gltext(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ gltext(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so. this one's from the XScreenSaver manual, section 6x, and it's literally just vibes: text, spinning, three-dimensional, iconic. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

gltext — draws text spinning around in 3D. that's it. that's the whole job. and she ATE. 🔥

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gltext [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number] [--visual visual] [--delay microseconds] [--text string]
[--program command] [--wander] [--no-wander] [--spin axes] [--no-spin]
[--front] [--no-front] [--wireframe] [--fps]

like, yes queen, look at all those flags. we're gonna go through every single one, don't you worry. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so gltext draws some text spinning around in 3D, bestie. but here's the serve: it uses a font that looks like it's made of solid tubes. tubes!! it's giving neon sign, it's giving sci-fi movie credits, it's giving main character energy fr fr. ✨

💖 OPTIONS 💖

gltext accepts the following options, and we're listing all of them because that's what we do:

  • --window — draw on a brand-new window that she just made. this is the default, so if you're not specifying anything, this is what you're getting. 👑
  • --root — draw straight on the root window. going full desktop-background mode.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specific window you point at with number.
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window. (very exclusive, very VIP, lowkey.)
  • --visual visual — pick which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual — and yes that number can be decimal or hex, whichever you vibe with.
  • --text string — the text to display!! ✨ this may contain newlines, but ngl it shouldn't be very long, okay? the default is to display the machine name and OS version.

this may ALSO be a format string that's acceptable to date(1) and strftime(3), and if that's the case, it gets updated once a second. so bestie, to make this program display a spinning digital clock, you could literally do this:

gltext -text "%A%n%d %b %Y%n%l:%M:%S %p"

and to include a literal %, you must double it: %%. (yes girl, escape it, she's shy.)

see the man page for strftime(3) for more details. 📖

  • --program command — the given program gets run, and its output is what gets displayed. if you specify this, it overrides --text. the output of this program will be repeatedely displayed (that's a typo in the original and we are keeping it, no cap 💀), with new pages of text shifting in every few seconds. lines should be relatively short. you might try:
-program 'xscreensaver-text --cols 20'
  • --maxlines — sets the number of lines of text to display. by default, gltext will print 8 lines of text at a time. use this option to increase or decrease that number. but bestie, listen: gltext is designed to work with a fairly small amount of text, so setting this value too high might result in slow performance or strange behaviour stemming from buffer overflows. increase at your own risk. 🫣
  • --mono — display the text in a monospace font. (the default is a variable-width font, so this is you choosing the other thing.)
  • --no-mono — display the text in a variable-width font. this is the default. she's flexible like that.
  • --wander — move the text around the screen. this is the default. she does NOT sit still. 🦋
  • --no-wander — keep the text centered on the screen. sit. stay. good girl.
  • --wander-speed — sets the speed at which the text wanders around. default is 0.02.
  • --spin — which axes around which the text should spin. the default is "XYZ", meaning rotate it freely in space. "--spin Z" would rotate the text in the plane of the screen while not rotating it into or out of the screen; etc. 🌈
  • --no-spin — don't spin the text at all: the same as --spin "". yes, empty string. she's still. she's calm. she's at peace. 🧘
  • --front — when spinning, never spin all the way around or upside down: always face mostly forward so that the text is easily readable. considerate queen. 👑
  • --no-front — allow spins to go all the way around or upside down. this is the default. chaotic. unhinged. we love her. 💀
  • --wireframe — render in wireframe instead of solid. skeleton mode.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. numbers!! for the nerds (affectionate). 📊
  • --scale — sets the scale at which the text is rendered. bigger values = bigger text; smaller values = smaller text. the default value is 0.01.

🌈 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(1) xscreensaver-text(6x) — go read those too bestie, they're the rest of the friend group.

Copyright © 2001-2014 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.

(translation: use it, love it, just keep the notice. and no promises, fr fr. 🙈)

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org> — the icon, the legend, the moment. 👑

and that's the whole thing!! X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated (13-Oct-2026) — so like, this page is from the future, slay. 💖 thanks for reading bestie, now go spin some tubes. 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from