Deskstamp

Native desktop watermark overlay for Linux & Pop!_OS COSMIC.
Real-time screen watermarking with seamless click-through and zero idle CPU overhead.

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Overview

Deskstamp is a lightweight screen watermark overlay utility for Pop!_OS 24.04 COSMIC and modern Wayland compositors.

deskstamp-demo.mp4

It runs as a persistent transparent layer over your workspace, protecting streams, recordings, and confidential work without post-production video editing:

• True Wayland click-through: Uses zwlr_layer_shell_v1 with an empty input region (wl_surface.set_input_region(None)). All clicks, mouse gestures, and keyboard focus pass straight to applications beneath.
• Zero idle CPU overhead: Renders once to a shared memory (shm) buffer and sleeps. Only redraws on configuration updates or dynamic clock tokens.
• Dynamic tokens: Expands {user}, {hostname}, {date}, and customizable {time:%H:%M:%S} in real-time.
• IPC control: UNIX domain socket allows toggling visibility, reloading settings, and inspecting status on the fly.

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Installation

Pop!_OS / Ubuntu / Debian (.deb)

Download the .deb package from Releases:

wget https://github.com/GabrielBaiano/Deskstamp/releases/latest/download/deskstamp_0.2.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./deskstamp_0.2.0_amd64.deb

Generic Linux x86_64 (.tar.gz)

wget https://github.com/GabrielBaiano/Deskstamp/releases/latest/download/deskstamp-v0.2.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -xzf deskstamp-v0.2.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
cd deskstamp-v0.2.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
./install.sh

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/GabrielBaiano/Deskstamp.git
cd Deskstamp
cargo build --release
install -Dm755 target/release/deskstamp ~/.local/bin/deskstamp

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Usage

Test Overlay (5 seconds)

deskstamp test

Run Daemon

deskstamp daemon &

Toggle Visibility

Bind this command to a keyboard shortcut in COSMIC Desktop Settings (Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts):

deskstamp toggle

Reload Configuration

deskstamp reload

Export Watermark Preview Image

deskstamp preview preview.png

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Configuration

Deskstamp creates a default configuration file at ~/.config/deskstamp/config.json:

{
  "text": "CONFIDENTIAL • {user}@{hostname} • {time:%H:%M:%S}",
  "font_size": 22.0,
  "angle_deg": -25.0,
  "opacity": 0.18,
  "color_rgba": [255, 255, 255, 255],
  "spacing_x": 420.0,
  "spacing_y": 220.0,
  "stagger_offset": 210.0,
  "stroke_width": 1.0,
  "stroke_color_rgba": [0, 0, 0, 180],
  "font_path": null,
  "active": true,
  "update_interval_secs": 1
}

Dynamic Tokens

Token	Output Description	Example
{user}	Current logged-in user	gabriel
{hostname}	Machine system hostname	pop-os
{date}	Current date (YYYY-MM-DD)	2026-09-22
{time}	Current time (HH:MM:SS)	14:30:15
{date:FORMAT}	Custom Chrono date format	{date:%b %d, %Y} → Sep 22, 2026
{time:FORMAT}	Custom Chrono time format	{time:%I:%M %p} → 02:30 PM

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License

Distributed under the GPL-3.0-or-later License. See LICENSE for details.