Phthalo Smoke
Phthalo Blue smoke, folding and drifting

What you see on every new tab

Phthalo Smoke is a single colour study: dense phthalo blue smoke rolling through near-black, the deep, slightly green-leaning blue used by painters. The thick parts glow a brighter royal blue, and fine strands of a paler cornflower blue run along the folds like silk threads.

It is the quietest of the smoke themes. Nothing bright or warm appears, the dark gaps between the folds stay clean, and a slow wind keeps the whole mass breathing even when the mouse is still.

• One blue, three tones: a deep phthalo body, a brighter blue on the densest crests, and a pale silk highlight, all on a background that is almost pure black.
• Silk threads: three hidden sources wander the page laying only the pale highlight, so fresh light strands keep arriving and slowly fade.
• Fibre lines: wherever the smoke changes thickness quickly, a fine lighter line is drawn along the edge.
• Clean voids: very thin smoke is shown as black, and empty gaps clear faster than dense folds refill, so the dark spaces stay crisp.
• A breathing wind: a broad, slowly changing swirl moves the smoke all the time, with no fixed loop.

Phthalo Smoke solves the fluid equations on a 288-row velocity grid each frame, with pressure projection and vorticity confinement, and carries two dyes, the blue body and the silk, using MacCormack advection so folds keep their edges.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: move the pointer through the smoke and it shoves the folds aside and lays down both blue and silk; the push fades over a few seconds and the smoke relaxes.
• Music: with music sync on, bass makes the blue glow and the hidden sources pour harder, treble sharpens the fibre lines, and kicks puff out bursts of blue near the middle of the page.
• Sound: a muffled, deep underwater hum. Sound starts soft on a new install, and you can turn it down or off right on the New Tab.
• Night: it paints its own night, easing down to about 85 percent brightness after dark instead of using the shared dark overlay.

Free or Pro?Pro

Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Phthalo Smoke is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Phthalo Smoke full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Phthalo Smoke. Done.

Questions

Why only blue?

The theme is built around one pigment, Phthalo Blue, and its palette holds nothing else. Keeping to a single hue lets the folds and fibre lines carry the picture. If you want colour, Gelato Smoke and Gelato Light run the same kind of solver with four flavours.

Is Phthalo Smoke free?

It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released.

What happens on a computer without float textures?

The simulation needs WebGL2 and floating-point render targets. Without them the theme draws the same domain-warped fold pattern in the same blues and lets it drift slowly. It looks similar, but the folds do not respond to the mouse.

Does it get slower on a weak graphics card?

If frames keep running slow for a couple of seconds, the theme lowers the resolution of the smoke detail by a quarter, and can do this twice. It never raises it back during that session, so the motion stays smooth.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

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