gimprc (5)
NAME
gimprc - gimp configuration file
DESCRIPTION
The gimprc file is a configuation file read by the gimp when it starts
up. There are two of these: one system-wide one stored in
/etc/gimp/1.2/gimprc and a per-user $HOME/.gimp-1.2/gimprc which may
override system settings.
Comments are introduced by a hash sign (#), and continue until the end
of the line. Blank lines are ignored.
The gimprc file associates values with properties. These properties
may be set by lisp-like assignments of the form:
(property-name value)
where:
property-name
is one of the property names described below.
value is the value the property is to be set to.
Either spaces or tabs may be used to separate the name from the value.
The values have an associated type, described below:
STRING A sequence of characters surrounded by double-quotes ("). A
backslash (\) may be used to escape either double-quote or
itself to generate a literal double-quote or a literal back-
slash.
PATH Same as STRING, but path-expansion (see below) is also per-
formed.
DOUBLE An optional minus sign (-) followed by zero or more decimal dig-
its, and optionally a decimal-point (.) followed by zero or more
decimal digits.
FLOAT Same as DOUBLE.
INT Same as DOUBLE, except the value is rounded to the next lowest
integer.
BOOLEAN
One of true, on, yes, false, off, or no. Alternatively, the
empty string is interpreted to mean true.
POSITION
Same as two INTs separated by whitespace.
MEMSIZE
An INT followed by a size specifier. A size specifier is one of
PREVIEWSIZE
One of none, tiny, small, medium, large or huge, or an INT.
tiny is 24x24, small is 32x32, medium is 48x48, large is 64x64
and huge is 128x128.
UNIT One of inches, millimeters, picas, or points or the identifier
of one of the units you have defined in your user units
database.
PROPERTIES
Valid properties and their types:
temp-path PATH
Set the temporary storage directory. Files will appear here dur-
ing the course of running the gimp. Most files will disappear
when the gimp exits, but some files are likely to remain, such
as working palette files, so it is best if this directory not be
one that is shared by other users or is cleared on machine
reboot such as /tmp.
swap-path PATH
Set the swap file location. The gimp uses a tile based memory
allocation scheme. The swap file is used to quickly and easily
swap tiles out to disk and back in. Be aware that the swap file
can easily get very large if the gimp is used with large images.
Also, things can get horribly slow if the swap file is created
on a directory that is mounted over NFS. For these reasons, it
may be desirable to put your swap file in "/tmp".
brush-path PATH
Set the brush search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories to be searched for brushes.
pattern-path PATH
Set the pattern search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories to be searched for patterns.
plug-in-path PATH
Set the plug-in search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories which will be scanned at startup to register new
plugins.
palette-path PATH
Set the palette search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories to be searched for palettes.
gradient-path PATH
Set the gradient search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories to be searched for gradients.
module-path PATH
Set the module search path. This is a colon-separated list of
directories which will be scanned at startup for modules to be
loaded.
default-palette STRING
Specify a default palette. The palette is searched for in the
specified palette path.
default-gradient STRING
Specify a default gradient. The gradient is searched for in the
specified gradient path.
gamma-correction DOUBLE
Set the gamma correction value for the display. 1.0 corresponds
to no gamma correction. For most displays, gamma correction
should be set to between 2.0 and 2.6 Run the utility "gamma_cor-
rect" to determine appropriate values for your display. XXX is
this valid info? One important item to keep in mind: Many
images that you might get from outside sources will in all like-
lihood already be gamma-corrected. In these cases, the image
will look washed-out if the gimp has gamma-correction turned on.
If you are going to work with images of this sort, turn gamma
correction off by setting the value to 1.0.
color-cube COLORCUBE
Set the displays color cube. No longer used in gimp-1.2.x since
the introduction of GdkRgb.
install-colormap BOOLEAN
Install a private colormap by default - not actually used any-
more since the introduction of GdkRgb.
tile-cache-size MEMSIZE
The tile cache is used to make sure the gimp doesn't thrash
tiles between memory and disk. Setting this value higher will
cause the gimp to use less swap space, but will also cause the
gimp to use more memory. Conversely, a smaller cache size causes
the gimp to use more swap space and less memory. Note: the gimp
will still run even if `tile-cache-size' is set to 0. The actual
size can contain a suffix of 'm', 'M', size as being specified
in megabytes, kilobytes and bytes respectively. If no suffix is
specified the size defaults to being specified in kilobytes.
marching-ants-speed INT
Speed of marching ants in the selection outline. This value is
in milliseconds (less time indicates faster marching).
last-opened-size INT
How many recently opened image filenames to keep on the File
menu.
undo-levels INT
Set the number of operations kept on the undo stack.
transparency-type INT
Set the manner in which transparency is displayed in images.
Transparency type can be one of 0 - Light Checks, 1 - Mid-Tone
Checks, 2 - Dark Checks, 3 - White Only, 4 - Gray Only, or 5 -
Black Only.
transparency-size INT
colormap-cycling BOOLEAN
Specify that marching ants for selected regions will be drawn
with colormap cycling as oposed to redrawing with different
stipple masks. This color cycling option works only with 8-bit
displays.
default-threshold INT
Tools such as fuzzy-select and bucket fill find regions based on
a seed-fill algorithm. The seed fill starts at the intially
selected pixel and progresses in all directions until the dif-
ference of pixel intensity from the original is greater than a
specified threshold. This value represents the default thresh-
old.
stingy-memory-use BOOLEAN
There is always a tradeoff between memory usage and speed. In
most cases, the GIMP opts for speed over memory. However, if
memory is a big issue, set stingy-memory-use.
allow-resize-windows BOOLEAN
When zooming into and out of images, this option enables the
automatic resizing of windows.
dont-allow-resize-windows BOOLEAN
Negated version of allow-resize-windows.
cursor-updating BOOLEAN
Context-dependent cursors are cool. They are enabled by
default. However, they require overhead that you may want to do
without.
no-cursor-updating BOOLEAN
Negated version of cursor-updating.
preview-size PREVIEWSIZE
Set the layer preview size.
show-rulers BOOLEAN
Set the ruler visibility. The default behavior is for rulers to
be on. This can also be toggled with the View->Toggle Rulers
command or shift+control+r.
dont-show-rulers BOOLEAN
Negated version of show-rulers.
show-statusbar BOOLEAN
Controlling statusbar visibility. The default behavior is to
show the statusbar. This can also be toggled with the
View->Toggle Statusbar command or shift+control+s.
dont-show-statusbar BOOLEAN
Negated version of show-statusbar.
auto-save BOOLEAN
Auto saving is not yet implemented! Nothing will be auto-saved,
no matter how you set this.
confirm-on-close BOOLEAN
Ask for confirmation before closing an image without saving.
This is the default.
dont-confirm-on-close BOOLEAN
Negated version of confirm-on-close.
save-session-info BOOLEAN
Remember the positions and sizes of the main dialogs and asks
your window-manager to place them there again the next time you
use the GIMP.
dont-save-session-info BOOLEAN
Negated version of save-session-info.
save-device-status BOOLEAN
Remember the current tool, pattern, color, and brush across GIMP
sessions.
dont-save-device-status BOOLEAN
Negated version of save-device-status.
always-restore-session BOOLEAN
Let GIMP try to restore your last saved session.
show-tips BOOLEAN
Set to display a handy GIMP tip on startup.
dont-show-tips BOOLEAN
Negated version of show-tips.
show-tool-tips BOOLEAN
Set to display tooltips in the toolbox.
dont-show-tool-tips BOOLEAN
Negated version of show-tool-tips.
default-image-size POSITION
Set the default image size in the File/New dialog.
default-image-type IMAGETYPE
Set the default image type in the File/New dialog.
default-units UNIT
Set the default units for new images and for the File/New dia-
log. This units will be used for coordinate display when not in
dot-for-dot mode. The default units can be one of inches , mil-
limeters, points or picas or the identifier of one of the units
defined in your user units database. The default is inches.
default-xresolution FLOAT
Set the default horizontal resolution for new images and for the
File/New dialog. This value is always in dpi (dots per inch).
default-yresolution FLOAT
Set the default vertical resolution for new images and for the
File/New dialog. This value is always in dpi (dots per inch).
Set the monitor's horizontal resolution, in dots per inch. If
set to 0, forces the X server to be queried for both horizontal
and vertical resolution information.
monitor-yresolution FLOAT
Set the monitor's vertical resolution, in dots per inch. If set
to 0, forces the X server to be queried for both horizontal and
vertical resolution information.
num-processors INT
On multiprocessor machines, if GIMP has been compiled with
--enable-mp this sets how many processors GIMP should use simul-
taneously.
image-title-format STRING
Set the text to appear in image window titles. Certain % char-
acter sequences are recognised and expanded as follows:
%% literal percent sign
%f bare filename, or "Untitled"
%F full path to file, or "Untitled"
%p PDB image id
%i view instance number
%t image type (RGB, indexed, greyscale)
%z zoom factor as a percentage
%s source scale factor
%d destination scale factor
%Dx expands to x if the image is dirty, the empty string other-
wise. The x can be any character, eg %D*.
The default format string is "%f-%p.%i (%t)".
PATH EXPANSION
Strings of type PATH are expanded in a manner similar to bash(1).
Specifically: tilde (~) is expanded to the user's home directory, and
${variable} is expanded to the current value of the variable. Note
that the bash feature of being able to refer to other user's home
directories by writing ~userid/ is not valid in this file.
The only variable initially defined is gimp_dir , which is set to
either the interned value .gimp-1.2 or the environment variable
GIMP_DIRECTORY. If the path in GIMP_DIRECTORY is relative, it is con-
sidered relative to your home directory. The same variable expansion
syntax can be used to refer to environment variables. New variables
may be defined so long as their name does not shadow one of the prop-
erty names given in the previous section. Variables are set using the
following syntax:
(variable-name PATH)
Note that the right hand side of this assignment is itself path
expanded before setting the value of the variable.
Typically, the system-wide gimprc file will set a few convenience vari-
ables:
gimp_plugin_dir
Base for paths to architecture-specific plugins and modules,
/usr/lib/gimp/1.2.
FILES
/etc/gimp/1.2/gimprc
System-wide configuration file
$HOME/.gimp-1.2/gimprc
Per-user configuration file
SEE ALSO
gimp(1), gimptool(1), gimp-remote(1)
Version 1.2.3 14 Oct 2000 gimprc(5)