Interstitia

Interstitia is an extension for KDE's window manager to add space around windows touching a screen edge or other window.

The size of the gap and the layouts and applications to be gapped are configurable.

Please note that this script does not do any automatic tiling. Its purpose is to reshape windows that have been manually positioned with the stock KWin window management system.

This is a fork!

The original project is here and appears to be abandoned with no activity since early 2023. This version is maintained at FredworkLemmas/interstitia.

Interstitia has been updated for Plasma 6 and is known to work in Plasma 6.5 and Plasma 6.6. It is no longer compatible with Plasma 5.

So far, in addition to addressing the api updates, I've addressed a few bugs around border consistency and drag behaviors.

I have new features planned, so stay tuned.

Installation

Dependencies

kwin on Plasma 6.

Arch Linux

packages:

• qt6-tools

notes:

• the install script needs qdbus to be in the path (for me, append /usr/lib/qt6/bin/ to $PATH in .bash_profile)

Installation via graphical interface

Please make sure to select the most recent version in the installation process.

1. Install the script via System Settings > Window Management > KWin Scripts > Get New Scripts … > search for Interstitia > Install.
2. Enable the script by activating its checkbox, and apply the settings.

Installation via command line

git clone https://github.com/FredworkLemmas/interstitia.git
cd interstitia
./install.sh

Cascading Windows

Interstitia includes a feature to "cascade" windows that occupy the same tiling slot (same size and position). This is useful when you have multiple windows stacked on top of each other and want to see them all at once without moving them.

• Start Cascade (Ctrl+}): Resizes and offsets windows in the current slot by 32 pixels, allowing you to see the title bars and edges of all windows in the stack. Keep pressing the key combo to cycle thru the windows in the cascade group.
• Stop Cascade (Ctrl+{): Resets all windows in the slot to their original tiled position and size.

The cascade state is automatically cleared if you manually move or resize a window, ensuring the script doesn't interfere with your manual window management.

Configuration

System Settings > Window Management > KWin Scripts > Interstitia > configuration button.

You may need to uncheck the checkbox for the script, apply the settings, recheck, and reapply in order for the changes to take effect.

Screen edges

Gap sizes are counted from the area that windows maximize to, i.e. from the edge of any panel you may have on that screen edge, rather than the outer screen edge itself.

Panels

Gaps on panels are not provided by this extension, but by the Plasma panel: Right-click on panel > Enter Edit Mode > More Settings... > Floating Panel.

If you have any floating panels, specify this in the configuration so that gaps can be adjusted accordingly.

Latte dock is no longer maintained, and not officially supported by this extension.

Sticky Window Snapping

For Sticky Window Snapping to work with gaps, make sure you have the threshold in the SWS configuration set to at least the largest gap size.

Applications

To find the window class name of an application: Right-click on the titlebar of a window of the application > More Actions > Configure Special Application Settings... > the pre-filled entry in Window class (application) (if it consists of two words, only the second part) is the window class to put in the script configuration.

Small Print

© 2022-2023 Natalie Clarius <natalie_clarius@yahoo.de> nclarius.github.io

© 2026 Fred McDavid <fred@frameworklabs.us> github.com/FredworkLemmas

This work is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
This program comes with absolutely no warranty.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute and/or modify it under certain conditions.

If you like this project, you can star the github repo and review the script in the kde store.