webcollage(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ webcollage ✨

okay bestie, sit DOWN, because this is the 6x manual page from the XScreenSaver manual and it is genuinely one of the most unhinged things in the whole X11 ecosystem 💖

🌈 NAME 🌈

webcollage — a collage of random images from the World Wide Web 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

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 💫

So basically this screen saver makes collages out of random images from the World Wide Web. The way it works is iconic: it feeds random words into a bunch of search engines, then pulls images (or just sections of images) out of the pages that come back. 🌸

Some satisfied customer once described it as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath" and honestly?? no notes. 💅

You can also watch it in action at https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/ ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

webcollage accepts the following options, bestie:

  • --root or --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. Images get placed onto the root window using the xscreensaver-getimage(6x) program. 🖼️
  • --verbose or --v — Print diagnostics to stderr. Stacking multiple -v switches increases 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. The higher you go, the more it yaps — iykyk 👀
  • --timeout seconds — How long to wait for a URL to finish before giving up on it and moving on to the next one. Default is 30 seconds. ⏳
  • --delay seconds — How long to sleep between images. Default is 2 seconds. (Remember that this program probably spends a lot of time just waiting on the network, so lowkey the delay isn't the slow part 😭)
  • --background color-or-file — What to use for the background that images get pasted onto. This can be a color name, a hexadecimal RGB spec in the form '#rrggbb', or the name of an image file. 🎨
  • --size WxH — Normally the output image gets made to be the size of the screen (or the target window). This option lets you specify the size you actually want. 📐
  • --opacity ratio — How transparently to paste the images together, where 0.0 means "completely transparent" and 1.0 means "opaque." Default is 0.85. A value of around 0.3 will produce an interestingly blurry image after a while. 🫧
  • --no-output — If this is specified, then no composite output image will be generated. This is only useful when you're using it together with --verbose. 🙈
  • --urls-only — If this is specified, then no composite output image will be generated: instead, a list of image URLs gets printed on stdout. 🔗
  • --imagemap filename-base — If this is specified, then instead of writing an image to the root window, two files get created: "base.html" and "base.jpg". The JPEG is the collage; the HTML file includes that image, plus a series of clickable rectangles linking the sub-images to the pages on which they were found — exactly like what you see 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 have to 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). 🔥

🌸 NOTES FOR FEDORA USER 🌸

Webcollage on Fedora uses the -directory option by default, so it does not connect to the internet and just uses image files on your local disk. If you want webcollage to actually go search for image files on the net, use webcollage.original instead. 💜

🦋 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 — 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. bestie, you have been warned. 🙈

😭 BUGS 😭

Animating GIFs are not supported: only the first frame will be used. 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

X(1), xscreensaver(1), convert(1), vidwhacker(6x), dadadodo(1), driftnet(1), EtherPEG, EtherPeek, https://www.jwz.org/webcollage/ ✨

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. 🫶

okay that's the whole thing, no cap. this page is from X Version 11, version 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026, and it's the webcollage(6x) page — go make some collages bestie, you're gonna slay 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from