GIFVIEW(1)

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version 1.98 · 5 versions
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💅 GIFVIEW(1) — the gifview girlies' guide

ok so this is gifview, from the General Commands Manual obvi, and bestie it displays GIF images and animations on the X window system. that's the whole vibe. let's get into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

gifview — displays GIF images and animations on the X window system 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

gifview [--display display] [options] [filenames and frames]...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

gifview displays GIF image files on workstations and terminals running the X Window System. periodt.

and here's the slay part: gifview understands multi-image GIFs, which can be displayed either as slideshows or as animations. like, it gets it. it understands the assignment 💅

🎀 INTERACTION 🎀

gifview windows recognize several keystrokes and button commands. many of them are only useful for multi-image GIFs (iykyk).

  • Space or n — go to the next frame.
  • b or p — go to the previous frame.
  • r or < — go to the first frame.
  • > — go to the last frame.
  • ESC — stop the animation.
  • s or a — toggle between animation and slideshow mode.
  • u — toggle between normal and unoptimized mode.
  • Backspace — delete this window.
  • q — quit gifview.

also mouse things 🖱️: left-clicking on a window goes to the next frame; right-clicking on a window deletes that window.

💜 COMMAND LINE 💜

gifview's command line consists of GIF input files and options.

most options start with a dash (-) or plus (+); frame selections, a kind of option, start with a number sign (#). anything else is a GIF input file. that's the sorting hat situation, ok?

gifview displays one window for each GIF input file you specify. if no GIF input file is given, or you give the special filename -, it reads from the standard input 🫶

⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

  • --animate, -a — Animate multi-image GIFs by default. Normally, multi-image GIFs first appear in slideshow mode. You can always use the a keystroke to toggle between modes. This option has a converse, --no-animate or +a.
  • --unoptimize, -U — Display multi-image GIFs as ``unoptimized'', which shows a faithful representation of what a user will see at each frame of an animation. See gifsicle(1) for a more detailed description of unoptimization. This option has a converse, --no-unoptimize or +U. GIFs are always displayed unoptimized in animation mode.
  • -d display, --display display — Sets the X display to display. This option must come before any GIF files 👑 (order matters, bestie).
  • --name name — Sets the application name under which resources are found, rather than the default of "gifview". Since gifview itself does not use the resource database, this is mostly useful for communication with your window manager.
  • --geometry geometry — Set the size and position of gifview's windows. This is a standard X option. At most one --geometry option can be given per window (that is, per input GIF file).
  • --title title — Sets the gifview window's title. The default is "gifview", followed by information about the currently displayed file and frame.
  • -w window, --window window — Display the next GIF input in an existing X window, instead of making a new top-level window. This way, you can use gifview to display animated GIFs in a window you created with another program. The window argument should be an integer (gifview will use that window ID) or root (gifview will use the root window).
  • --new-window window — Display the next GIF input in a new child of an existing X window. This child window will disappear when gifview exits. The window argument should be an integer (gifview will use that window ID) or root (gifview will use the root window).
  • --install-colormap, -i — Use a private colormap for each window (if you are using a PseudoColor display). This avoids polluting the existing colormap, and may produce better results if your colormap is full, but causes annoying colormap flashing 😭 (tradeoffs, always tradeoffs).
  • --background color, --bg color — Set the background color, which is used for transparent pixels.
  • --min-delay delay — Set the minimum delay between frames to delay, which is measured in hundredths of a second. Default is 0.
  • --fallback-delay delay — Set the frame delay of GIFs that do not specify a delay value or have a delay of 0. The final value is still subject to the value of --min-delay. Like --min-delay, delay is measured in hundredths of a second. Default is 0.
  • --no-interactive, +e — Don't pay attention to mouse buttons or keystrokes. (ghosting the input, iconic)
  • --memory-limitlim — Cache at most lim megabytes of images in memory when animating. Default is 40.
  • --help — Print usage information and exit.
  • --version — Print the version number and some quickie warranty information and exit.
ok real talk, I typed --memory-limitlim exactly like it is in the page — that's what's written, I'm not gonna "fix" it and pretend I know better 💀

🌈 Frame Selections 🌈

a frame selection tells gifview which frame to initially display from the current input file. they're useful only for animations, as non-animated GIFs only have one frame. and heads up: frame selections can only be displayed in slideshow mode ✨

  • #num — Select frame num. (The first frame is #0. Negative numbers count backwards from the last frame, which is #-1.)
  • #name — Select the frame named name.

if you give two or more frame selections, you will get one window per frame selection. windows for days 🎀

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

gifsicle(1)

💀 BUGS 💀

Please email suggestions, additions, patches and bugs to ekohler@gmail.com. (yes, actually email them, don't just complain in the group chat 🙈)

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Eddie Kohler, ekohler@gmail.com http://www.read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/

http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/ — The gifsicle home page.

and that's the whole thing bestie 🫶 Version 1.98, dated 11 July 2017, brought to you by the fine folks of this here manual (and still serving lewks). mwah 💋✨

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