microsoft/Terminal

Feature Request: Background color transparency

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#5,145 opened on Mar 27, 2020

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Area-RenderingArea-SettingsHelp WantedIssue-TaskProduct-Terminal

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Description

Description of the new feature/enhancement

This feature would add a setting to change the opacity of the text background when it is set. This is not the screen background which already has this feature. It is also not per-color transparency. The rationale for this is that I have an image background, but I also use vim a lot which tends to want to set a solid background.

Basically, I can do this: terminal-transparent

Or this: terminal-opaque

And I'd like to be able to do (roughly) this: terminal-semitransparent

It'd look a little different because some solid background is still there, but that should give you the general idea.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

Add a profile setting backgroundOpacity. If this is lower than 1, when a cell is printed with a custom background color, that color is blended with the default terminal background instead of being fully opaque.

Bonus: backgroundBlend - Different color blend modes.

I'll also accept pointers on how to add these settings and pipe that info through to the renderer :).

Contributor guide

Research direction
Examine the existing profile settings structure (e.g., in `src/cascadia/TerminalSettings/TerminalSettings.h`) to add a `backgroundOpacity` property. Then trace how settings flow to the renderer (e.g., `src/renderer/` directory) and implement color blending in the text background rendering path.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitC++Windows Terminal development environment
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40