Chapter 3.2.16 Window Effects
=============================

Window effects is a program to manage effects of the Compton X compositor. 


Version
-------
Lubuntu ships with version 0.14.1 of Window effects.

Usage
------
The :guilabel:`Shadow` tab manages how compton draws shadows. To toggle enable client side shadows press the Enable client side shadows checkbox. The checkbox for Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows will stop drawing shadows on the panel. The :guilabel:`Color of shadow` lets you change the color of shadows from windows. The field for :guilabel:`The blur radius for shadows` changes how big to blur the shadows. :guilabel:`The left offset for shadows` is how far to move the shadows to the left with a larger number makes the shadow appear farther to the right. :guilabel:`The top offset for shadows` the larger the number farther down the shadow appears below the window. :guilabel:`The translucany for shadows` is how opaque or clear to make the shadows 1 is opaque shadows and 0 is clear. The :guilabel:`Crop shadows of maximized windows from extended displays` checkbox does not have shadows across multimonitor layouts on other monitors from windows on another.  

.. image:: window_effects.png

The :guilabel:`Opacity` tab is for transparency settings. Setting Opacity to 1.00 makes it opaque while 0 makes it entirely clear. Menus, inactive windows, active windows titlebars and borders all can have their opacity changed independently. The :guilabel:`Blur background of transparent windows` blurs the background of transparent windows. To not change how far a window blurs on window transparency check the :guilabel:`Do not let blur radius adjust based on window opactiy`.

.. image:: compton_conf_opacity.png

The :guilabel:`Fade` tab manages fading windows opening or closing or opacity changes. There is a checkbox for :guilabel:`Fade windows during opactity changes` so if the opacity changes it will smoothly fade. To have a slower  time between fade in milliseconds increase :guilabel:`The time between steps in a fade in miliseconds`. With this settings windows will fade in and out when opened and closed unless you don't them to which you can check the :guilabel:`Avoid fade in out when windows opening/closing`.  



.. image:: compton_conf_fade.png

The :guilabel:`Other` tab has settings for changing the backend of how compton renders things. The :guilabel:`Rendering backend` changes what compton uses to render the window effects. To switch to hardware accelerated rendering of the compton backend press the :guilabel:`GLX(OpenGL)` button. To change back to the default rendering press the :guilabel:`X Render` button.

To have your settings applied you will need to press the :guilabel:`Apply` button. If you want to cancel your changes press the :guilabel:`Cancel` button or if you want to close press the :kbd:`Escape` key.

How to Launch
-------------
To launch window effects from the menu :menuselection:`Preferences --> LXQt Settings --> Window effects` or run

.. code:: 

   compton-conf 
  
from the command line. From LXQt configuration center press the gear button with a c in it to launch Window Effects. Of course for this to have any effect the compton compositor needs to be running so see `Chapter 3.2.13 <https://manual.lubuntu.me/3/3.2/3.2.13/session_settings.html>`_ for how to autostart applications. To start the compton compositor but not everytime :menuselection:`Acessories --> compton` from the menu. 
