fliptext(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 fliptext 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to fliptext, a lil gem from the XScreenSaver manual (that's the 6x vibe, iykyk). it's giving "words but make it ✨cinematic✨". strap in 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

fliptext — draws pages of text whose lines transparently flip around 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

fliptext [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root]
[--window-id number] [--visual visual] [--delay microseconds] [--program
command] [--size integer ] [--columns integer] [--left | --center |
--right] [--lines integer] [--speed float] [--delay usecs] [--font xlfd]
[--wireframe] [--fps]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so here's the tea ☕: fliptext runs another program to generate a whole stream of text, and then it animates the lines of that text transparently flipping in and out in 3D. literally main character energy for your screen. no cap. 🔥

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

fliptext accepts the following options, bestie:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, the og, the blueprint 💖
  • --root — draw on the root window. going full desktop takeover energy 👑
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. very "i know exactly which window i want" of you 💅
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window. fancy ✨
  • --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. so many options fr fr 🦋
  • --program sh-command — this program will be run periodically, and its output will be the text that is displayed. default xscreensaver-text. you can configure the text printed through the "Advanced" tab of xscreensaver-settings(1), or by editing your ~/.xscreensaver file. 🫶
  • --size integer — how large a font to use, in points. (well, in some arbitrary unit we're calling "points" for the sake of argument.) default: 20. not them being vague about units 😭 iconic tho
  • --columns integer — at (approximately) what column to wrap lines. default 80. wrapping is done by pixels, not characters, and lines will always wrap at the edge of the screen regardless. okay so it's pixel-based, the character count is lowkey just vibes 💀
  • --left | --center | --right — whether to align the text flush left, centered, or flush right. the default is to choose randomly each time a new screen of text is displayed. chaos alignment, we love to see it 🌈
  • --lines integer — how many lines of text should be shown at once. default 8. 🍓
  • --speed ratio — change the animation speed; 0.5 to go half as fast, 2.0 to go twice as fast. zoom zoom 🧚
  • --delay usecs — the delay between frames of the animation; default is 10000 (1/10th second.) ✨
  • --font font-name — the name of the font to use. for best effect, this should be a large font (at least 36 points.) the bigger the font, the better looking the characters will be. note that the size of this font affects only the clarity of the characters, not their size on the screen: for that, use the --size or --columns options. default: -*-utopia-bold-r-normal-*-*-720-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1 💜
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. numbers go brrr 👑

🌈 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 🌸

xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-text(6x), fortune(1), phosphor(6x), apple2(6x), fontglide(6x), ljlatest(6x), dadadodo(1), webcollage(6x), driftnet(1) EtherPEG, EtherPeek 🫶

Copyright © 2005 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> 🌟

and that's the whole page, bestie!! go forth and make your text flip, it's literally so cute 💅✨

signing off from X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44 (13-Oct-2026) — mwah, slay, periodt 💖🎀🦋

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