Skip to main content
Version: main

konsole

Generates a .colorscheme file for Konsole, the KDE terminal emulator. The file is dropped into Konsole's user data directory where it shows up in the colour-scheme picker (Settings → Edit Current Profile → Appearance) alongside the bundled schemes.

Installation

Built into tinct — nothing to install separately. tinct generate -o konsole works out of the box.

Quick start

tinct generate -i image -p ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg -o konsole

Generated files

The filename depends on the theme type detected from the source image / palette:

FilePathRole
TinctDark.colorscheme~/.local/share/konsole/TinctDark.colorschemeSingle-file scheme written when the resolved palette is dark.
TinctLight.colorscheme~/.local/share/konsole/TinctLight.colorschemeSingle-file scheme written when the resolved palette is light.

Only one of the two is produced per run — whichever matches the resolved theme type.

Generated format

Konsole uses an INI-style format with colour values as RGB triplets:

[Background]
Color=30,30,46

[BackgroundFaint]
Color=30,30,46

[BackgroundIntense]
Color=30,30,46

[Color0]
Color=69,71,90

[Color0Faint]
Color=69,71,90

[Color0Intense]
Color=88,91,112

# ... continues for colors 1-7

[Foreground]
Color=205,214,244

[ForegroundFaint]
Color=166,173,200

[ForegroundIntense]
Color=205,214,244

[General]
Description=Tinct Theme
Opacity=1
Wallpaper=

Integration

Konsole auto-discovers .colorscheme files in ~/.local/share/konsole/ (plus the system-wide locations). To activate the scheme inside a profile:

  1. Settings → Edit Current Profile → Appearance.
  2. Pick TinctDark or TinctLight from the colour scheme list.
  3. OK / Apply.

Or run from a shell inside the Konsole session you want themed:

konsoleprofile colors=TinctDark

Reload behaviour

Automatic

The plugin spec declares no signal- or IPC-style reload, so the README contract flags reload as method: none. In practice the plugin's PostExecute does try two things opportunistically, in order, and exits successfully if either succeeds:

  1. D-Bus — enumerates every running Konsole session on the session bus and calls org.kde.konsole.Session.setProfile(<schemeName>) to swap the scheme live.
  2. konsoleprofile colors=<schemeName> — only works when tinct is run from inside a Konsole session; sets the colour scheme on the current session only.

Neither path is guaranteed: D-Bus may not be available (non-Linux, no session bus), no Konsole windows may be open, or konsoleprofile may not be on PATH. The frontmatter therefore treats reload as user-driven.

Manual fallback

If neither auto-reload path fired, change the scheme in Edit Current Profile → Appearance, or run inside the target window:

konsoleprofile colors=TinctDark # or TinctLight

New Konsole windows opened with the same profile pick up the change automatically.

Uninstall / revert

  1. Remove the config line: none added. The scheme is selected through the Konsole profile UI; the plugin never edits any text config file. Reverting is a matter of picking a different scheme in Edit Current Profile → Appearance.

  2. Delete the generated files:

    rm -f ~/.local/share/konsole/TinctDark.colorscheme \
    ~/.local/share/konsole/TinctLight.colorscheme
  3. Reload to drop the theme:

    Switch the Konsole profile back to the scheme you used previously, or restart Konsole.

  4. External state: this plugin only writes to ~/.local/share/konsole/. The profile file (~/.local/share/konsole/*.profile) keeps a reference to the chosen scheme name — Konsole will fall back to its default scheme once the .colorscheme file is gone, so no further cleanup is required.

Flags

FlagDefaultDescription
--konsole.output-dir~/.local/share/konsoleOverride the output directory

Colour role mapping

Konsole's scheme file uses [ColorN] sections plus Faint / Intense variants for each of the 8 ANSI slots, then a separate [Foreground] / [Background] block.

Konsole sectionTinct role
[Background], [BackgroundFaint], [BackgroundIntense], [Color0], [Color0Faint]ANSI black
[Color0Intense]ANSI brightblack
[Color1] / [Color1Faint] / [Color1Intense]ANSI red / red / brightred
[Color2] / [Color2Faint] / [Color2Intense]ANSI green / green / brightgreen
[Color3] / [Color3Faint] / [Color3Intense]ANSI yellow / yellow / brightyellow
[Color4] / [Color4Faint] / [Color4Intense]ANSI blue / blue / brightblue
[Color5] / [Color5Faint] / [Color5Intense]ANSI magenta / magenta / brightmagenta
[Color6] / [Color6Faint] / [Color6Intense]ANSI cyan / cyan / brightcyan
[Color7] / [Color7Faint], [Foreground], [ForegroundFaint]ANSI white
[Color7Intense], [ForegroundIntense]ANSI brightwhite

The [General] block writes Description = Tinct Dark or Tinct Light based on theme type, with Blur=false, Opacity=1, no wallpaper.

Customising the template

Extract the default template to override it:

tinct plugins templates dump -o konsole -l ~/.config/tinct/templates/konsole

This writes ~/.config/tinct/templates/konsole/tinct.colorscheme.tmpl. Tinct uses your version in preference to the embedded default.

See the templating reference for the available functions and palette accessors.

Troubleshooting

Scheme doesn't appear in the picker

Konsole reads the directory once at startup. Restart Konsole (or close and re-open the profile-edit dialog) after the first generation. Subsequent updates to the same .colorscheme filename are picked up live by D-Bus / konsoleprofile.

D-Bus update failed

tinct generate -v -o konsole prints why the D-Bus call failed (no session bus, permission denied, no Konsole instances on the bus). Fall back to konsoleprofile colors=TinctDark inside the window you want to change, or pick the scheme from the profile UI.

Wrong polarity (light scheme on a dark image / vice versa)

The plugin writes whichever file matches the resolved theme type. If you want both, generate twice with explicit --mode dark and --mode light (or whichever tinct mode flag your version uses), or override the palette so the resolved type matches your intent.

  • kde-plasma — KDE Plasma desktop colour scheme; pair with Konsole for a consistent KDE look.
  • qt5, qt6 — Qt application palettes that align with Konsole's colours.