webcollage(6)

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

💖 webcollage(6) — XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💖

🌈 NAME 🌈

webcollage — it’s literally a collage of random images from the World Wide Web, and that’s the whole vibe. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Run it like this, bestie:

webcollage [--display host:display.screen] [--root] [--window-id number]
       [--window-id id] [--verbose] [--timeout secs] [--delay secs]
       [--background bg] [--no-output] [--urls-only] [--imagemap filename-base]
       [--size WxH] [--opacity ratio] [--filter command] [--filter2 command]
       [--http-proxy host[:port]] [--dictionary dictionary-file] [--directory
       dir] [--fps]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so this screen saver creates collages out of random images from the World Wide Web. The way it finds them is lowkey iconic: it feeds random words into various search engines, then pulls images — or sections of images — out of the pages returned. One satisfied customer described it as “a nonstop pop culture brainbath,” and honestly? Periodt. 🔥

You can also see it in action at https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/. Go look, it’s giving main character energy. ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

webcollage accepts the following options:

  • --display host:display.screen — this is the display target from the synopsis. If you don’t pass it, DISPLAY gets you the default host and display number. 🌸
  • --root or --window-id number — draw on the specified window. Images are placed on the root window using the xscreensaver-getimage(6) program. (Yeah, the synopsis also literally lists --window-id id; we keep both receipts, no editing. 💀)
  • --verbose or --v — print diagnostics to stderr. Multiple -v switches increase the amount of output: -v prints out the URLs of the images and where they were placed; -vv prints out any warnings and all URLs being loaded; -vvv prints information on what URLs were rejected; and so on. 👑
  • --timeout seconds — how long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it and moving on to the next one. Default 30 seconds. ⏳
  • --delay seconds — how long to sleep between images. Default 2 seconds. (Remember that this program probably spends a lot of time waiting for the network.) 😭
  • --background color-or-file — what to use for the background onto which images are pasted. This may be a color name, a hexadecimal RGB specification in the form #rrggbb, or the name of an image file. 🎀
  • --size WxH — normally, the output image will be made to be the size of the screen (or target window). This lets you specify the desired size. 📐
  • --opacity ratio — how transparently to paste the images together, with 0.0 meaning “completely transparent” and 1.0 meaning “opaque.” Default 0.85. A value of around 0.3 will produce an interestingly blurry image after a while. 🌫️
  • --no-output — if this option is specified, then no composite output image will be generated. This is only useful when used in conjunction with --verbose. 🙈
  • --urls-only — if this option is specified, then no composite output image will be generated: instead, a list of image URLs will be printed on stdout. 🫶
  • --imagemap filename-base — if this option is specified, then instead of writing an image to the root window, two files will be created: base.html and base.jpg. The JPEG will be the collage; the HTML file will include that image, and a series of clickable rectangles linking the sub-images to the pages on which they were found, as seen on the web version of WebCollage at https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/. 🖼️
  • --filter command — filter all source images through this command. The command must take a PPM file on stdin, and write a new PPM file to stdout. One good choice for a filter would be:
webcollage -root -filter 'vidwhacker -stdin -stdout'
  • --filter2 command — filter the composite image through this command. The -filter option applies to the sub-images; the -filter2 applies to the final, full-screen image. ✨
  • --http-proxy host:port — if you must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can specify it with this option, or with the $http_proxy or $HTTP_PROXY environment variables. 🌐
  • --dictionary file — Webcollage normally looks at the system’s default spell-check dictionary to generate words to feed into the search engines. You can specify an alternate dictionary with this option.

Note that by default, webcollage searches for images using several different methods, not all of which involve dictionary words, so using a “topical” dictionary file will not, in itself, be as effective as you might be hoping. 🍓

  • --directory dir — instead of searching the web for images, use the contents of the given directory. 📁
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load (MacOS only). 🖥️

🌱 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. 🪟
  • http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY — to get the default HTTP proxy host and port. 🌈

🎀 FILES AND URLS 🎀

/usr/dict/words, /usr/share/lib/dict/words, or /usr/share/dict/words — these are the spots used to find the random words to feed into the various search fields, including Google, Bing, Flickr, Imgur and Tumblr. 📚💖

🙈 BOOBIES 🙈

The Internet being what it is, absolutely anything might show up in the collage — including, quite possibly, pornography, or even nudity. Not a drill, bestie. 💀

💀 BUGS 💀

Animating GIFs are not supported: only the first frame will be used. That’s the bug, and that’s the whole bug. 😭

🔭 SEE ALSO 🔭

Go look at: X(1), xscreensaver(1), convert(1), vidwhacker(6), dadadodo(1), driftnet(1), EtherPEG, EtherPeek, and https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/. 🫶

Legal tea, kept 100% intact so we don’t mess it up:

Copyright © 1998-2022 by Jamie Zawinski. 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 🌟

Jamie Zawinski jwz@jwz.org, 24-May-1998. Yes, the icon himself. 👑

xoxo, bestie 💖 — this is from the XScreenSaver manual, X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), and the page is webcollage(6). Bye! 🎀

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