Feature request: transparency on/off shortcut key

[Ozzin]

It would be very useful to have a shortcut key for toggling on and off transparency, perhaps on a tab-by-tab basis. For example, I generally don't want any transparency in my text editor. Perhaps one could even have transparency on an application-by-application basis?

[Ozzin (ozzin)]

Some notes: when I said "application" above, I really meant 'program running in the terminal'. For example, when I've got vim running in guake, I usually won't want any transparency, because I'm likely to be editing a text file. While simply running commands from bash, some transparency is fine.

I mentioned two features, one for a key to toggle transparency on/off, and the other to do it based on the foreground process running in the tab. I think the former is probably easier to implement, and would be more-or-less a requirement for the second (in order to teach guake which processes should have transparency and which should not). I would prioritise the first one much higher than the second.

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

I have sent this feature request upstream, and have marked the bug in Ubuntu as "Triaged" with the importance of "Wishlist" in accordance with how we triage feature requests.

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Thomas Ward
LPID: trekcaptainusa-tw
Ubuntu BugSquad Member
Ubuntu BugControl Member

[Colin Keenan (colinkeenan)]

Any update on this? I want to toggle transparency because sometimes it's not possible to copy and paste. For example, a kindle book being read in the browser won't allow random phrases to be copied from it. However, as mentioned by the original poster, most of the time transparency isn't a good thing when using an editor because people have to strain to distinguish the text in the editor from the background text.

What would really be amazing is if after toggling transparency on, the mouse could be used to select a rectangle that would remain transparent after toggling transparency off again. Another toggle would remove that transparency as well. Of course, I realize there may not be many (or any?) other people out there who would even think to look for such behavior. The basic transparency toggle seems like it would be popular though even if people aren't searching for a solution. I almost didn't search for a solution since it seemed pretty clear from the lack of such a feature being listed in the help ,that it wasn't available.

[nobody (nobody-here)]

Workaround script:

#!/bin/bash
#change guake transparency from 1 (black background) to 39 (semitransparent)
function main {
current_transparency=$(gconftool-2 --get /apps/guake/style/background/transparency)
if [[ $current_transparency -eq 1 ]]; then
        gconftool-2 --type integer --set /apps/guake/style/background/transparency 39
else
        gconftool-2 --type integer --set /apps/guake/style/background/transparency 1
fi
}
main

Paste it in a file and put that file in a folder in your $PATH mark it as executeble (chmod u+x <file>) and create shortcut in a SYSTEM->PREFERENCES->KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS, you can change the level of transparency by changing number 39 in a script

tested on Ubuntu 10.04 amd64 - gnome 2.30.2

[Colin Keenan (colinkeenan)]

Thanks. Works well in Ubuntu 12.10 too. Also, although the comments in the script say from black background to semi-transparent, it's actually from whatever color background you're using to semi-transparent. I have customized the colors on my guake to use white background, and this script works fine for that too.

For those that don't know where to find the keyboard shortcuts in 12.10, click on your name at top right; then system settings; then in the hardware section click on keyboard and choose shortcuts tab; finally, choose Custom Shortcuts which is last on the left side.

[Robert Matusewicz (matekm)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the latest stable version of Ubuntu.