Rhythmbox Dynamic Theme

Rhythmbox Dynamic Theme automatically themes your Rhythmbox UI based on the album art of the currently playing song.

Features

Automatic Theme Updates - Theme changes dynamically as songs play

Intelligent Color Extraction - Selects vibrant, contrasting colors from album art

WCAG AA Compliant - Ensures readable text with 4.5:1 contrast ratio

Performance Optimized

• Replaces GTK’s continuous CSS animation polling with discrete timer-based state cycling, eliminating constant re-rendering overhead and achieving 85-90% CPU reduction compared to traditional @keyframes animations
• Debouncing prevents flickering during rapid song changes
• LRU cache for instant theme switching on repeated albums
• Asynchronous color extraction (non-blocking UI)
• Image resizing before processing

Graceful Fallback - Uses beautiful default theme when album art is missing

Installation

1. Install Dependencies

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-3.0 python3-pil python3-mutagen

Fedora:

sudo dnf install python3-gobject gtk3 python3-pillow python-mutagen

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S python-gobject gtk3 python-pillow python-mutagen

Other distributions: If your distribution doesn’t package these libraries, install via pip:

pip3 install --user Pillow mutagen

2. Install the Plugin

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/BOTbkcd/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme.git
cd rhythmbox-dynamic-theme

# Remove old installation if it exists
rm -rf ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme

# Install the GSettings schema (overwrites old version if present)
sudo cp org.gnome.rhythmbox.plugins.rhythmbox-dynamic-theme.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

# Create plugin directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins

# Create symlink
ln -s $(pwd) ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme

3. Enable the Plugin

1. Launch Rhythmbox

2. Go to Preferences → Plugins

3. Find Dynamic Theme in the plugin list

Check the checkbox to enable it 1.

(Optional) Configure the default theme colors

The plugin should now be active! Start playing a song with album art to see the theme change.

Troubleshooting

Plugin Not Loading

# Check if plugin directory exists and is correct
ls -la ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme/

# Verify plugin metadata
cat ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme/rhythmbox-dynamic-theme.plugin

# Check Python dependencies
python3 -c "from PIL import Image; print('Pillow OK')"
python3 -c "from mutagen import File; print('Mutagen OK')"
python3 -c "from gi.repository import Gtk; print('GTK OK')"

Theme Not Applying

# Run with debug output
rhythmbox -D rhythmbox-dynamic-theme

# Check album art exists
ls ~/.cache/rhythmbox/covers/

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.