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Neovim or Neovide, what is the difference?

Understand what Neovide is, how to install it and how to set it up

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By Christian Arzu
5 min read
Neovim or Neovide, what is the difference?

Contents

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

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

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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
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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
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: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
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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
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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
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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

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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

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

Other videos mentioned

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