Is it possible to have perfect window alignment as in Zellij?

[hernancerm]

I want to use kitty's windows instead of using a multiplexer. However, I've seen that the panes in Zellij are aligned as if in a perfect grid, while in kitty they are not. In Zellij this is how panes look. Notice how the top border of Pane 1 aligns with the top border of Pane 2, and the bottom border of Pane 1 aligns with the bottom border of Pane 3.

By contrast, in kitty, I have not been able to achieve this alignment. The option placement_strategy controls how the extra space is distributed, but the extra space still exist. Is there a way for the alignment to be perfect as in Zellij?

Thanks, Hernán.

[kovidgoyal]

No, and when you run zellij inside a terminal emulator you will notice the extra space is present there as well, just around the multiplexed area. zellij (or any tty based multiplxer) gets "perfect" alignment within the multiplexed area by basically wasting a full cell on borders. kitty (or any terminal based multiplexer) can use fractions of cells and thus chooses not to waste so much space.

[hernancerm]

Personally, I'm in favor of "perfect" alignment of windows, even if that means wasting space. It seems that the wasted space would only be 1 or 2 rows of text. Do you think there could be an option or any way to achieve this in kitty at some point in the future? This is a case where aesthetics over pragmatism is a clear win for me.

[kovidgoyal]

On Sat, Apr 05, 2025 at 10:04:14AM -0700, Hernán Cervera wrote: Personally, I'm in favor of "perfect" alignment of windows, even if that means wasting space. It seems that the wasted space would only be 1 or 2 rows of text. Do you think there could be an option or any way to achieve this in kitty at some point in the future? This is a case where aesthetics over pragmatism is a clear win for me.

Not something I am interested in, but PRs are welcome.

[hernancerm]

For future wanderers:

I'm now using this look and I like it. It has the perfect window alignment and clear window selection indication. Only the window gaps are missing, but that has not bothered me during the few weeks I've used this setup.

Here is the relevant part of my config to get the look:

Extract from my kitty.conf

## name: Modus Operandi
## author: Protesilaos Stavrou
## license: GNU GPLv3
## blurb: Highly accessible themes made for GNU Emacs, conforming with the highest
## standard for colour contrast between background and foreground values (WCAG AAA)

# The basic colors
foreground              #000000
background              #ffffff
selection_foreground    #000000
selection_background    #bcbcbc

# Cursor colors
cursor                  #000000
cursor_text_color       #ffffff

# kitty window border colors
active_border_color     #193668
inactive_border_color   #9f9f9f

# Tab bar colors
active_tab_foreground   #000000
active_tab_background   #c4c4c4
inactive_tab_foreground #585858
inactive_tab_background #e3e3e3

# The basic 16 colors
# black
color0 #000000
color8 #585858

# red
color1 #a60000
color9 #972500

# green
color2  #006800
color10 #316500

# yellow
color3  #6f5500
color11 #884900

# blue
color4  #0031a9
color12 #354fcf

# magenta
color5  #721045
color13 #531ab6

# cyan
color6  #00538b
color14 #005a5f

# white
color7  #c4c4c4
color15 #595959

# Lunaperche-like
active_tab_font_style bold
active_tab_foreground #ffffff
active_tab_background #000000
inactive_tab_background #767676
inactive_tab_foreground #ffffff
active_border_color #5f87af
active_border_color #000000
inactive_border_color #b4b4b4
tab_bar_margin_color #ffffff
tab_bar_background #767676

# TABS & WINS

# Tab bar
tab_bar_align left
tab_title_template "  {title if title != 'none' else tab.active_oldest_exe}
    \{(' [' + str(num_windows)) + ']  ' if layout_name == 'stack' else '  '}"
tab_bar_style separator
tab_bar_min_tabs 1
tab_separator " "

# Tab margins/paddings
tab_bar_margin_width 6
tab_bar_margin_height 8 0

# Window margins/paddings
window_border_width 4px
single_window_padding_width 0 0
window_padding_width 0 4 4 4
single_window_margin_width 0 6 0 6
window_margin_width 0