Layouts¶
kitty has the ability to define its own windows that can be tiled next to each other in arbitrary arrangements, based on Layouts, see below for examples:
Screenshot, showing vim, tig and git running in kitty with the 'Tall' layout¶
Screenshot, showing windows with arbitrary arrangement in the 'Splits' layout¶
There are many different layouts available. They are all enabled by default,
you can switch layouts using ctrl+shift+l. To control which layouts
are available use enabled_layouts, the first listed layout becomes
the default. Individual layouts and how to use them are described below.
Contents
The Stack Layout¶
This is the simplest layout it displays a single window using all available space, other windows are hidden behind it. It has no options:
enabled_layouts stack
The Tall Layout¶
Displays one (or optionally more) full height windows on the left half of the
screen. Remaining windows are tiled vertically on the right half of the screen.
There are options to control how the screen is split horizontally bias
(an integer between 10 and 90) and options to control how many
full-height windows there are full_size (a positive integer). The
mirrored option when set to true will cause the short windows to be
on the left side of the screen instead of the right. The syntax
for the options is shown below:
enabled_layouts tall:bias=50;full_size=1;mirrored=false
┌──────────────┬───────────────┐
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ ├───────────────┤
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ ├───────────────┤
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
└──────────────┴───────────────┘
In addition, you can map keys to increase or decrease the number of full size windows, for example:
map ctrl+[ layout_action decrease_num_full_size_windows
map ctrl+] layout_action increase_num_full_size_windows
The Fat Layout¶
Displays one (or optionally more) full width windows on the top half of the
screen. Remaining windows are tiled horizontally on the bottom half of the screen.
There are options to control how the screen is split vertically bias
(an integer between 10 and 90) and options to control how many
full-height windows there are full_size (a positive integer). The
mirrored option when set to true will cause the narrow windows to be
on the top of the screen instead of the bottom. The syntax for the options is
shown below:
enabled_layouts fat:bias=50;full_size=1;mirrored=false
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
├─────────┬──────────┬─────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
└─────────┴──────────┴─────────┘
The Grid Layout¶
Display windows in a balanced grid with all windows the same size except the last column if there are not enough windows to fill the grid. Has no options:
enabled_layouts grid
┌─────────┬──────────┬─────────┐
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
├─────────┼──────────┼─────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
└─────────┴──────────┴─────────┘
The Splits Layout¶
This is the most flexible layout. You can create any arrangement of windows
by splitting exiting windows repeatedly. To best use this layout you should
define a few extra keybindings in kitty.conf:
map F5 launch --location=hsplit
map F6 launch --location=vsplit
map F7 layout_action rotate
map shift+up move_window up
map shift+left move_window left
map shift+right move_window right
map shift+down move_window down
map ctrl+left neighboring_window left
map ctrl+right neighboring_window right
map ctrl+up neighboring_window up
map ctrl+down neighboring_window down
Now you can create horizontal and vertical splits by using F5 and F6. You can move them around using shift+arrow keys and you can move focus to neighboring windows using ctrl+arrow keys. You can switch an existing split from horizontal to vertical and vice versa using F7. Finally, windows can be resized using Resizing windows.
This layout takes one option, split_axis that controls whether new windows
are placed into vertical or horizontal splits, by default:
enabled_layouts splits:split_axis=horizontal
┌──────────────┬───────────────┐
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ ├───────┬───────┤
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ ├───────┴───────┤
│ │ │
│ │ │
│ │ │
└──────────────┴───────────────┘
The Horizontal Layout¶
All windows are shown side by side. Has no options:
enabled_layouts horizontal
┌─────────┬──────────┬─────────┐
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
└─────────┴──────────┴─────────┘
The Vertical Layout¶
All windows are shown one below the other. Has no options:
enabled_layouts vertical
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ │
│ │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ │
│ │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────┘
Resizing windows¶
You can resize windows inside layouts. Press ctrl+shift+r (also
⌘+r on macOS) to enter resizing mode and follow the on-screen
instructions. In a given window layout only some operations may be possible
for a particular window. For example, in the Tall layout you can make the first
window wider/narrower, but not taller/shorter. Note that what you are resizing
is actually not a window, but a row/column in the layout, all windows in that
row/column will be resized.
You can also define shortcuts in kitty.conf to make the active window
wider, narrower, taller, or shorter by mapping to the resize_window
action, for example:
map ctrl+left resize_window narrower
map ctrl+right resize_window wider
map ctrl+up resize_window taller
map ctrl+down resize_window shorter 3
The resize_window action has a second, optional argument to control
the resizing increment (a positive integer that defaults to 1).
Some layouts take options to control their behavior. For example, the fat
and tall layouts accept the bias and full_size options to control
how the available space is split up.
To specify the option, in kitty.conf use:
enabled_layouts tall:bias=70;full_size=2
This will have 2 instead of a single tall window, that occupy 70%
instead of 50% of available width. bias can be any number between 10
and 90.
Writing a new layout only requires about two hundred lines of code, so if there is some layout you want, take a look at one of the existing layouts in the layout package and submit a pull request!
