Backgrounds

By default Nari draws an animated background of blobs, triangles and dots in the theme’s colors. A theme can put its own image or video behind it, turn those layers off, and use something else on Now Playing.

"background": {
  "file": "backgrounds/loop.webm",
  "fit": "cover",
  "dim": 0.25,
  "dots_color": "#ecebff",
  "procedural": { "blobs": false, "triangles": false, "tint": false, "dots": true },
  "now_playing": { "file": "backgrounds/np.gif", "use_cover": false }
}

Field	Description
file	Image or video shown behind every screen.
fit	cover (default, fills and crops), contain, stretch or tile.
dim	0 to 1. Covers the background with the theme’s background color, so text stays readable.
dots_color	Color of the dot pattern on top. White by default.
procedural	Turns Nari’s own animated layers on or off: blobs, triangles, tint and dots. All on by default.
now_playing.file	Used instead of file on Now Playing.
now_playing.use_cover	true shows the blurred album art on Now Playing.

Supported files: PNG, JPEG, WebP (animated too), GIF, APNG, MP4, MOV, M4V and WebM, with H.264, HEVC, MPEG-4, VP8, VP9 or AV1 video. The type is read from the file’s contents, not its name.

Mind the weight

Every frame is decoded into memory before Nari shows up, and Nari keeps at most 256 frames, so longer animations play with fewer frames. 256 frames of 720p take close to a gigabyte, and long files slow down starting Nari.

Keep loops short, small and at a low frame rate. A 480×270 clip at 12 fps scaled up with cover looks good on any screen.

When the user picks the Simple background, animations stop on their first frame.