Blur Alfred

[Subject22]

A while back Andrew posted a technique for setting the degree to which Alfred's window blurs the background immediately behind it and CarlosNZ posted a workflow for changing this setting via Alfred. I got sick of having to restart Alfred every time I changed this so I added some code to automate the process. I thought I might as well post it here, just in case anyone was looking for something along these lines :-) Please bear in mind what Andrew said about this hack:

 

There are a few important caveats with this:

• It uses a private OS X API which means it may stop working at any point outside of my control
• I may take this feature out if it causes general instability and will ignore any moans of "put it back"
• It disables the 'Fade in Alfred Window' option because these don't play nice together
• It slows things down lots on slower Macs

 

Download: Blur Alfred

Keyword: blur

Edited June 9, 2013 by Subject22

[Ddyracer]

A while back Andrew posted a technique for setting the degree to which Alfred's window blurs the background immediately behind it and CarlosNZ posted a workflow for changing this setting via Alfred. I got sick of having to restart Alfred every time I changed this so I added some code to automate the process. I thought I might as well post it here, just in case anyone was looking for something along these lines :-) Please bear in mind what Andrew said about this hack:

 

 

 

Download: Blur Alfred

Keyword: blur

 

This will save me quite some time, I'm gonna use this hack more often now.

[Subject22]

Awesome! I wasn't going to post it initially because I wondered if anyone else would actually find a use for it. Glad you like it :-)

[Ddyracer]

Awesome! I wasn't going to post it initially because I wondered if anyone else would actually find a use for it. Glad you like it :-)

 

I haven't DL yet, but it looks good. Nice work!

[Carlos-Sz]

I think you will have to update to also support Mavericks.

 

Great idea though.

[rice.shawn]

Tyler wrote one of these for 2.3 and Mavericks. You can find it here: http://www.packal.org/workflow/blur

[paulw]

Shawn, does Tyler's workflow work for you? I get immediately taken to the fallback web search when I type in the keyword.

[rice.shawn]

Yep. Are you using the pre-release (2.3)?

[vdesabou]

Shawn, does Tyler's workflow work for you? I get immediately taken to the fallback web search when I type in the keyword.

 

I think I had same problem, the debug showed:

Starting debug for 'Blur'

[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: 2014-05-11 15:08:09.547 defaults[14517:507] 
The domain/default pair of (/Users/vincent/Library/Preferences/com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2, experimentalBlur) does not exist
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "blur.py", line 24, in <module>
    currentBlur = subprocess.check_output(['defaults', 'read', 'com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2', 'experimentalBlur']).strip()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 575, in check_output
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd, output=output)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['defaults', 'read', 'com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2', 'experimentalBlur']' returned non-zero exit status 1

To fix that, I had to do in terminal (for Mavericks):

defaults write com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2 experimentalBlur -int 5

Then the blur workflow is working fine

[Tyler Eich]

Shawn, does Tyler's workflow work for you? I get immediately taken to the fallback web search when I type in the keyword.

 

 

I think I had same problem, the debug showed:

Starting debug for 'Blur'

[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: 2014-05-11 15:08:09.547 defaults[14517:507] 
The domain/default pair of (/Users/vincent/Library/Preferences/com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2, experimentalBlur) does not exist
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "blur.py", line 24, in <module>
    currentBlur = subprocess.check_output(['defaults', 'read', 'com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2', 'experimentalBlur']).strip()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 575, in check_output
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd, output=output)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['defaults', 'read', 'com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2', 'experimentalBlur']' returned non-zero exit status 1

To fix that, I had to do in terminal (for Mavericks):

defaults write com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2 experimentalBlur -int 5

Then the blur workflow is working fine

 

I've updated the workflow to version 1.1, which handles this error. Thanks for the report!

 

I've also started a separate thread for any new issues that may arise

Edited May 11, 2014 by Tyler Eich

[paulw]

That fixed it, thanks! Running 2.3

[liatmgat]

Hi all,

I just found out about this workflow and want to try it. Any chance someone could update it for Alfred 3?

 

Thanks!

Liat

[Vero]

Hi all,

I just found out about this workflow and want to try it. Any chance someone could update it for Alfred 3?

 

Thanks!

Liat

 

 

Keep in mind that Alfred 3 allows you to set blur independently for each theme rather than on a global level, so you may want to take a look at that first.

 

In a custom theme, click the blurry circle in the top left to change the blur level for the theme. Of course, make sure that your theme is at least slightly transparent for it to work.

 

Cheers,

Vero

[liatmgat]

Ooh! I will do that right now. Thanks Vero!

[liatmgat]

 

Keep in mind that Alfred 3 allows you to set blur independently for each theme rather than on a global level, so you may want to take a look at that first.

 

In a custom theme, click the blurry circle in the top left to change the blur level for the theme. Of course, make sure that your theme is at least slightly transparent for it to work.

 

Cheers,

Vero

 

 

Hi Vero,

 

I looked in the Help documentation but couldn't find out where this setting is: how do I make sure my theme is slightly transparent? I changed the opacity on the colors but it still seems solid.

 

Thank you!

[Vero]

Hi Vero,

 

I looked in the Help documentation but couldn't find out where this setting is: how do I make sure my theme is slightly transparent? I changed the opacity on the colors but it still seems solid.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Make sure that the furthest layer back (the window border) is either invisible at 0px or at least slightly transparent (by changing the opacity as you've been doing). Everything else is "stacked" on top of that window border layer.

 

You can duplicate any of the default themes and edit those. The Frosty Teal one is an example of a semi-transparent and blurred theme.

 

Cheers,

Vero

[liatmgat]

I got it working! Now my blur level is perfect. Thanks again!