Neovim or Neovide, what is the difference?

Contents

• YouTube video
• Disclaimer
• Introduction
• A link to my guide will be in the video description
• If you like this, and want to support me
• Follow me on Twitter
• If you want to try the configuration you’re looking at
• My complete Neovim markdown setup and workflow in 2024
• Neovim vs Neovide
  • What is it?
  • Benefits
  • How to install Neovide on macOS
  • Set command line options
  • Run specific options only if on Neovide
  • Fix paste issue macOS
  • Get variable values
  • Issues
• Timeline

YouTube video

Disclaimer

• I use the lazyvim.org neovim distribution, which comes with a lot of defaults

Introduction

• I’ll clear the confusion on what Neovide is, I didn’t get it quite well until I installed it and I’ll show it’s possible benefits

A link to my guide will be in the video description

• So you can follow along or review it later

If you like this, and want to support me

• This helps me to keep creating content and sharing it
• Share a tip here

Follow me on Twitter

• Or as kids call it these days “X”
• Here’s the link

If you want to try the configuration you’re looking at

• In this video I explain how to install the lazyvim.org distro, kickstart and my own config, which is the one that you see in the video:

My complete Neovim markdown setup and workflow in 2024

• If you like this current article, you will find this quite useful:

Neovim vs Neovide

What is it?

• It’s a standalone app not related to your terminal application, that runs a Neovim GUI

Benefits

• Smooth scrolling
• Nice cursor animations
• Blurred background when in pop ups
• It’s decent with big markdown files, smoother than kitty
• Read the features page for more info

How to install Neovide on macOS

• Installation instructions are on the main website

brew install --cask neovide

• After installing it, I didn’t change anything, it picked up my neovim config, theme and everything
• Just open it

Set command line options

• Here’s where I set the frame to transparent, to disable the bar on top
• You can find my config.toml file in my dotfiles
• Make sure you create the following file and add the options there

mkdir -p ~/.config/neovide
vim ~/.config/neovide/config.toml

Run specific options only if on Neovide

• Run this command, if you run it on your terminal you will see the variable is undefined
• If you run it from Neovide you will see v:true

:echo g:neovide

• This means that you can have this conditional to run some options only when inside Neovide and not your regular Neovim instance on the terminal

if vim.g.neovide then
  vim.keymap.set("n", "<D-s>", ":w<CR>") -- Save
  vim.keymap.set("v", "<D-c>", '"+y') -- Copy
  vim.keymap.set("n", "<D-v>", '"+P') -- Paste normal mode
  vim.keymap.set("v", "<D-v>", '"+P') -- Paste visual mode
  vim.keymap.set("c", "<D-v>", "<C-R>+") -- Paste command mode
  vim.keymap.set("i", "<D-v>", '<ESC>l"+Pli') -- Paste insert mode
end

• This is how I configure configure all my Neovide options in the ~/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/neobean/lua/config/options.lua file

Fix paste issue macOS

• You won’t be able to paste text in Neovide, more info on the FAQ
• This is fixed by adding the following, in my case to my ~/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/neobean/lua/config/options.lua file

if vim.g.neovide then
  vim.keymap.set("n", "<D-s>", ":w<CR>") -- Save
  vim.keymap.set("v", "<D-c>", '"+y') -- Copy
  vim.keymap.set("n", "<D-v>", '"+P') -- Paste normal mode
  vim.keymap.set("v", "<D-v>", '"+P') -- Paste visual mode
  vim.keymap.set("c", "<D-v>", "<C-R>+") -- Paste command mode
  vim.keymap.set("i", "<D-v>", '<ESC>l"+Pli') -- Paste insert mode
end

-- Allow clipboard copy paste in neovim
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("", "<D-v>", "+p<CR>", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("!", "<D-v>", "<C-R>+", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("t", "<D-v>", "<C-R>+", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("v", "<D-v>", "<C-R>+", { noremap = true, silent = true })

Get variable values

• The variables for all the different options can be found in the configuration page
• If for example you want to know the value of the vim.g.neovide_cursor_animation_length variable just run

echo neovide_cursor_animation_length

# or

echo g:neovide_cursor_animation_length

Issues

• Cannot view and paste images in neovim, the same way I can with kitty, but that’s because kitty has image support

Timeline

0:00 - What is neovide
0:25 - Smooth scrolling and cursor animations
1:16 - blurred pop ups
1:26 - Smooth on big markdown files
2:03 - Install on macos
2:18 - Set command line options
2:30 - My config.toml file and dotfiles
3:18 - Configure neovide options
4:23 - Set cursor animation
4:40 - Fix paste issues
5:27 - Get variable values
5:45 - Cannot view images in Neovide
6:33 - Multiple instances in a tmux way

6:21 - RECOMMENDATION view paste images neovim
6:31 - RECOMMENDATION markdown workflow