Example UsageOption Summary

Use the display program to display an image or image sequence on any X server. See Command Line Processing for advice on how to structure your display command or see below for example usages of the command.

Example Usage

We list a few examples of the display command here to illustrate its usefulness and ease of use. To get started, lets display an image in the JPEG format:

display rose.jpg

To tile a slate texture onto the root window, use:

display -size 1280x1024 -window root slate.png

To display a visual image directory of all your JPEG images, use:

display 'vid:*.jpg'

The display program defaults to the X screen resolution. To display vecotr formats at their intended size, override the default resolution:

display -density 72 drawing.svg

You can find additional examples of using display in Graphics from the Command Line. Further discussion is available in More Graphics from the Command Line and .

Option Summary

The display command recognizes these options. Click on an option to get more details about how that option works.

Option Description
-alpha on, activate, off, deactivate, set, opaque, copy", transparent, extract, background, or shape the alpha channel
-antialias remove pixel-aliasing
-authenticate value decrypt image with this password
-backdrop display image centered on a backdrop
-background color background color
-border geometry surround image with a border of color
-bordercolor color border color
-channel type apply option to select image channels
-clip clip along the first path from the 8BIM profile
-clip-path id clip along a named path from the 8BIM profile
-coalesce merge a sequence of images
-colormap type Shared or Private
-colors value preferred number of colors in the image
-colorspace type set image colorspace
-comment string annotate image with comment
-compress type image compression type
-contrast enhance or reduce the image contrast
-crop geometry preferred size and location of the cropped image
-debug events display copious debugging information
-decipher filename convert cipher pixels to plain
-define format:option define one or more image format options
-delay value display the next image after pausing
-density geometry horizontal and vertical density of the image
-depth value image depth
-despeckle reduce the speckles within an image
-display server get image or font from this X server
-dispose method layer disposal method
-dither method apply error diffusion to image
-edge radius apply a filter to detect edges in the image
-endian type endianness (MSB or LSB) of the image
-enhance apply a digital filter to enhance a noisy image
-equalize perform histogram equalization to an image
-extract geometry extract area from image
-filter type use this filter when resizing an image
-flatten flatten a sequence of images
-flip flip image in the vertical direction
-flop flop image in the horizontal direction
-frame geometry surround image with an ornamental border
-fuzz distance colors within this distance are considered equal
-gamma value level of gamma correction
-geometry geometry preferred size or location of the image
-gravity geometry horizontal and vertical backdrop placement
-help print program options
-identify identify the format and characteristics of the image
-immutable type prohibit image edits
-interlace type type of image interlacing scheme
-interpolate method pixel color interpolation method
-label name assign a label to an image
-limit type value pixel cache resource limit
-log format format of debugging information
-map filename transform image colors to match this set of colors
-mattecolor color frame color
-monitor monitor progress
-monochrome transform image to black and white
-negate replace each pixel with its complementary color
-normalize transform image to span the full range of colors
-page geometry size and location of an image canvas (setting)
-profile filename add, delete, or apply an image profile
-quantize colorspace reduce image colors in this colorspace
-quiet suppress all warning messages
-raise value lighten/darken image edges to create a 3-D effect
-regard-warnings pay attention to warning messages.
-remote command execute a command in an remote display process
-resample geometry change the resolution of an image
-resize geometry resize the image
-respect-parentheses settings remain in effect until parenthesis boundary.
-roll geometry roll an image vertically or horizontally
-rotate degrees apply Paeth rotation to the image
-sample geometry scale image with pixel sampling
-sampling-factor geometry horizontal and vertical sampling factor
-scene value image scene number
-seed value seed a new sequence of pseudo-random numbers
-segment values segment an image
-set attribute value set an image attribute
-sharpen geometry sharpen the image
-size geometry width and height of image
-strip strip image of all profiles and comments
-thumbnail geometry create a thumbnail of the image
-transparent-color color transparent color
-black-threshold value force all pixels below the threshold into black
-trim trim image edges
-update seconds detect when image file is modified and redisplay
-verbose print detailed information about the image
-version print version information
-virtual-pixel method access method for pixels outside the boundaries of the image
-visual display image using this visual type
-window id display image to background of this window
-window-group id exit program when this window id is destroyed
-write filename write images to this file