GIMPRC(5) GIMP Manual Pages 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 ${prefix}/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 backslash.
PATH Same as STRING, but path-expansion (see below) is
also performed.
DOUBLE An optional minus sign (-) followed by zero or more
decimal digits, 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. Alterna-
tively, 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 speci-
fier is one of m, M, k, K, b, or B. The size spec-
ified may be omitted, in which case it defaults to
k.
IMAGETYPE
One of rgb, grey, or gray.
COLORCUBE
Four whitespace separated INTs, giving the number
of shades of red, green, blue and grey (respec-
tively) in the color cube.
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 during 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-sepa-
rated list of directories to be searched for
brushes.
pattern-path PATH
Set the pattern search path. This is a colon-sepa-
rated list of directories to be searched for pat-
terns.
plug-in-path PATH
Set the plug-in search path. This is a colon-sepa-
rated 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-sepa-
rated list of directories to be searched for
palettes.
gradient-path PATH
Set the gradient search path. This is a colon-sep-
arated list of directories to be searched for gra-
dients.
module-path PATH
Set the module search path. This is a colon-sepa-
rated list of directories which will be scanned at
startup for modules to be loaded.
default-brush STRING
Specify a default brush. This doesn't actually do
anything any more, since the default brush is set
as part of the saved device status.
default-pattern STRING
Specify a default pattern. The pattern is searched
for in the specified pattern path.
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_correct" 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 likelihood 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 actu-
ally used anymore 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. Set-
ting 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 speci-
fied in megabytes, kilobytes and bytes respec-
tively. 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
Check size can be one of 0 - Small, 1 - Medium, or
2 - Large
perfect-mouse BOOLEAN
If set to true, the X server is queried for the
mouse's current position on each motion event,
rather than relying on the position hint. This
means painting with large brushes should be more
accurate, but it may be slower. Perversely, on
some X servers turning on this option results in
faster painting.
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 pro-
gresses in all directions until the difference of
pixel intensity from the original is greater than a
specified threshold. This value represents the
default threshold.
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.
dont-auto-save BOOLEAN
Negated version of auto-save.
interpolation-type [nearest-neighbor|linear|cubic]
Sets the level of interpolation used when scaling
or transforming. By default, GIMP uses linear
interpolation, which is faster, but has poorer
quality than cubic interpolation.
confirm-on-close BOOLEAN
Ask for confirmation before closing an image with-
out 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 dialog. This units will be used for coor-
dinate display when not in dot-for-dot mode. The
default units can be one of inches , millimeters,
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).
default-resolution-units UNIT
Set the units for the display of the default reso-
lution in the File/New dialog. The default resolu-
tion units can be one of inches, millimeters,
points or picas or the identifier of one of the
units defined in your user unit database. The
default is inches.
monitor-xresolution FLOAT
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 com-
piled with --enable-mp this sets how many proces-
sors GIMP should use simultaneously.
image-title-format STRING
Set the text to appear in image window titles.
Certain % character 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 otherwise. 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 environ-
ment variable GIMP_DIRECTORY. If the path in GIMP_DIREC-
TORY is relative, it is considered 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
property 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 con-
venience variables:
prefix The installation prefix for this build, /usr/free-
ware.
exec_prefix
The path to architecture-specific executables,
${prefix}.
gimp_data_dir
Path to sharable data, ${prefix}/share/gimp/1.2.
gimp_plugin_dir
Base for paths to architecture-specific plugins and
modules, /usr/freeware/lib32/gimp/1.2.
FILES
${prefix}/etc/gimp/1.2/gimprc
System-wide configuration file
$HOME/.gimp-1.2/gimprc
Per-user configuration file
SEE ALSOgimp(1), gimptool(1), gimp-remote(1)Version 1.2.5 14 Oct 2000 GIMPRC(5)
