop with blur, transparency and rounded window geometry.
• Modified Layan Plasma theme files for a cleaner transparent panel/shell look.
• Better Blur DX guidance for deeper glass blur behind windows.
• BreezeEnhanced setup for borderless decorations.
• WhiteSur icon-theme pairing for a glossy desktop feel.
• Included modified Discord/Vesktop CSS theme.
• Validation workflow for README, screenshots, theme folders and submodule metadata.

📦 Components

Part	Theme / Tool
Application style	Darkly
Window decorations	BreezeEnhanced
Icons	WhiteSur Icon Theme
Plasma style	Layan KDE plus modified files
Blur	Better Blur DX
Corners	KDE Rounded Corners
Discord / Vesktop	themes/discord-theme/modified-midnight.theme.css
Local overrides	themes/modified-layan/

🚀 Installation

Clone with submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/david-x3d/kde-plasma-liquid-glass-theme.git
cd kde-plasma-liquid-glass-theme

If you already cloned without submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive --depth 1

Preview the full installer:

scripts/install.sh --dry-run

The dry run includes a preflight section that checks the current Plasma session, KDE helper tools, submodule state, package-manager support, install prefix, and wallpaper file before showing planned actions.

For a fresh clone, let the installer initialize submodules, install known KDE build dependencies, build available components, copy the modified Layan files, write KDE settings, enable the blur/corner effects, and reload Plasma:

scripts/install.sh --full-setup

During an interactive install, the script asks whether to install the Discord/Vesktop CSS theme. For a non-interactive run, --yes accepts defaults and installs it; use --skip-discord-theme to opt out:

scripts/install.sh --full-setup --yes

The installer always copies themes/modified-layan/ into your local Plasma desktop theme directory, backs up replaced files, and prints the backup location when it changes existing files. Before writing KDE settings it backs up kdeglobals, plasmarc, kwinrc, kwinrulesrc, plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc, and plasmashellrc when they exist. When component submodules are present, it also runs upstream install.sh scripts and CMake installs. Source-built KWin/style components install to /usr by default because KWin and Qt style plugins are most reliably discovered from the system KDE prefix; use --user-install if you want a best-effort ~/.local build instead. The KDE settings pass writes kdeglobals, plasmarc, and kwinrc with the Plasma style, app style, icons, KWin decoration hint, Better Blur DX tuning, KDE Rounded Corners tuning, and wallpaper, then verifies key config values with kreadconfig when available. In --full-setup, it also applies a Plasma shell layout through KDE's Plasma scripting D-Bus API: it replaces current panels with a top floating panel containing Kickoff, icon-only tasks, system tray, and clock. It also copies the included Discord/Vesktop CSS theme into common Vencord/Vesktop theme directories.

If you only want the old overlay behavior:

scripts/install.sh --install --overlay-only

Useful switches:

Option	Purpose
--full-setup	Enables the complete installer path: install mode, submodule init, package install, builds, settings, panel layout, wallpaper, KWin rule, Discord prompt, and Plasma reload.
--init-submodules	Runs git submodule update --init --recursive --depth 1.
--full-submodule-history	Uses complete submodule histories instead of shallow submodule checkouts.
--install-packages	Installs known build/runtime packages on pacman, apt, dnf or zypper systems.
--user-install	Builds source components into ~/.local instead of /usr.
--install-prefix DIR	Overrides the CMake install prefix for source components.
--wallpaper PATH	Applies a custom wallpaper image.
--skip-builds	Skips upstream installers and CMake builds.
--skip-settings	Copies files without changing KDE config.
--apply-layout	Applies the Liquid Glass top-panel layout outside --full-setup.
--skip-layout	Skips the Plasma panel layout.
--skip-discord-theme	Skips the Discord/Vesktop CSS prompt and theme install.
--skip-window-rules	Skips the KWin borderless-window rule.
--skip-config-backup	Skips KDE config backups before settings writes.
--skip-plasma-restart	Leaves Plasma/KWin running as-is after config writes.
--overlay-only	Only installs themes/modified-layan/.

💎 Modified Layan Plasma Theme

The full installer can install the normal Layan Plasma theme from the submodule before applying the modified files from this repo. If you skip builds or work from a clone without initialized submodules, install Layan first and then apply the overlay.

If you prefer to copy the files manually:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/plasma/desktoptheme/Layan
cp -r themes/modified-layan/* ~/.local/share/plasma/desktoptheme/Layan/

After copying, the full installer writes the Plasma style setting automatically. If you used --overlay-only, open KDE System Settings and reselect or reload the Plasma theme.

🧩 Recommended KDE Setup

Setting	Value
Session	KWin Wayland
Application Style	Darkly
Colors	Artim Dark or edited Breeze Dark
Window Decorations	BreezeEnhanced
Icons	WhiteSur-dark
Plasma Style	Modified Layan
Effects	Better Blur DX and KDE Rounded Corners

🪟 Borderless Window Rule

The full installer creates a KWin rule named liquid-glass-borderless for the clean glass look. It matches:

.*

The rule forces no visible borders and preserves any existing KWin rules. Pass --skip-window-rules to leave KWin rules untouched.

🌫 Better Blur DX

Recommended tweaks:

• Disable shadows if your wallpaper already has strong contrast.
• Increase blur strength until panels feel glassy instead of smoky.
• Darken the glass slightly for readability.
• Use darker wallpapers for better text contrast.
• Avoid pure white backgrounds behind transparent windows.

Settings examples:

💬 Discord / Vesktop Theme

The included CSS file lives here:

themes/discord-theme/modified-midnight.theme.css

Recommended pairing:

• Vesktop or another client with custom CSS support.
• Midnight theme base.
• Background layer removed or disabled.
• Transparent background.
• Better Blur DX handling the blur behind the window.

🖼 Wallpaper Tips

This setup works best with:

• Dark city or night skyline wallpapers.
• Blue, purple or cool-toned abstract wallpapers.
• Glassy abstract wallpapers with enough contrast.
• Darker cyberpunk-style scenes.

Bright wallpapers can make translucent UI text harder to read.

🗂 Repository Structure

Path	Purpose
screenshots/	Desktop and settings screenshots
scripts/install.sh	Dry-run capable full KDE rice installer
themes/modified-layan/	Local Layan override files
themes/discord-theme/	Modified Discord/Vesktop CSS
.gitmodules	Linked upstream theme/tool repositories
.github/workflows/validate.yml	Cross-platform repository validation

🧪 Validation

GitHub Actions validates the repo on Ubuntu, Windows and macOS for:

• README.md
• LICENSE
• .gitmodules
• screenshots/
• themes/
• configured submodule paths

You can run the same basic local checks with:

test -f README.md
test -f LICENSE
test -f .gitmodules
test -d screenshots
test -d themes
test -x scripts/install.sh
test -x scripts/validate-installer.sh
scripts/validate-installer.sh
git config --file .gitmodules --get-regexp path

⚠️ Notes

• This repo is a curated setup, not an official KDE, Apple, Layan, Darkly, BreezeEnhanced or WhiteSur project.
• Plasma theme internals can change between KDE versions.
• Keep backups of your current KDE settings before replacing theme files.
• Transparent desktop setups depend heavily on wallpaper contrast, panel opacity and blur configuration.

Contributing

Small improvements are welcome. Keep screenshots current, do not vendor large unrelated assets, and document any KDE version assumptions when changing theme files.