Tux Paint Config.

As of Tux Paint version 0.9.14, a graphical tool is available that allows you to change Tux Paint's behavior. However, if you'd rather not install and use this tool, or want a better understanding of the available options, please continue reading.

Configuration File

You can create a simple configuration file for Tux Paint, which it will read each time you start it up.

The file is simply a plain text file containing the options you want enabled:

Linux, Unix and Mac OS X Users

The file you should create is called ".tuxpaintrc" and it should be placed in your home directory. (a.k.a. "~/.tuxpaintrc" or "$HOME/.tuxpaintrc")

System-Wide Configuration File (Linux and Unix)

Before this file is read, a system-wide configuration file is read. (By default, this configuration has no settings enabled.) It is located at:

/etc/tuxpaint/tuxpaint.conf

You can disable reading of this file altogether, leaving the settings as defaults (which can then be overridden by your ".tuxpaintrc" file and/or command-line arguments) by using the command-line option:

--nosysconfig

Windows Users

The file you should create is called "tuxpaint.cfg" and it should be placed in Tux Paint's folder.

You can use NotePad or WordPad to create this file. Be sure to save it as Plain Text, and make sure the filename doesn't have ".txt" at the end...

Available Options

The following settings can be set in the configuration file. (Command-line settings will override these. See the "Command-Line Options" section, below.)

fullscreen=yes

Run the program in full screen mode, rather than in a window.

windowsize=SIZE

Run the program at a higher resolution, rather than the default of 640x480. The SIZE value may be one of:

• 640x480
• 800x600
• 1024x768
• 1280x1024
• 1400x1050
• 1600x1200

nosound=yes

Disable sound effects. (Note: Pressing [Alt] + [S] cannot be used to reenable sounds if they were disabled using this option.)

noquit=yes

Disable the on-screen "Quit" button and prevent the [Escape] key from quitting Tux Paint.

Using the [Alt] + [F4] keyboard combination or clicking the window's close button (assuming you're not in fullscreen mode) still works to quit Tux Paint.

You can also use the following keyboard combination to quit: [Shift] + [Control] + [Escape].

noprint=yes

Disable the printing feature.

printdelay=SECONDS

Restrict printing so that printing can occur only once every SECONDS seconds.

printcommand=COMMAND

(Linux and Unix only)

Use the command COMMAND to print a PostScript format file when the 'Print' button is clicked. If this option is not specifically not set, the default command is:

lpr

Note: Versions of Tux Paint prior to 0.9.15 sent PNG format data to the print command (which defaulted to "pngtopnm | pnmtops | lpr").

If you set an alternative printcommand in the configuration file prior to version 0.9.15, you will need to change it.

altprintcommand=COMMAND

(Linux and Unix only)

Use the command COMMAND to print a PostScript format file when the 'Print' button is clicked while the [Alt] modifier key is being held. (This is typically used for providing a print dialog, similar to when pressing [Alt]+'Print' in Windows and Mac OS X.)

If this option is not specifically not set, the default command is KDE's graphical print dialog:

kprinter

printcfg=yes

(Windows only)

Tux Paint will use a printer configuration file when printing. Push the [Alt] key while clicking the 'Print' button in Tux Paint to cause a Windows print dialog window to appear.

(Note: This only works when not running Tux Paint in fullscreen mode.) Any configuration changes made in this dialog will be saved to the file "userdata/print.cfg", and used again, as long as the "printcfg" option is set.

altprint=always

This causes Tux Paint to always show the printer dialog (or, on Linux/Unix, run the "altprintcommand") when the 'Print' button is clicked. In other words, it's like clicking 'Print' while holding [Alt], except you don't need to hold [Alt] every time.

altprint=never

This prevents Tux Paint from ever showing the printer dialog (or, on Linux/Unix, run the "altprintcommand") when the 'Print' button is clicked. In other words, it makes the [Alt] key have no effect when clicking the 'Print' button.

altprint=mod

This is the normal, default behavior. Tux Paint shows a printer dialog (or, on Linux/Unix, runs the "altprintcommand"), when the [Alt] key is pressed while the 'Print' button is clicked. Clicking 'Print' without holding [Alt] prints without showing a dialog.

simpleshapes=yes

Disable the rotation step of the 'Shape' tool. Click, drag and release is all that will be needed to draw a shape.

uppercase=yes

All text will be rendered only in uppercase (e.g., "Brush" will be "BRUSH"). Useful for children who can read, but who have only learned uppercase letters so far.

grab=yes

Tux Paint will attempt to 'grab' the mouse and keyboard, so that the mouse is confined to Tux Paint's window, and nearly all keyboard input is passed directly to it.

This is useful to disable operating system actions that could get the user out of Tux Paint [Alt]-[Tab] window cycling, [Ctrl]-[Escape], etc. This is especially useful in fullscreen mode.

noshortcuts=yes

This disable keyboard shortcuts (e.g., [Ctrl]-[S] for save, [Ctrl]-[N] for a new image, etc.)

This is useful to prevent unwanted commands from being activated by children who aren't experienced with keyboards.

nowheelmouse=yes

This disables support for the wheel on mice that have it. (Normally, the wheel will scroll the selector menu on the right.)

nobuttondistinction=yes

Prior to Tux Paint 0.9.15, the middle and right buttons on a mouse could also be used for clicking. In version 0.9.15, it was changed so that only the left mouse button worked, so as to not train children to use the wrong button.

However, for children who have trouble with the mouse, this distinction between the two or three buttons on a mouse can be disabled (returning Tux Paint to its old behavior) by using this option.

nofancycursors=yes

This disables the fancy mouse pointer shapes in Tux Paint, and uses your environment's normal mouse pointer.

In some enviornments, the fancy cursors cause problems. Use this option to avoid them.

nooutlines=yes

In this mode, much simpler outlines and 'rubber-band' lines are displayed when using the Lines, Shapes, Stamps and Eraser tools.

This can help when Tux Paint is run on very slow computers, or displayed on a remote X-Window display.

sysfonts=yes

This option causes Tux Paint to attempt to load fonts (for use in the Text tool) from your operating system. Normally, Tux Paint will only load the ones that came bundled with Tux Paint.

nostamps=yes

This option tells Tux Paint to not load any rubber stamp images, which in turn ends up disabling the Stamps tool.

This can speed up Tux Paint when it first loads up, and reduce memory usage while it's running. Of course, no stamps will be available at all.

nostampcontrols=yes

Some images in the Stamps tool can be mirrored, flipped, and/or have their size changed. This option disables the controls, and only provides the basic stamps.

mirrorstamps=yes

For stamps that can be mirrored, this option sets them to their mirrored shape by default.

This can be useful for people who prefer things right-to-left, rather than left-to-right.

keyboard=yes

This allows the keyboard arrow keys to be used to control the mouse pointer. (e.g., for mouseless environments.)

The [Arrow] keys move the mouse pointer. [Space] acts as the mouse button.

savedir=DIRECTORY

Use this option to change where Tux Paint saves pictures. By default, this is "~/.tuxpaint/saved/" under Linux and Unix, and "userdata\" under Windows.

This can be useful in a Windows lab, where Tux Paint is installed on a server, and children run it from workstations. You can set savedir to be a folder in their home directory. (e.g., "H:\tuxpaint\")

Note: When specifying a Windows drive (e.g., "H:\"), you must also specify a subdirectory.

Example: savedir=Z:\tuxpaint\

saveover=yes

This disables the "Save over the old version...?" prompt when saving an existing file. With this option, the older version will always be replaced by the new version, automatically.

saveover=new

This also disables the "Save over the old version...?" prompt when saving an existing file. This option, however, will always save a new file, rather than overwrite the older version.

saveover=ask

(This option is redundant, since this is the default.)

When saving an existing drawing, you will be first asked whether to save over the older version or not.

nosave=yes

This disables Tux Paint's ability to save files (and therefore disables the on-screen "Save" button). It can be used in situations where the program is only being used for fun, or in a test environment.

startblank=yes

This causes Tux Paint to display a blank canvas when it first starts up, rather than loading the last image that was being edited.

colorfile=FILENAME

You may override Tux Paint's default color palette by creating a plain ASCII text file that describes the colors you want, and pointing to that file using the colorfile option.

The file should list one color per line. Colors are defined in terms of their Red, Green and Blue values, each from 0 (off) to 255 (brightest). (For more information, try Wikipedia's "RGB color model" article.)

Colors may be listed using three decimal numbers (e.g., "255 68 136") or a 6- or 3-digit-long hexadecimal 'triplet' (e.g., "#ff4488" or "#F48").

After the color definition (on the same line) you may enter text to describe the color. Tux will display this text when the color is clicked. (For example, "#FFF White as snow.")

As an example, you can see the default colors currently used in Tux Paint in: "default_colors.txt".

NOTES: You must separate decimal values with spaces, and begin hexadecimal values with a pound/number-sign character ("#"). In 3-digit hexadecimal, each digit is used for both the high and low halves of the byte, so "#FFF" is the same as "#FFFFFF", not "#F0F0F0".

lang=LANGUAGE

Run Tux Paint in one of the supported languages. Possible choice for LANGUAGE currently include:

english	american-english
afrikaans
albanian
arabic
basque	euskara
belarusian	bielaruskaja
bokmal
brazilian-portuguese	portuges-brazilian	brazilian
breton	brezhoneg
british-english	british
bulgarian
catalan	catala
chinese	simplified-chinese
croatian	hrvatski
czech	cesky
danish	dansk
dutch	nederlands
estonian
faroese
finnish	suomi
french	francais
gaelic	gaidhlig	irish-gaelic
galician	galego
georgian
german	deutsch
greek
gronings	zudelk-veenkelonioals
gujarati
hebrew
hindi
hungarian	magyar
icelandic	islenska
indonesian	bahasa-indonesia
italian	italiano
japanese
kinyarwanda
klingon	tlhIngan
korean
kurdish
lithuanian	lietuviu
malay
mexican-spanish	espanol-mejicano	mexican
ndebele
norwegian	nynorsk
polish	polski
portuguese	portugues
romanian
russian	russkiy
scottish	ghaidhlig	scottish-gaelic
serbian
slovak
slovenian	slovensko
southafrican-english
spanish	espanol
swahili
swedish	svenska
tagalog
tamil
thai
tibetan
traditional-chinese
turkish
ukrainian
venda
vietnamese
walloon	walon
welsh	cymraeg
xhosa