qiv(1)

NAME
qiv - a fast gdk3/gdk2 image viewer for X.

Version: 3.0.1, released on 2025-04-03
by Andy Spiegl - http://qiv.spiegl.de/ - qiv.andy@spiegl.de
originally by Adam Kopacz / KLOGRAFX.DE Network
http://www.klografx.net/qiv/ - adam.k@klografx.de

SYNOPSIS
qiv [options] file ...

DESCRIPTION
qiv is an image viewer developed with gdk3/gdk2. As a result, qiv is faster than traditional image viewers such as xv or xli.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Print out a brief help message.

--display disp
    Open qiv window on display disp.

-F, --file file | stdin
    Read file names from file or stdin, one name per line. This option can be specified multiple times to read from several files, and will not affect other file names passed on the command line.

-u, --recursivedir
    Change the behavior of qiv to recursively descend into the directories given on the command line.

-L, --followlinks
    With --recursivedir, this allows a symlink to point to a directory. This is useful for organizing photo dirs into categories, but it is up to you to ensure that there are no symlink loops that would cause an infinite scan.

-e, --center
    Disable window centering.

-w, --fixed_width x
    Window with fixed width x.

-W, --fixed_zoom x.
    Window with fixed zoom factor (percentage x).

--highDPIfactor FLOAT
    Resize everything by this factor to compensate for high (or also low) DPI screens.

-x, --root file
    Set file as the current desktop background (centered) and exit.

-y, --root_t file
    Set file as the current desktop background (tiled) and exit.

-z, --root_s file
    Set file as the current desktop background (stretched) and exit.

-m, --maxpect
    Expand image(s) to fit screen size while preserving aspect ratio.

-t, --scale_down
    Shrink image(s) which are larger than screen size to fit.

-b, --brightness x
    Set brightness to x (-32..32).

-c, --contrast x
    Set contrast to x (-32..32).

-g, --gamma x
    Set gamma to x (-32..32).

-n, --no_filter
    Disable filtering of images by extension. Normally, qiv will only load images with an image extension such as .jpg, .png, .gif ... This option lets you load any file as an image.

-i, --no_statusbar
    Disable statusbar.

-I, --statusbar
    Enable statusbar.

-J, --showJPEGcomments
    Enable display of JPEG comments.

-E, --showArtistName
    Enable display of artist (author) name (in JPEG images).

--artist_ignore STRING
    Do NOT show artist name if it is equal to this string

-p, --transparency
    Enable transparency for transparent images.

-a, --do_grab
    Grab the pointer in windowed mode.

-G, --disable_grab
    Disable grabbing the pointer/kbd in fullscreen mode. Useful e.g. if qiv displays images on a display other than where it was invoked from. Use with caution!

-v, --version
    Print version information.

-o, --bg_color x
    Set root background color to named color x or 24 bit hex RGB triple in the format #RRGGBB.

-C, --cycle
    Change cycle behaviour. qiv will exit after last picture has been shown.

-s, --slide
    Start slideshow immediately. This can also be used for the desktop background (x/y/z).

-r, --random
    Randomize slideshow.

-R, --readonly
    Disable the deletion feature.

-S, --shuffle
    Shuffle images (random order with next/previous functionality).

-d, --delay x
    Set slideshow delay to x seconds.

-f, --fullscreen
    Use fullscreen window on start-up.

-P, --ignore_path_sort
    Sort all the image files by just their filename, ignoring the path.

-M, --merged_case_sort
    Sort all the image files in merged-case order (AaBbCc...).

-K, --mtime_sort
    Sort files by their modification time

-N, --numeric_sort
    A "smart" numeric sort that attempts to sort filenames with numbers in a logical manner. For instance: 2.jpg sorts before 10.jpg; 1foo.jpg through 10foo.jpg sorts after 1bar.jpg through 15bar.jpg (because "foo" comes after "bar"); and baz0001.jpg through baz0010.jpg sorts after baz01.jpg through baz99.jpg (because the longer group of zero-padded digits indicates that they shouldn't be intermingled).

-D, --no_sort
    Do not apply any sorting to the list of files.

-T, --watch
    Reload the image if it has changed on disk.

-A, --select_dir dir
    Store the selected files in dir (default is .qiv-select).

-q, --rotate x
    Rotate each image 90(x=1),180(x=2),270(x=3) degrees clockwise. If x=11 or x=13, the 90 or 270 degree rotation is conditional on the image fitting better if rotated. e.g. if the display is wide and a tall image is too tall to fit on the screen, it will be rotated.

-l, --autorotate
    Do NOT autorotate JPEGs according to EXIF rotation tag. Default is ON.

-X, --xineramascreen x
    Use monitor x as preferred screen

-Y, --source_profile x
    Use color profile file x as source profile for all images

-Z, --display_profile x
    Use color profile file x as display profile for all images

-B, --browse
    This option is useful when configuring qiv to be used with a file manager. qiv will scan the directory of the clicked image and allow you to scroll through those images.

--trashbin
    Use users trash bin instead of .qiv-trash. Undeleting an image will not work, open the trash bin and restore the image instead.

--vikeys
    Enable movement with h/j/k/l, vi-style (HJKL will do what hjkl previously did)

EXAMPLES
qiv -atsd2 *.jpg
qiv --maxpect --root image.png
qiv --maxpect --slide --random --delay=2 *
qiv --maxpect --scale_down --slide --delay=2 `find / *`
qiv --bg_color 0000FF --root image.png
qiv --bg_color blue --root image.png

KEYS
    space/left mouse/wheel right       next picture
    backspace/right mouse/wheel left   previous picture
    PgDn/wheel down                    5 pictures forward
    PgUp/wheel up                      5 pictures backward
    q/ESC/middle mouse                 exit

    0-9                 run 'qiv-command <key> <current-img>'
    ^...<return>        run 'qiv-command ^... <current-img>' where ... can be any string
    ?/F1                show keys
    F11/F12             in/decrease slideshow delay (1 second)
    a                   copy picture to .qiv-select
    A                   artist (author) info on/off
    d/D/del             move picture to .qiv-trash (-R disables this feature)
                        (if started with --trashbin picture is moved to users trash bin)
    u                   undelete the previously trashed image (not working if --trashbin is used)
    +/=/mouse btn 9     zoom in (+10% / +50% if above 100%)
    -/mouse btn 8       zoom out (10%)
    e                   center mode on/off
    f                   fullscreen mode on/off
    m                   scale to screen size on/off
    t                   scale down on/off
    X                   cycle through monitors
    s                   slide show on/off
    p                   transparency on/off
    r                   random order on/off
    b                   - brightness
    B                   + brightness
    c                   - contrast
    C                   + contrast
    g                   - gamma
    G                   + gamma
    o                   reset brightness, contrast, gamma
    h                   flip horizontally
    v                   flip vertically
    k                   rotate right
    l                   rotate left
    jtx<return>        jump to image number x
    jfx<return>        jump forward x images
    jbx<return>        jump backward x images
    enter/return       reset zoom, rotation and color settings
    E                  display Exif information
    i                  statusbar on/off
    J                  JPEG comments on/off
    I                  iconify window
    w                  watch file on/off
    x                  center image on background
    y                  tile image on background
    z                  stretch image on background
    ,                  grab on/off
    <                  turn on/off magnifying window
    arrow keys/wheel           move image (in fullscreen mode)
    arrow keys/wheel+Shift     move image faster (in fullscreen mode)
    NumPad-arrow keys+NumLock  move image faster (in fullscreen mode)

MOUSE CONTROLS
    Button 1                            next picture
    Button 1 (hold down) & Mouse-Move   moving picture
    Button 2                            quit
    Button 3                            previous picture
    Wheel Up/Dn                         move image vertically
    Wheel Left/Right                    move image horizontally
    Extra mouse buttons (8,9)           zoom out/in (10%)

DELETING
qiv doesn't actually delete files. It creates a directory named ".qiv-trash" and moves the images to that directory. qiv maintains the directory structure of your "deleted" images. You can also undelete the most recently trashed images in reverse order, which moves each file back into its original directory. There is a limit to how many deletions can be undone, but it should be pretty large (currently 1024 items). Sometimes this feature might be unwanted. To prevent accidents you can specify the "-R" option to disable this feature. If the "--trashbin" option is used qiv will move the deleted pictures to the users trash bin. In that case undeleting with pressing "u" will not work. Open the trash bin and restore the image instead.

IMWHEEL SUPPORT
With XFree86 3.3.2+ server, using the wheel is seen as button 4 and 5 pressed. You only have to use "IMPS/2" or "Intellimouse" for protocol and add "ZAxisMapping 4 5 " in the "Pointer" section of XF86Config. If imwheel (a program used to emulate key pressed when wheel is used for program not supporting wheel), the following two lines must be add to imwheel config file :

"qiv"
@Exclude

USER-DEFINED KEYBOARD ACTIONS
Keys 0-9 will invoke qiv-command with the key pressed as the first argument and the current image filename as the second argument. qiv-command is not distributed with qiv; it is to be supplied by the user. Thus, this feature could be enabled by placing a simple shell script such as the following in the command search path (for example, in the user's ~/bin directory):

    #!/bin/sh
    # Argument sanity checking eliminated for brevity
    case $1 in
      0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9) mkdir -f dir$1; mv "$fname" dir$1 ;;
      *) echo "unrecognized command"; exit ;;
    esac

If the first line of the output is like "NEWNAME=xxxxxxx" then qiv thinks that the filename of the currently displayed image has changed to this new name and updates its internal filelist. This is very useful when using qiv-command to rename files.

Please also see the example that came together with qiv.

AUTHORS
    Adam Kopacz             <adam.k@klografx.de>
    Andy Spiegl             <qiv.andy@spiegl.de>
    Darren Smith            <darren.smith@juno.com>
    Pavel Andreev           <paxvel@vumsoft.cz>
    Decklin Foster          <decklin@red-bean.com>
    Holger Mueller          <hmueller@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de>
    Scott Sams              <sbsams@eos.ncsu.edu>
    Serge Winitzki          <winitzki@geocities.com>
    Frederic Crozat         <fcrozat@mail.dotcom.fr>
    Rutger Nijlunsing       <rutger@wingding.demon.nl>
    John Knottenbelt        <jak97@doc.ic.ac.uk>
    Danny                   <dannys@mail.com>
    Tomas Ogren             <stric@ing.umu.se>
    Erik Jacobsen           <erik@openix.com>
    Alfred Weyers           <alfred@otto.gia.RWTH-Aachen.DE>
    Daniel                  <danad157@student.liu.se>
    Henning Kulander        <hennikul@ifi.uio.no>
    Ask Bjoern Hansen       <ask@valueclick.com>
    Adrian Lopez            <adrian2@caribe.net>
    Y Furuhashi             <y_furuhashi@ot.olympus.co.jp>
    Wayne Davison           <wayned@users.sourceforge.net>
    Johannes Stezenbach     <js@convergence.de>
    OEyvind Kolaas          <pippin@users.sourceforge.net>
    Matthieu Castet         <castet.matthieu@free.fr>
    Geoffrey T. Dairik      <dairiki@dairiki.org>
    Leopoldo Cerbaro        <redbliss@aliceposta.it>
    Heikki Lehvaslaiho      <heikki@sanbi.ac.za>
    Larry Doolittle         <ldoolitt@boa.org>
    S. Dobrev               <sdobrev@sistechnology.com>
    Thomas Wiegner          <wiegner@gmx.de>
    Barry deFreese          <bdefreese@debian.org>
    Peter deWachter         <pdewacht@gmail.com>
    Akos Pasztory           <akos.pasztory@gmail.com>

MISC

qiv homepage: http://qiv.spiegl.de/

homepage of original author Adam Kopacz <adam.k@klografx.de>
 http://www.klografx.net/qiv/

Mail bug, reports and comments to Andy Spiegl <qiv.andy@spiegl.de>

Sending a SIGUSR1 to qiv will cause the program to flip to next picture. SIGUSR2 will move to previous.

This program is covered by the GNU GPL; see the file COPYING for details.