Ubuntu
gnome-terminal package

Transparent Terminals

Asked by Brewster Malevich

About how far-off are we from having (truly) transparent terminal backgrounds?

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Wyatt Smith
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Best Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said : 		#1

Please provide a more exhaustive explanation on what you mean by (truly) transparent terminal background?

The effects tab in edit profile provides for transparent background which can be set to none.

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Brewster Malevich (brews) said : 		#2

Yes, but this is the well known pseudo-transparency. It simply copies your desktop background. If you were to move a window behind that pseudo-transparent terminal, you would still just see your background.

I'm talking about true-transparency. for example, Macs are able to make their terminal background completely transparent so that you can read text underneath the terminal window (it's more useful than it sounds).

Now, I hear that Beryl can make this happen (http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/wp-content/Ubuntu-Edgy-AIGLX-Beryl.png), but I was wondering if anyone was working on a more stable way of doing this. (and you can't really read the text behind this terminal).

This has been a much-awaited goal of linux nerd-dom.

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Brewster Malevich (brews) said : 		#3

Thanks Wyatt Smith, that solved my question.

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Brewster Malevich (brews) said : 		#4

Snap! I enabled compiz and the pseudo-transparency from GNOME-terminal becomes truely transparent! cool!