pywal16 takes the dominant colours of a wallpaper image, builds a 16-colour palette from them, and applies that palette to the terminals and programs it supports. You point it at an image with wal, and it changes the wallpaper and sets terminal colours in one step. What it does not do is change every application you run. New terminal windows, the next login and any wallpaper setter you use need small pieces of configuration, and the sections below cover each one.
What pywal16 is, and how it differs from the original pywal
pywal16 describes itself as a 16-colour fork of pywal. Pywal generates a colour palette from the dominant colours in an image and then applies those colours to supported programs. It also supports predefined and custom themes, so you can skip image-derived colours and load a fixed scheme instead.
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The original dylanaraps/pywal repository is archived and read-only. pywal16 is a separate fork with its own project description and its own release history. When you read about maintenance status, bug reports or installation instructions, check which project the page belongs to, because the two names are easy to confuse.
The Tool Desk
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Quick start: generate a scheme from one image
The official getting-started guide describes the basic workflow under the heading “How to use wal.” Point wal at an image file:
wal -i "path/to/img.jpg"Or point it at a directory of images:
wal -i "path/to/dir"According to the guide, this changes the wallpaper and sets the terminal colours. Start with a single image so you can confirm the result before you add directory cycling or startup automation.
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Useful command options
The guide documents the options below. These describe what each flag is meant to do; the guide does not present them as tested results.
| Option | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
--cols16 [method] |
Produces 16-colour output using darken or lighten |
The documented default is darken. |
--iterative |
Visits images in a directory in order | Without it, directory images are visited in shuffled order. |
--recursive |
Includes images in subdirectories | Applies when you pass a directory with -i. |
--saturate 0.0-1.0 |
Sets saturation | Accepts values from 0.0 to 1.0. |
--theme / -f |
Chooses a theme file or a named theme | Use this instead of image-derived colours. |
-n |
Skips setting the wallpaper | Useful when another tool sets the wallpaper (see below). |
-s |
Skips changing colours in terminals | Use when you only want the palette generated. |
-o |
Runs an external script after wal finishes |
Lets you hook in your own commands. |
Installation and what it depends on
The official installation wiki, last edited on 2025-08-13, documents several ways to install the package. Check the wiki for changes after that date, because platform lists and Python requirements can change between releases.
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- Install from PyPI with pip. Run
pip install pywal16. The wiki also covers a user-level installation, installation with pipx, installation into a virtual environment, and installation from a source checkout. - Confirm the Python version. The wiki lists Python 3.5 or later as of its 2025-08-13 edition. Check the package metadata for the release you install.
- Install ImageMagick. The wiki lists ImageMagick as a requirement for colour generation.
- Add optional backends if you need them. The wiki gives
colorthiefandallas examples of optional Python-based backends that you install separately. - Install a wallpaper setter. The wiki lists tools and desktop environments that can set wallpapers. Pick one that matches your desktop, or use
-nand handle the wallpaper yourself.
The wiki lists these operating-system categories as supported: Linux, BSD, macOS with iTerm2, and Windows without terminal support. Windows support in that list means the tool runs without terminal colour changes, so it is not a full theming setup on that platform.
Terminal compatibility
Changing colours in a terminal depends on the emulator understanding a particular escape sequence. The wiki suggests a quick test: print an OSC 11 test sequence in the terminal and check the result. It also warns that Xresources settings can override that test, so a passing result does not always mean the terminal is set up the way you expect.
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The wiki names these terminals as not working with pywal16: Konsole, Hyper, Terminal.app, Terminology and st. Treat that list as the documentation’s statement as of the 2025-08-13 edition. Terminal behaviour can change between versions and depends on your configuration, so run the test in the emulator you actually use.
Making colours persist
By default, wal applies colours to terminals that are open at the moment you run it. Anything beyond that needs configuration.
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New terminal windows
To theme new terminal windows, add the cache-sequence import recommended in the guide to your shell’s startup file. The guide notes that the asynchronous form of the import is not supported in fish, so fish users need to follow the guide’s alternative for that shell.
Restoring the scheme after a reboot
To restore the previous scheme when you log in again, add wal -R to the file that starts your desktop session. The guide recommends this approach because the tool does not restore its state on its own.
Using a different wallpaper setter
If you prefer a wallpaper tool other than the one wal uses, run wal -n so it skips the wallpaper change, then run your chosen setter with the cached wallpaper path. The guide uses feh as an example. This is an integration pattern you can adapt to any setter; you do not need feh.
Practical checklist
- Confirm you are installing pywal16, not the archived original pywal.
- Install with
pip install pywal16, pipx or a virtual environment, and check the Python version. - Install ImageMagick before you expect colour generation to work.
- Run the OSC 11 test in your terminal, and check Xresources if the result is unexpected.
- Add the shell import for new terminal windows and
wal -Rto your session startup file if you want persistence. - Use
-nwith your own setter ifwaldoes not set the wallpaper the way you want.
When to choose pywal16 and when to look elsewhere
Choose pywal16 when you want the palette to come from an image and you are willing to configure your terminal and login session. If you want a fixed preset, use the theme option instead. If you need a terminal from the wiki’s non-working list, or a platform outside its supported categories, plan for manual colour settings or a different tool. This guide does not compare pywal16 against other theming tools, so use these questions to compare them yourself: how each tool generates its palette, how it integrates with your terminal and desktop, what it does at login, what it depends on to install, and whether it applies a preset or colours taken from an image.
A note on sources: the figures and command details here come from the project’s official documentation and the installation wiki described above. The project does not publish usage statistics in the material reviewed, so this article does not quote download counts, theme counts or backend counts.
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