A Hidamari alternative with more under the hood.
Hidamari is a friendly GTK app for video wallpapers on GNOME. Fresco covers the same ground and adds hardware-accelerated mpv playback, a crop and rotate editor, a searchable wallpaper library, playlists, slideshow transitions, and a Wayland layer-shell backend.
Hidamari is a solid, GNOME-focused choice for looping a video on your desktop. Where it stops is where Fresco keeps going: Fresco decodes through mpv with VA-API or NVDEC for genuinely low CPU, and it treats wallpapers as a managed library with thumbnails, a recently-used row, and search rather than a single current file.
Fresco also adds editing and variety. You can drag a crop frame, rotate a sideways clip 90 degrees, set per-wallpaper sound and volume, run a folder of images as a slideshow with crossfade or Ken Burns transitions, or queue several clips as a playlist. On multi-monitor setups you can give each display its own wallpaper.
Both are free and open source, so trying Fresco costs nothing. If Hidamari already does what you need on GNOME, keep it; if you want more control and lower CPU, Fresco is the step up.
Hardware mpv decoding
VA-API and NVDEC keep CPU near zero, instead of heavier software playback.
Crop, rotate, library
Frame a region, fix sideways clips, and manage saved wallpapers with search.
X11 and Wayland
Runs on X11 and on layer-shell compositors like Hyprland, Sway, and KDE Plasma 6.
Fresco vs Hidamari
| Feature | Fresco | Hidamari |
|---|---|---|
| GUI app, no terminal | ||
| Works on X11 | ||
| Works on Wayland (layer-shell) | Partial | |
| Hardware decode, low CPU | Partial | |
| Drag-to-crop and rotate | ||
| Playlists | ||
| Image slideshow | ||
| Wallpaper library | ||
| Built-in wallpaper catalog | ||
| Per-display wallpapers (GUI) | ||
| Day and night schedules | ||
| Actively maintained | ||
| Free and open source |
Hidamari alternative FAQ
- How is Fresco different from Hidamari?
- Fresco adds hardware-accelerated mpv decoding, a crop and rotate editor, a searchable wallpaper library, playlists, slideshow transitions, per-wallpaper audio, and a Wayland layer-shell backend, while remaining a simple GUI app.
- Does the Hidamari alternative work outside GNOME?
- Yes. Fresco runs on any X11 desktop and on Wayland layer-shell compositors (COSMIC, Hyprland, Sway, KDE Plasma 6). GNOME on Wayland uses a static-frame fallback.
- Is Fresco free like Hidamari?
- Yes. Fresco is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with no paid tier.
Try Fresco. It is free.
Free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Install the .deb and set your first live wallpaper in a minute.