marbling(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 9 versions
, in fedora 44

💅 marbling — the manual, but make it cute

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about marbling, a lil XScreenSaver hack from the XScreenSaver manual that makes cloud-looking, marble-looking, absolutely gorgeous patterns on your screen and honestly? it's giving art gallery. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

marbling — Marble-like or cloud-like patterns. that's it. that's the whole job. no cap. ☁️

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

marbling [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--scale number]
[--iterations number] [--fps]

literally just type marbling and vibe, or sprinkle in some flags if you're feeling extra. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea: marbling generates a random field using Perlin Noise, and then it permutes that field with Fractal Brownian Motion ✨ to cook up images that kind of look like clouds, or like the striations you see in marble — and which one you get totally depends on the parameters you pick and the colors you choose. iykyk. it's chaotic, it's beautiful, it's main character energy. 🔥

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --visual visual — tells it which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. go off, specify away. 🎨
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, congrats, you're already doing this. 👑
  • --root — draws on the root window. full desktop takeover vibes. 🌸
  • --window-id number — draws on the specified window. you pick the window, you pick the destiny. 🪟
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 10000 (that's 0.01 seconds, bestie). 🕐
  • --scale number — Scale. range is 1 - 30. default: 10. 🧚
  • --iterations number — Complexity. range is 1 - 20. default: 5. 🌀
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. humble lil performance readout. 📊
heads up: those ranges are 1 - 30 for scale and 1 - 20 for iterations, so don't go rogue outside them and then act surprised. 💀

🌟 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 🔗

go read those too, they're iconic. 💜

Copyright © 2021 by Jamie Zawinski and Dave Odell.

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.

(yes, all of that. legal stuff stays legal stuff, even when it's wearing a bow. 🎀)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jamie Zawinski and Dave Odell.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🌈 this beauty shipped as part of X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — so go forth, run marbling, and let your screen look like expensive countertop. slay. 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from