photopile(6)

📦
version 6.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ photopile — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it a group chat ✨

okay so bestie, we're doing photopile(6) today and honestly? it's giving scrapbook chaos in the best way possible 💖 it lives in the XScreenSaver manual and it's here to throw a whole pile of pictures at your screen.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

photopile [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--count int] [--scale factor] [--maxTilt
degrees] [--titles | --no-titles] [--polaroid | --no-polaroid]
[--shadows | --no-shadows] [--font font] [--speed ratio] [--duration
seconds] [--fps] [--debug] [--wireframe]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So what it does: it loads several random images and displays them like they're just lying in a random pile, bestie. Like you dumped your camera roll on a table and walked away. 🦋

And the pile is periodically reshuffled — new images come in, old ones get thrown out. Constant rotation. Main character energy for your photo collection.

⚠️ real talk: this program requires a good video card capable of supporting large textures. no potato GPUs, sorry 😭

And to specify the directory that images are loaded from? You don't do it here — you run xscreensaver-settings(1) and click on the "Advanced" tab. iykyk.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --visual visual — specify which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so you're already slaying.
  • --root — draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window.
  • --count int — how many images to display. default 7.
  • --scale factor — size of images in relation to the size of the window. default 0.4.
  • --maxTilt degrees — maximum deviation from vertical. default 50 degrees.
  • --duration seconds — every duration seconds, one of the images will be replaced with a new one. default 5 seconds.
  • --speed ratio — speed up or slow down the animation. 0.5 means half as fast as the default; 2.0 means twice as fast.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 10000 (0.01 seconds.).
  • --titles | --no-titles — whether to display the file names of the images beneath them. default: yes.
  • --polaroid | --no-polaroid — whether to simulate images taken by an instant camera. default: yes. 🎞️ iconic
  • --shadows | --no-shadows — whether to draw images with drop shadows. default: no.
  • --font font-name — the font to use for the initial loading screen and for image titles.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count.
  • --debug — prints debugging info to stderr.
  • --wireframe — another debug mode.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

X(1), xscreensaver-settings(1) xscreensaver-getimage(6) xscreensaver(1) carousel(6) glslideshow(6)

go read those too, they're all in the same friend group 💜

Copyright © 2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Copyright © 2008 by Jens Kilian.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Jens Kilian.

okay that's the whole thing, no notes 💖 fr fr. this page came to you from X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — literally stamped and dated like a lil collectible. go forth and pile those photos, bestie 🎀✨🌸

📦 where this page comes from