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. 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 m, M, k, K, b, or B. The size specified 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 (respectively) 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-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-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 actually 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. 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
    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 progresses 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.

cubic-interpolation BOOLEAN
    Set the level of interpolation. If set, this option enables cubic interpolation when scaling or transforming. By default, GIMP uses linear interpolation, which is faster, but has poorer quality.

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 dialog. This units will be used for coordinate 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 resolution in the File/New dialog. The default resolution 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 compiled with --enable-mp this sets how many processors 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 environment variable GIMP_DIRECTORY. If the path in GIMP_DIRECTORY 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 convenience variables:

prefix
    The installation prefix for this build, /usr/X11R6.

exec_prefix
    The path to architecture-specific executables, ${prefix}.

gimp_data_dir
    Path to sharable data, ${prefix}/share/gimp.

gimp_plugin_dir
    Base for paths to architecture-specific plugins and modules, ${exec_prefix}/libexec/gimp/1.2.

FILES

${prefix}/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)