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.

800x600=yes

Run the program at 800x600 resolution (EXPERIMENTAL), rather than the smaller 640x480 resolution.

nosound=yes

Disable sound effects.

noquit=yes

Disable the on-screen "Quit" button. (Pressing the [Escape] key or clicking the window's close button still works.)

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 PNG file. If not set, the default command is:

pngtopnm | pnmtops | lpr

Which converts the PNG to a NetPBM 'portable anymap', then converts that to a PostScript file, and finally sends that to the printer, using the "lpr" command.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

lang=LANGUAGE

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

english	american-english
afrikaans
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
finnish	suomi
french	francais
german	deutsch
greek
hebrew
hindi
hungarian	magyar
icelandic	islenska
indonesian	bahasa-indonesia
italian	italiano
japanese
klingon	tlhIngan
korean
lithuanian	lietuviu
malay
norwegian	nynorsk
polish	polski
portuguese	portugues
romanian
russian
serbian
spanish	espanol
slovak
slovenian	slovensko
swedish	svenska
tamil
traditional-chinese
turkish
vietnamese
walloon	walon
welsh	cymraeg

Overriding System Config. Options using .tuxpaintrc

(For Linux and Unix users)

If any of the above options are set in "/etc/tuxpaint/tuxpaint.config", you can override them in your own "~/.tuxpaintrc" file.

For true/false options, like "noprint" and "grab", you can simply say they equal 'no' in your "~/.tuxpaintrc" file:

noprint=no
uppercase=no

Or, you can use options similar to the command-line override options described below. For example:

print=yes
mixedcase=yes

Command-Line Options

Options can also be issued on the command-line when you start Tux Paint.

--fullscreen
--800x600
--nosound
--noquit
--noprint
--printdelay=SECONDS
--printcfg
--simpleshapes
--uppercase
--grab
--noshortcuts
--nowheelmouse
--nofancycursors
--nooutlines
--nostamps
--nostampcontrols
--mirrorstamps
--keyboard
--savedir DIRECTORY
--saveover
--saveovernew
--nosave
--lang LANGUAGE


These enable or correspond to the configuration file options described above.

---

--windowed
--640x480
--sound
--quit
--print
--printdelay=0
--noprintcfg
--complexshapes
--mixedcase
--dontgrab
--shortcuts
--wheelmouse
--fancycursors
--outlines
--stamps
--stampcontrols
--dontmirrorstamps
--mouse
--saveoverask
--save


These options can be used to override any settings made in the configuration file. (If the option isn't set in the configuration file(s), no overriding option is necessary.)

---

--locale locale

Run Tux Paint in one of the support languages. See the "Choosing a Different Language" section below for the locale strings (e.g., "de_DE@euro" for German) to use.

(If your locale is already set, e.g. with the "$LANG" environment variable, this option is not necessary, since Tux Paint honors your environment's setting, if possible.)

--nosysconfig

Under Linux and Unix, this prevents the system-wide configuration file, "/etc/tuxpaint/tuxpaint.conf", from being read.

Only your own configuration file, "~/.tuxpaintrc", if it exists, will be used.

--nolockfile

By default, Tux Paint uses what's known as a 'lockfile' to prevent it from being launched more than once in 30 seconds. (This is to avoid accidentally running multiple copies; for example, by double-clicking a single-click launcher, or simply impatiently clicking the icon multiple times.)

To make Tux Paint ignore the lockfile, allowing it to run again, even if it was just launched less than 30 seconds ago, run Tux Paint with the '--nolockfile' option on the command-line.

By default, the lockfile is stored in "~/.tuxpaint/" under Linux and Unix, and "userdata\" under Windows.

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Command-Line Informational Options

The following options display some informative text on the screen. Tux Paint doesn't actually start up and run afterwards, however.

--version

Display the version number and date of the copy of Tux Paint you are running. It also lists what, if any, compile-time options were set. (See INSTALL.txt and FAQ.txt).

--copying

Show brief license information about copying Tux Paint.

--usage

Display the list of available command-line options.

--help

Display brief help on using Tux Paint.

--lang help

Display a list of available languages in Tux Paint.

Choosing a Different Language

Tux Paint has been translated into a number of languages. To access the translations, you can use the "--lang" option on the command-line to set the language (e.g. "--lang spanish") or use the "lang=" setting in the configuration file (e.g., "lang=spanish").

Tux Paint also honors your environment's current locale. (You can override it on the command-line using the "--locale" option; see above.)

Use the option "--lang help" to list the available language options available.

Available Languages

Locale Code	Language (native name)	Language (English name)
C		English
af_ZA		Afrikaans
be_BY	Bielaruskaja	Belarusian
bg_BG		Bulgarian
br_FR	Brezhoneg	Breton
ca_ES	Català	Catalan
cs_CZ	Cesky	Czech
cy_GB	Cymraeg	Welsh
da_DK	Dansk	Danish
de_DE@euro	Deutsch	German
el_GR.UTF8 (*)		Greek
en_GB		British English
es_ES@euro	Español	Spanish
eu_ES	Euskara	Basque
fi_FI@euro	Suomi	Finnish
fr_FR@euro	Français	French
he_IL (*)		Hebrew
hi_IN (*)		Hindi
hr_HR	Hrvatski	Croatian
hu_HU	Magyar	Hungarian
id_ID	Bahasa Indonesia	Indonesian
is_IS	Íslenska	Icelandic
it_IT@euro	Italiano	Italian
ja_JP.UTF-8 (*)		Japanese
ko_KR.UTF-8 (*)		Korean
lt_LT.UTF-8	Lietuviu	Lithuanian
ms_MY		Malay
nb_NO	Norsk (bokmål)	Norwegian Bokmål
nn_NO	Norsk (nynorsk)	Norwegian Nynorsk
nl_NL@euro		Dutch
pl_PL	Polski	Polish
pt_BR	Portugês Brazileiro	Brazilian Portuguese
pt_PT	Portugês	Portuguese
ro_RO		Romanian
ru_RU		Russian
sk_SK		Slovak
sl_SI		Slovenian
sr_YU		Serbian
sv_SE@euro	Svenska	Swedish
ta_IN (*)		Tamil
tlh (*)	tlhIngan	Klingon
tr_TR@euro		Turkish
vi_VN		Vietnamese
wa_BE@euro		Walloon
zh_CN (*)		Chinese (Simplified)
zh_TW (*)		Chinese (Traditional)

(*) - These languages require their own fonts, since they are not represented using a Latin character set, like the others. See the "Special Fonts" section, below.

Setting Your Environment's Locale

Changing your locale will affect much of your environment.

As stated above, along with letting you choose the language at runtime using command-line options ("--lang" and "--locale"), Tux Paint honors the global locale setting in your environment.

If you haven't already set your environment's locale, the following will briefly explain how:

Linux/Unix Users

First, be sure the locale you want to use is enabled by editing the file "/etc/locale.gen" on your system and then running the program "locale-gen" as root.

Note: Debian users may be able to simply run the command "dpkg-reconfigure locales".

Then, before running Tux Paint, set your "$LANG" environment variable to one of the locales listed above. (If you want all programs that can be translated to be, you may wish to place the following in your login script; e.g. ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc, ~/.cshrc, etc.)

For example, in a Bourne Shell (like BASH):

export LANG=es_ES@euro ; \
tuxpaint

And in a C Shell (like TCSH):

setenv LANG es_ES@euro ; \
tuxpaint

---

Windows Users

Tux Paint will recognize the current locale and use the appropriate files by default. So this section is only for people trying different languages.

The simplest thing to do is to use the '--lang' switch in the shortcut (see "INSTALL.txt"). However, by using an MSDOS Prompt window, it is also possible to issue a command like this:

set LANG=es_ES@euro

...which will set the language for the lifetime of that DOS window.

For something more permanent, try editing your computer's 'autoexec.bat' file using Windows' "sysedit" tool:

Windows 95/98

1. Click on the 'Start' button, and select 'Run...'.
2. Type "sysedit" into the 'Open:' box (with or without quotes).
3. Click 'OK'.
4. Locate the AUTOEXEC.BAT window in the System Configuration Editor.
5. Add the following at the bottom of the file:

   set LANG=es_ES@euro

6. Close the System Configuration Editor, answering yes to save the changes.
7. Restart your machine.

To affect the entire machine, and all applications, it is possible to use the "Regional Settings" control panel:

1. Click on the 'Start' button, and select 'Settings | Control Panel'.
2. Double click on the "Regional Settings" globe.
3. Select a language/region from the drop down list.
4. Click 'OK'.
5. Restart your machine when prompted.

Special Fonts

Some languages require special fonts be installed. These font files (which are in TrueType format (TTF)), are much too large to include with the Tux Paint download, and are available separately. (See the table above, under the "Choosing a Different Language" section.)

When running Tux Paint in a language that requires its own font, Tux Paint will try to load the font file from its system-wide "fonts" directory (under a "locale" subdirectory). The name of the file corresponds to the first two letters in the 'locale' code of the language (e.g., "ko" for Korean, "ja" for Japanese, "zh" for Chinese).

For example, under Linux or Unix, when Tux Paint is run in Korean (e.g., with the option "--lang korean"), Tux Paint will attempt to load the following font file:

/usr/share/tuxpaint/fonts/locale/ko.ttf

You can download fonts for supported languages from Tux Paint's website, http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/. (Look in the 'Fonts' section under 'Download.')

Under Unix and Linux, you can use the Makefile that comes with the font to install the font in the appropriate location.