set vim background transparent
Solution 1
You don't have to change anything in your colorscheme just add the following to your .vimrc:
hi Normal guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE
Update:
As Liam mentioned in the comments:
This line needs to go below the
colorscheme
in.vimrc
Solution 2
If you load a plugin at line 5 of your .vimrc for example, then if you change line 6, it doesn't mean that Vim load the plugin completely and then run your line 6!!
That's why, you should use autocmd
command, because in this case, it ensures that all of your plugins are loaded completely and then your command will run after that!
In this case:
" transparent bg
autocmd vimenter * hi Normal guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE
" For Vim<8, replace EndOfBuffer by NonText
autocmd vimenter * hi EndOfBuffer guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE
Now you sure that after all the things are loaded, you are running your commands.
Solution 3
The answers above don't solve all the problems, they change the bg to transparent when we enter vim (hence the "VimEnte" event) but when you source your init.vim
file again, the background reverts back (this is because when the file is sourced the VimEnter auto command is not executed).
Instead of directly posting the correct answer, I'll explain how to reach it:
So, First, we need to understand what happens when vim is open:
vi -V10debug.log +q
This will create a debug.log where you can see what auto commands are executed and their order.
autocmd vimenter * hi Normal guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE " For Vim<8, replace EndOfBuffer by NonText autocmd vimenter * hi EndOfBuffer guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE```
If we are using this, we see in the log that VimEnter change the bg to NONE (so far its good).
But, and the following command opens vim, then source the vimrc and then exit (for faster finding I have putted some print statements)
vi -V10debug_so.log +'!echo sourcing' +'source ~/.config/nvim/init.vim' +'!echo sourced' +q
In the new log, we see, after so VimEnter is not called again and the bg is reverted back to theme default.
But, We also can notice when a file is sourced there are some events that occur, we will focus on the following
- SourcePre - before sourcing
- SourcePost - after sourcing
There the above incomplete solutions can be fixed using the SourcePost
event. so the new and correct autocommand is (Final Answer)
" Workaround for creating transparent bg
autocmd SourcePost * highlight Normal ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
\ | highlight LineNr ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
\ | highlight SignColumn ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
Always use this in a group, see this for as reference - https://github.com/kalkayan/dotfiles/blob/main/.config/nvim/init.vim
Solution 4
Use this gist. I compile some settings to make vim transparent.
codingninja
Updated on June 22, 2021Comments
-
codingninja almost 3 years
I am using the Matrix colorscheme along with CSApprox for my terminal vim.
I can not seem to be able to set the background as transparent. I have tried editing the matrix.vim file but it doesn't make it any better.
here is the
matrix.vim
" vim:set ts=8 sts=2 sw=2 tw=0: " " matrix.vim - MATRIX like colorscheme. " " Maintainer: MURAOKA Taro <[email protected]> " Last Change: 10-Jun-2003. set background=dark hi clear if exists("syntax_on") syntax reset endif let g:colors_name = 'matrix' hi Comment guifg=#226622 hi Constant guifg=#55ff55 hi Special guifg=#44cc44 hi Identifier guifg=#55ff55 hi Statement guifg=#55ff55 gui=bold hi PreProc guifg=#339933 hi Type guifg=#55ff55 gui=bold hi Underlined guifg=#55ff55 gui=underline hi Error guifg=#55ff55 hi Todo guifg=#113311 gui=none hi Cursor guifg=#226622 hi lCursor guifg=#226622 hi CursorIM guifg=#226622 hi Directory guifg=#55ff55 hi DiffAdd guifg=#55ff55 gui=none hi DiffChange guifg=#55ff55 gui=none hi DiffDelete guifg=#113311 gui=none hi DiffText guifg=#55ff55 gui=bold hi ErrorMsg guifg=#55ff55 hi VertSplit guifg=#339933 hi Folded guifg=#44cc44 hi FoldColumn guifg=#44cc44 hi IncSearch guifg=#226622 gui=none hi LineNr guifg=#44cc44 gui=none hi ModeMsg guifg=#44cc44 hi MoreMsg guifg=#44cc44 hi NonText guifg=#44cc44 guibg=NONE ctermbg=none hi Normal guifg=#44cc44 guibg=NONE ctermbg=none hi Question guifg=#44cc44 hi Search guifg=#113311 gui=none hi SpecialKey guifg=#44cc44 hi StatusLine guifg=#55ff55 gui=none hi StatusLineNC guifg=#113311 gui=none hi Title guifg=#55ff55 gui=bold hi Visual guifg=#55ff55 gui=none hi VisualNOS guifg=#44cc44 hi WarningMsg guifg=#55ff55 hi WildMenu guifg=#226622
and my
.vimrc
fileset nocompatible filetype off set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim/ call vundle#begin() Plugin 'gmarik/Vundle.vim' Plugin 'fatih/vim-go' Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline' " Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline-themes' Plugin 'airblade/vim-gitgutter' " Plugin 'altercation/vim-colors-solarized' Bundle 'morhetz/gruvbox' Plugin 'tpope/vim-git' Plugin 'Valloric/YouCompleteMe' Plugin 'junegunn/fzf', { 'dir': '~/.fzf', 'do': './install --all' } " Plugin 'flazz/vim-colorschemes' Plugin 'godlygeek/csapprox' call vundle#end() filetype plugin indent on syntax on syntax enable #... #... #... #... #... set t_Co=256 colorscheme matrix
if i enter
hi Normal guifg=#44cc44 guibg=NONE ctermbg=none
in the command prompt, it looks as expected. but not when it's only declared inmatrix.vim
. i also tried adding it aftercolorscheme matrix
in.vimrc
, but it does not help.How it looks like when first loaded.
How it looks like after i enter command
-
grochmal almost 8 yearsThat's technically correct but i believe that codingninja is searching for a way t do it directly in a
colorscheme
. Or an explanation of why it cannot be done in acolorsheme
-
codingninja almost 8 yearsWhen I enter this command in the prompt it works perfectly, but when I just add it to my
.vimrc
, it does not work. -
imbichie almost 8 yearsThere are chances like, if there is a highlight command in your .vimrc file that will overwritten the highlight command in your color scheme file. This will happen if you are set the colorscheme in your .vimrc before the overwritten highlight command in your .vimrc. If you wants to highlight the vim same as that of your colorscheme, write the set colorscheme command at the end of the .vimrc file.
-
Vitor almost 8 yearsYou need to use an autocmd on the ColorScheme event overriding the colorscheme options.
-
Tan Dat over 7 yearsI add 2 lines and it worked. ``` hi NonText ctermbg=none hi Normal guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE ```
-
Liam over 7 yearsThis line needs to go below the
colorscheme
in .vimrc -
10 cls almost 6 yearsYou can add that line at the end of the color.vim file.
-
Goutham Ganesan about 4 years@TanDat I just did what you told and it worked! But I cannot set the background for numbers to NONE. I tried the
Number
group but it didn't work. I just want the line number background to be NONE. TIA. -
Cellcore over 3 yearsit works great but I still have a non transparent bg after the end of the file. it is visible when the file has less lines than the screen height. any advise?
-
SdSaati over 3 years@Cellcore if that background is related to your terminal, simply config your terminal to support transparency, if you are using graphical gvim, you can use something like picom, or compton to transparent them.
-
cherrot over 3 years@Cellcore try the following (if vim < 8, replace EndOfBuffer with NonText) autocmd vimenter * hi Normal guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE autocmd vimenter * hi EndOfBuffer guibg=NONE ctermbg=NONE
-
Manish Sahani almost 3 yearsThis doesn't work if we resource the
init.vim
file (which we do very often): use SourcePost instead of VimEnter. see this stackoverflow.com/a/67569365/14526555 answer for more info. -
ToCarbajal almost 2 yearsThis works very well using it in Awesome Vim Colorschemes on NeoVim