Install Matugen on Ubuntu 26.04

Matugen is a command-line color generation tool that creates Material Design color palettes from a source color or image. The generated colors can be used with terminal emulators, status bars, launchers, desktop environments, and other applications that support configurable themes. This tutorial explains how to install Matugen on Ubuntu 26.04.

Install Matugen

First, retrieve the latest Matugen release version from GitHub and save it in the variable:

MATUGEN_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/InioX/matugen/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Download the release archive and extract the Matugen executable into /usr/local/bin:

curl -sSL https://github.com/InioX/matugen/releases/latest/download/matugen-4.2.0-x86_64.tar.gz \
  | sudo tar xz -C /usr/local/bin matugen

Check that the installation completed successfully by printing the Matugen version:

matugen --version

Testing Matugen

Matugen can generate a complete color palette from a specified source color. The color hex command accepts a hexadecimal color value, while --show-colors displays the resulting palette directly in the terminal.

For example, the following command generates a palette from green:

matugen color hex '#008000' --show-colors

The output contains separate light and dark color schemes with entries such as primary, secondary, background, surface, outline, and other Material color roles:

Uninstall Matugen

When Matugen is no longer required, remove its executable from the system path:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/matugen