lule

A bash(y) alternative to pywal by mostly using pastel to generate the full 255 colors from an image.

lule --image=/some/path/of/an/image.jpg --palette=convert set

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FAQ

Well, not actually frequently asked questions (cos this tool is still new, still no questions), but just some predicted FAQ:

Why is lule not applying my colors?

Well, lule is divided in two separate scripts: lule and lule_colors. lule is responsible to generate colors and all other options related to color generation and is 99.9% of the code. In the other side lule_colors is extremely simple, it just sends those colors to apps like: all open tty's, or firefox through pywalfox, or neovim...

Why another X?

The advantages to pywal are that lule genretarates all 255 colors, not just 8 (or 16). Many times, when you want to apply colors (especially in neovim) you need more shades of the accent color, and that is why i made this tool initially.

Why bash?

Well, initially i made a simple script to add more colors to pywal. Then many times pywal was having problems with other python packages, thus i completely substituted it with pastel. Then the script grew larger and i thouth of sharing instead of using just by myself.

In the future (when and if i have enogh time), i will make it a binary (rust or go) and then you are saved from dependency hell.

Where are those wallpapers from?

They are from the very talented Michal from the Czech Republic, a freelance digital artist and illustrator. You can get (buy) all his wallpapers from his artstation or support him in patreon to get at least five high-quality wallpapers per month (worth every penny, trust me).

HELP lule --help

lule v.0.1
a command line to set 255 colors on tty's and other places that use ANSI colors

USAGE:
    lule [options][flags] <command>
    lule <special> [flags]

OPTIONS:
    --palette[=]<name> -> { pigmnts } , schemer2 , convert , imgscheme , 
        specify the palete binary to use
    --configs[=]<filepath> :: or specify $LULE_C as environment variable
        specify a config file where to load color preferences
    --scheme[=]<name> -> default , 
        specify the scheme form configs
    --sort[=]<name> -> brightness , luminance , hue , { chroma } , random , 
        specify the soring colord of pallete
    --saturate[=]<value> -> only numbers (0.0-1.0) are valid
        ammout of saturation of main colors
    --image[=]<filepath>
        specify the image to extract colors from
    --script[=]<filepath> :: or specify $LULE_S as environment variable
        specify an external script to run after colors are genrated
    --wallpath[=]<dirpath> :: or specify $LULE_W as environment variable
        specify a folder to pick an image randomly
    --loop[=]<seconds> -> only numbers are valid
        loop thrugh direcory (needs $LULE_W or $--wallpath)

FLAGS:
    -n  dont set wallpaper
    -d  dont set colors
    -p  read values from pipe/stdin
    -f  refresh the colors  * 
    -r  reset default colors  * 
  flags marked with:  *  should be used alone eg.:  lule -r 

COMMANDS:
    set          generate new colors from new image
    regen        generate new colors from same image
    theme        invert dark and light theme
    pick         pick a color as accent color

SPECIAL:
    colors [flags]       print all 255 colors in terminal  * 
    palette [flags]      more info about diffenert palette generators  * 
    configs [flags]      set and save color configure options * 
  commands marked with  *  have their own flags, check: lule <special> -h 

DEPENDENCIES

This tool assumes (depends) that you have all those tools into your path:

tool and link	usage
pastel	Color manipulation
jq	Load and save configs
feh	Applying wallpaper
xcolor	Picking a color from X11 screen

In addition, this tool relies on common GNU tools like: awk, grep, sed ...

And wants at least one of those tools:

tool and link	usage
pigmnts	color palette from image
schemer2	color palette from image
convert	color palette from image
imgscheme	color palette from image

COLORS

A 256-color lookup table is common in almost all modern terminals thus escape sequences were added to select from a pre-defined set of 256 colors. lule genarates all those colors from an image. There are few steps in color generation:

1 Generate palette

In this step, an image is provided as input then most the dominant colors are generated. One of the dependency tools showed above will be used to generate 16 dominant colors.

2 DARK and LIGHT

Two immportant colors: $DARK="#000000" and $LIGHT="FFFFFF" color variables are created. Those colors serve to blend all other colors after

3 Main colors (0-15)

Select 6 colors

After colors are generated, top 6 colors are seleced based on a filter (hue, illumiance ...) explained later in options. Those woule be: $col1, $col2, $col3, $col4, $col5, $col6

Assign accent

First color $col1 from those 6 is selected, and saturated as the accent color $ac (which is the most important color of all)

Background and foreground

Background and foreground colors are then generated by mixing $ac with $DARK for $col0 to give a shade of accent to backgroundcolor. The same with foreground, mixing $ac with LIGHT to generate col15

Generating grays

Then colors col7 and col8 are generated by mixing $ac with #AAAAAA and $ac with #666666 respectively.

Lower intensity ones

From colors $col1 ($ac), $col2, $col3, $col4, $col5, $col6 generate a less saturated version of each an use as colors $col9, $col10, $col11, $col12, $col13, $col14

4 Crayscale colors (232-255)

Grayscale colors are not precisely grayscale, but in original ANSI 255 colors, they are grayscale, hence the name. Those colors are shades of accent colors.

Those colors blend from $DARK to $col0 to $col1 to $col15 and lastly to $LIGHT, so at then end we have a nice color progession from black to black acented to accent istelf to white accented an finally to white:

• $col232 is same as $DARK
• $col233 is blend between $DARK and $col0 (background color)
• $col234 is same as $col0 (background color)
• $col235 to $col242 are a blend betwen $col0 (background color) and $ac
• col243 is similar or a slighty darker color of $ac
• col244 is similar or a slighty lighter color of $ac
• $col245 to $col252 are a blend betwen $col15 (foreground color) and $ac
• $col253 is same as $col15 (foreground color)
• $col254 is blend betwen $LIGHT and $col15 (foreground color)
• $col255 is same $LIGHT

5 Other colors (16-231)

Other colors represent colors that are not exacly extracted from the image. There are in total 18 other colors defined, each with its own shades going from $DARK to color to $LIGHT, thus each color is represented with 12 different shades.

• Each group is represented with its own $COLOR hex value
• Then generate 14 colors from $DARK to $COLOR to $LIGHT
• Remove first ($DARK) and last ($LIGHT) to leave exacly 12 colors

1. RGB Blend

It represents three groups: RED, GREEN, BLUE but all mixed with $ac.

• In colors 16 to 27 the variable $COLOR is a blend between RED #FF0000 and $ac
• In colors 28 to 39 the variable $COLOR is a blend between GREEN #00FF00 and $ac
• In colors 40 to 51 the variable $COLOR is a blend between BLUE #0000FF and $ac

2. RGBMYC Original

It represents original RED GREEN BLUE MAGENTA YELLOW and CYAN colors

• In colors 52 to 63 the variable $COLOR is RED #FF0000
• In colors 64 to 75 the variable $COLOR is GREEN #00FF00
• In colors 76 to 87 the variable $COLOR is BLUE #0000FF
• In colors 88 to 99 the variable $COLOR is MAGENTA #FF00FF
• In colors 100 to 111 the variable $COLOR is YELLOW #FFFF00
• In colors 112 to 123 the variable $COLOR is CYAN #00FFFF

4. Gray Original

It represents original shades of gray

• In colors 124 to 135 the variable $COLOR is GRAY #888888

3. Random

There are left 8 groups. Anod for those gorups, $COLOR is randomly geretated, then all shades are generated

ENVIRONMENT

This tool depends on few environemnt variables too:

$LULE_W  --  wallpaper directory
$LULE_S  --  script filepath
$LULE_C  --  configs filepath

For example, if you dont want to specify allways your folder directory where your wallpapers are, you can smply specify $LULE_W variable (and it shoud be a direcory) then lule picks an image there (randomly) to set as wallpaper. Alternaitve you can still use lule --walldir=<dirpath> which has presedence to $LULE_W

Then, LULE_C, is where a config file for lule is. If you don't set this variable, then this is automatically set to $XDG_CONFIG/lule/config.json or $HOME/.config/lule/config.json Alternaitve you can still use lule --script=<filepath> which has presedence to $LULE_C

Finally, there is $LULE_S, which should be a file/script, that lule will run autmatically after colors are generated. Usually here can be scripts for updating colors for neovim, Firefox with pywalfox and other scripts that you might find useful. Please check lule_colors from this repo to get started. The script is forked, thus it does not affect the lule app itself. Alternaitve you can still use lule --script=<filepath> which has presedence to $LULE_S

IMPORTANT: Colors are not applied by lule itslef, you need an external script to do that. For that you can check lule_colors that sends all the sequence of colors to all open tty's and updating the colors instantly.

USAGE

COMMANDS

There are four main commands in lule

set    -- generate new colors from new image
regen  -- generate new colors from same image
theme  -- invert dark and light theme
pick   -- pick a color as accent color

lule set

This is main command to set a new colorscheme.

It needs either $LULE_W to be set before using it:

LULE_W=$HOME/.local/share/wallpapers
lule set

Or using --walldir=<path> to specify before using it:

lule --walldir="LULE_W=$HOME/.local/share/wallpapers" set

Here are some examples from four different images:

lule regen

Its one of the commands that regenreates colors from the same image. Very useful when you want to change the --palette or --sort which are explained later in OPTIONS

lule theme

It simply switches from dark to light of current colorscheme, or vice-versa. Every time lule theme is run, it alternates between those two.

How it works:

As explained in black and white, variables $DARK" and $LIGHT are created at the begining. This command simply inverts them, thus if $DARK is "#000000" and $LIGHT is "FFFFFF" then $DARK becomes #FFFFFF and $LIGHT becomes #000000, and vice versa.

Here an example of by simply running lule theme:

• Dark theme (colrs)
• Light theme (colors)
• Dark theme (neovim)
• Light theme (neovim)
• Dark theme (firefox using pywalfox)
• Light theme (firefox using pywalfox)

lule pick

Its a command that depends on xcolor to pick as $ac one color from the picker. From that picked color all other colors are regenerated.

OPTIONS (TODO)

lule --palete[=]<name>

lule --configs[=]<filepath>

lule --scheme[=]<name>

lule --sort[=]<name>

lule --saturate[=]<value>

lule --image[=]<filepath>

lule --script[=]<filepath>

lule --wallpath[=]<dirpath>

lule --loop[=]<seconds>

SPECAL COMMANDS (TODO)

There are some other special commands in lule too

colors    --       print all 255 colors in terminal
palette   --      more info about diffenert palette generators
configs   --      set and save color configure options

each of the has its own subcommands and flags, use lule <special> -h from more info