Retro ASCII Art Waybar

A collection of retro ASCII art themes for Waybar, featuring block character aesthetics and system monitoring modules. Includes workspace app icon integration using YAMIS (Yet Another Monochrome Icon Set) icons, and uses the Doto font for that ASCII look.

Themes

ASCII Air

ASCII Arc

ASCII Cava

Note: This theme requires waybar-cava instead of the normal waybar package for audio visualization. Also includes visualizer.md with various ASCII animation patterns you can use.

---

ASCII Grid

ASCII Grid V2

ASCII Horizontal

ASCII Stats

ASCII Vertical

Extra

Quick Start

1. Run: This will copy all the waybar styles in your ~/.config/waybar/themes.

   git clone https://github.com/nirabyte/ascii-waybar.git /tmp/ascii-waybar && mkdir -p ~/.config/waybar/themes && cp -rf /tmp/ascii-waybar/* ~/.config/waybar/themes/ && rm -rf /tmp/ascii-waybar && omarchy-restart-waybar
   

   Theme Switching: This collection works seamlessly with wayflipper, a Waybar theme switcher for easy theme switching.

2. (Optional) Download the Doto or directly get it from the repo and place in your ~/.local/share/fonts.

   Or Run:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts && \
   curl -L -o ~/.local/share/fonts/Doto.ttf \
   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nirabyte/ascii-waybar/main/fonts/Doto.ttf && \
   
   # Refresh font cache
   fc-cache -fv

   Font Compatibility: While ASCII progress bars use fonts like CaskaydiaMono Nerd Font for block characters, the Doto font provides the distinctive retro aesthetic. Some ASCII dots may appear slightly different with Doto, but this is normal for the intended retro look.

3. (Optional) Install YAMIS icon theme (for monochrome workspace icons):

   Download the theme from KDE Store YAMIS

   # Extract the tar.gz file
   tar -xzf yet-another-monochrome-icon-set-*.tar.gz
   
   # Go into the extracted folder and copy YAMIS to ~/.local/share/icons
   cd yet-another-monochrome-icon-set
   sudo cp -r YAMIS ~/.local/share/icons

   To change the icon theme, edit config.jsonc:

   "hyprland/workspaces": {
     "workspace-taskbar": {
       "icon-theme": "YAMIS",  // Change to your preferred icon theme name
       // ...
     },
     // ...
   }

   You can install your preferred icon theme and update the name accordingly.

4. Restart your waybar:

• For Omarchy users run:

  omarchy-restart-waybar
  # Or toggle Super+Shift+Space

• Or run:

  pkill waybar && waybar &

ASCII Visualization

All system monitoring modules use block character format-icons for a retro ASCII aesthetic:

// Horizontal progress bar
 "format-icons":
  [
  "░░░░░░░░░░",
  "█░░░░░░░░░",
  "██░░░░░░░░",
  "███░░░░░░░",
  "████░░░░░░",
  "█████░░░░░",
  "██████░░░░",
  "███████░░░",
  "████████░░",
  "█████████░",
  "██████████",

  ]
 // Vertical progress bar
  "format-icons": [
  "░", "▁", "▂", "▃", "▄", "▅", "▆", "▇", "█"
  ]

Note

For Omarchy users: This configuration uses omarchy-menu-tofi in the config (uses tofi instead of walker that comes with omarchy). If you're using omarchy, ensure you have removed the -tofi suffix commands.