Linux Fun

Neat Tricks, Cool Effects

©2007, Martin Rinehart

Transparency

Windows Vista features windows with transparent borders. This is widely regarded as a slick effect. Less well-known is the fact that KDE supports some of its own transparencies, and I think they are slick effects, too. Lets start with the kicker.

Transparent Panel (aka kicker)

Before making the Panel transparent, let's make a background to really show off this effect. A wash running from white to moderate blue will do this nicely. Minimize your other windows, right-click the desktop and choose Configure Desktop.

Choosing 'Configure Desktop' from the desktop context menu

In the desktop background-configuration dialog, click "No picture" and then set the horizontal gradient. (If your kicker is on the right or left, set a vertical gradient.)

Setting a horizontal gradient as your desktop background

You click on the color samples to set them. Dark colors will make kicker unreadable.

Now we need to make kicker transparent. Right-click a vacant area of the Panel. (You may need to close some windows to find a vacany.) Choose Configure Panel.

Choosing 'configure panel' from the Panel's context menu

Transparency is set on the Appearance tab.

Enabling transparency on the Panel configuration dialog's Appearance tab

And that gives you this transparent kicker.

Screenshot of transparent kicker with horizontal gradient showing through

Transparent Menus

Your menus can be transparent, too. Here's a window menu opened over the HTML in the text editor I'm using as I create this page.

Transparent window menu open over the text editor used to create this page

Doing that is easy, if you can find it. Launch/Settings/Control Center/Look & Feel/Theme Manager/Style gets you to the Configure Style dialog. Transparency is set on the Effects tab.

Setting menu transparency with the Configure Style dialog's Effects tab

The amount of transparency is the opposite of the amount of opacity, which is set in the bottom part of the dialog. At about 80% opacity you can see the transparency effect, but you can still read the menu. At 50% of opacity, slickness has destroyed function. The next illustration is the same window menu, but at 50% opacity.

Too little opacity makes the window menu unreadable

So go easy on your transparency and you'll have a desktop that's as slick as they come.

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