Dank16

Dux Shell

Dank16

The dms dank16 command generates a 16 color terminal palette from a single input color, with a contrast floor applied against the background so text stays readable in both light and dark mode.

Overview

Dank16 fills the 16 ANSI slots directly. It is not base16: there is no base00-base0F monochrome ramp, and the bright slots 9-15 are genuinely brighter rather than repeats of their normal counterparts. If you are looking for something to feed a base16 template, this is not it.

What it does:

• fills all 16 ANSI slots from one color
• dark and light variants, with separate contrast targets for each
• two contrast algorithms, Delta Phi Star (default) or WCAG
• terminal configs, JSON, and the variant JSON that matugen templates consume
• custom background, so the palette is built against the surface it will actually sit on

Quick Start

Generate a dark theme palette:

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6"

Output:

palette = 0=#1a1a1a
palette = 1=#ff4f73
palette = 2=#5bf67c
palette = 3=#ffd14f
palette = 4=#9d61ff
palette = 5=#220071
palette = 6=#8b5cf6
palette = 7=#f1ebff
palette = 8=#4b4853
palette = 9=#ff879f
palette = 10=#8fffa7
palette = 11=#ffe18f
palette = 12=#a077ff
palette = 13=#b18fff
palette = 14=#cdb7ff
palette = 15=#f9f7ff

Generate a light theme palette:

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --light

Output:

palette = 0=#f8f8f8
palette = 1=#d4214e
palette = 2=#008105
palette = 3=#946500
palette = 4=#7c4bf2
palette = 5=#dbcbff
palette = 6=#8b5cf6
palette = 7=#424144
palette = 8=#bbbabe
palette = 9=#ef5072
palette = 10=#00a018
palette = 11=#b08100
palette = 12=#844fff
palette = 13=#9676e3
palette = 14=#c7afff
palette = 15=#faf8ff

Color Slots

Every slot carries the primary hue to some degree. Reds, greens and yellows keep their own base hue but get pulled part of the way toward the primary so the palette reads as one set. The rest are the primary family outright.

Slot	ANSI role	What it is
0	black	the background, verbatim
1 / 9	red	hue 0, pulled 12% toward the primary
2 / 10	green	hue 119, pulled 10%
3 / 11	yellow	hue 50, pulled 4%
4 / 12	blue	the primary hue, saturation and value nudged
5 / 13	magenta	5 is the primary container, 13 is its brighter sibling
6 / 14	cyan	6 is the primary verbatim, 14 is a lighter desaturated variant
7 / 15	white	near neutral, tinted at the primary hue
8	bright black	a fixed L* offset from the background, so it stays dim no matter how bright the primary is

The primary slots

Three pairs are the primary family, and two of them are exact:

• 6 is the primary itself, unmodified and with no contrast adjustment. Whatever color you hand dank16 is what lands in slot 6.
• 5 is the primary container. When the caller has a real primary_container (which is how DMS drives it through matugen) that value is used verbatim. The standalone CLI has no theme to read, so it derives an approximation from the primary instead.
• 4, 12, 13 and 14 are variations on the same hue at different saturation and value.

Slot 5 and slot 6 are a pair. Their contrast is with each other, not with the background, which is the Material tone pairing: roughly 5.5:1 in dark mode and 5.0:1 in light. Plenty of powerline prompt themes use ANSI 5 on ANSI 6 for exactly this reason, so that relationship is treated as the invariant.

The consequence is that slot 5 on its own is a surface tone and sits close to the background. That is deliberate. It is a container, and its readable partner is the primary, not the terminal background.

What this costs you

Magenta and cyan are not independent hues here, they are the primary ramp. With a blue-violet primary, ANSI blue, magenta and cyan all read as the same violet family, and slots 4, 6 and 12 in particular can land within a few units of each other. Anything relying on ANSI 4 vs 5 vs 6 for semantic separation, like some git decorations or ls colors, loses that separation.

In light mode slot 0 is the light background, so ANSI black is the background color. Programs that print with \e[30m expecting dark text will write background on background.

Output Formats

Default Format

The default output is a simple palette format:

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6"

Kitty Terminal

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --kitty

Output:

color0   #1a1a1a
color1   #ff4f73
color2   #5bf67c
color3   #ffd14f
...

Copy the output directly to your ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf.

Foot Terminal

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --foot

Generates color configuration for the Foot terminal emulator.

Alacritty Terminal

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --alacritty

Generates YAML configuration for Alacritty's color scheme.

Ghostty Terminal

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --ghostty

Generates configuration for the Ghostty terminal emulator.

JSON Format

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --json

Outputs the palette as a JSON object with detailed color information.

Variants Format

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --variants [--light] [--background <color>]

Outputs all color variants in a single call:

{
  "color0": {
    "dark": {
      "hex": "#1a1a1a",
      "hex_stripped": "1a1a1a",
      "hex_alpha": "#1a1a1aff",
      "hex_alpha_stripped": "1a1a1aff",
      "alpha_hex": "#ff1a1a1a",
      "alpha_hex_stripped": "ff1a1a1a",
      "rgb": "rgb(26, 26, 26)",
      "rgba": "rgba(26, 26, 26, 1.0)",
      "hsl": "hsl(0.0, 0.0%, 10.2%)",
      "hsla": "hsla(0.0, 0.0%, 10.2%, 1.0)",
      "red": "26",
      "green": "26",
      "blue": "26",
      "alpha": "1.0",
      "hue": "0.0",
      "saturation": "0.0%",
      "lightness": "10.2%"
    },
    "light": {
      "hex": "#f8f8f8",
      "hex_stripped": "f8f8f8",
      "hex_alpha": "#f8f8f8ff",
      "hex_alpha_stripped": "f8f8f8ff",
      "alpha_hex": "#fff8f8f8",
      "alpha_hex_stripped": "fff8f8f8",
      "rgb": "rgb(248, 248, 248)",
      "rgba": "rgba(248, 248, 248, 1.0)",
      "hsl": "hsl(0.0, 0.0%, 97.3%)",
      "hsla": "hsla(0.0, 0.0%, 97.3%, 1.0)",
      "red": "248",
      "green": "248",
      "blue": "248",
      "alpha": "1.0",
      "hue": "0.0",
      "saturation": "0.0%",
      "lightness": "97.3%"
    },
    "default": {
      "hex": "#1a1a1a",
      "hex_stripped": "1a1a1a",
      "hex_alpha": "#1a1a1aff",
      "hex_alpha_stripped": "1a1a1aff",
      "alpha_hex": "#ff1a1a1a",
      "alpha_hex_stripped": "ff1a1a1a",
      "rgb": "rgb(26, 26, 26)",
      "rgba": "rgba(26, 26, 26, 1.0)",
      "hsl": "hsl(0.0, 0.0%, 10.2%)",
      "hsla": "hsla(0.0, 0.0%, 10.2%, 1.0)",
      "red": "26",
      "green": "26",
      "blue": "26",
      "alpha": "1.0",
      "hue": "0.0",
      "saturation": "0.0%",
      "lightness": "10.2%"
    }
  },
  ...
}

Variant	Description
dark	Always dark mode colors
light	Always light mode colors
default	Mode-aware (uses --light flag to determine which variant)

Use --primary-dark and --primary-light to specify different primary colors for each mode:

dms dank16 --variants --primary-dark "#8b5cf6" --primary-light "#6d28d9"

This is the format injected into matugen templates as the dank16 object.

Contrast Algorithms

Dank16 supports two contrast algorithms to ensure readability:

Delta Phi Star (DPS) - Default

Delta Phi Star works in CIELAB and weights lightness with the golden ratio, which tracks perceived contrast better than a plain luminance ratio.

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --contrast dps

How it works:

1. Converts colors to CIELAB space (L*, a*, b*)
2. Calculates lightness contrast using: Lc = (|Lb^φ - Lf^φ|)^(1/φ) × 1.414 - 40
3. Adds 5 for dark polarity
4. Walks L* until the target is met, which keeps the hue intact

Delta Phi Star is not symmetric across polarity. The same Lc buys much less real contrast on a light background than on a dark one, so the two modes use different targets picked to land on the same measured ratios:

	Normal text	Accent slots
Dark	Lc 40	Lc 24.5
Light	Lc 70	Lc 58

Both of those come out around 4.8:1 and 3.3:1 respectively.

WCAG Contrast

The standard WCAG 2.1 ratio, targeting 4.5:1 for normal text and 2.1:1 for accent slots. Same number in both modes, since the ratio is already polarity independent.

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --contrast wcag

Advanced Options

Custom Background

Every contrast decision is made against the background, and the background also becomes slot 0. Pass the surface the palette will actually sit on, otherwise the floor is computed against the wrong thing and the result will be too dark or too washed out in practice:

# Dark theme with custom background
dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --background "#0d1117"

# Light theme with custom background
dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --light --background "#ffffff"

With --variants the flag sets the dark variant's background. The light variant is built against its own default, since a dark surface is not a sane background for a light palette. DMS passes both surfaces when it drives the generator directly.

Combining Options

All options can be combined:

dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" \
  --light \
  --background "#fafafa" \
  --contrast wcag \
  --kitty > ~/.config/kitty/dank-light.conf

Algorithm Overview

The palette generation process follows these steps:

1. Resolve the container: use the primary_container the caller supplied, or derive one from the primary by scaling saturation and value. This becomes slot 5 and seeds the near neutral slots.

2. Pick the background: the --background value, otherwise a mode appropriate default. This becomes slot 0.

3. Generate the hues: red, green and yellow from their own base hue blended part way toward the primary. Blue, magenta and cyan from the primary family.

4. Enforce contrast: every slot except 5 and 6 is walked in L* (or HSV on the WCAG path) against the background until it clears its target. Hue is preserved so colors keep their identity. Slots 5 and 6 are skipped because they pair with each other.

5. Dim slot: slot 8 is placed at a fixed L* offset from the background rather than by contrast, so bright black stays dim regardless of the primary.

Use Cases

Terminal Theming

Generate consistent color schemes for your terminal:

# Kitty
dms dank16 "#your-color" --kitty >> ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

# Foot
dms dank16 "#your-color" --foot >> ~/.config/foot/foot.ini

# Alacritty
dms dank16 "#your-color" --alacritty >> ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml

Editor Themes

VSCode and other editors get their terminal colors automatically through DMS's built-in theming. The dank16 palette is also available in your custom matugen templates via the dank16 object. See the Application Theming docs for details.

Dynamic Theming

Generate themes based on wallpaper colors or system accents:

#!/bin/bash
# Extract dominant color from wallpaper
dominant_color=$(your-color-extraction-tool ~/wallpaper.jpg)

# Generate and apply terminal theme
dms dank16 "$dominant_color" --kitty > ~/.config/kitty/auto-theme.conf
kitty @ set-colors -a ~/.config/kitty/auto-theme.conf

Light/Dark Mode Automation

Create matching light and dark variants:

#!/bin/bash
COLOR="#8b5cf6"

# Generate both variants
dms dank16 "$COLOR" --kitty > ~/.config/kitty/dank-dark.conf
dms dank16 "$COLOR" --light --kitty > ~/.config/kitty/dank-light.conf

# Switch based on time or system setting
if is_dark_mode; then
    kitty @ set-colors -a ~/.config/kitty/dank-dark.conf
else
    kitty @ set-colors -a ~/.config/kitty/dank-light.conf
fi

Tips & Best Practices

Choosing Input Colors

Pick the color you want prominent in the terminal. It lands verbatim in slot 6 and drives slots 4, 5, 12, 13 and 14, so it shows up wherever a program prints blue, magenta or cyan. Red, green and yellow stay recognisably themselves and only get pulled a few percent toward it.

A heavily desaturated or very dark input gives the generator little to work with. There are saturation and value floors to stop the whole palette collapsing to mud, but the result will still be flat compared to a vivid input.

Testing Contrast

After generating a palette, test it with actual terminal applications:

# Generate palette
dms dank16 "#8b5cf6" --kitty > /tmp/test-theme.conf

# Open new kitty window with theme
kitty -o include=/tmp/test-theme.conf

Iterating on Themes

Try slight variations of your input color to find the perfect palette:

# Try different shades
dms dank16 "#8b5cf6"  # Original
dms dank16 "#9b6cf6"  # Slightly lighter
dms dank16 "#7b4ce6"  # Slightly darker

Command Reference

dms dank16 <hex_color> [flags]

Arguments:

• hex_color (required): Input color in hex format (e.g., "#8b5cf6" or "8b5cf6")

Flags:

• --light: Generate light theme variant (sets default to light)
• --background <hex>: Custom background color. With --variants this is the dark variant's background
• --contrast <algorithm>: Contrast algorithm: dps (Delta Phi Star, default) or wcag (default "dps")
• --kitty: Output in Kitty terminal format
• --foot: Output in Foot terminal format
• --alacritty: Output in Alacritty terminal format
• --ghostty: Output in Ghostty terminal format
• --json: Output in JSON format
• --variants: Output all variants (dark/light/default) as JSON
• --primary-dark <hex>: Primary color for dark mode (use with --variants)
• --primary-light <hex>: Primary color for light mode (use with --variants)
• --wezterm: Output in Wezterm terminal format
• --neovim: Output in Neovim plugin format
• -h, --help: Show help