Background
Keywords: KDE, KControl, background, wallpaper

The KDE Control Center
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# 5.3. Background

The Background module allows you to configure colors or wallpapers for your desktop background.

It is comprised of three areas:

1. Desktop selection and Name area.

2. The background Preview Monitor

3. An area for determining the background (at the bottom)

Desktop

The top left box, labeled Desktop, lists the currently configured desktops identified by their names.

To configure the background for a desktop, start by clicking on the desktops name.

If you wish to configure all your desktop backgrounds the same, select the checkbox labeled Common Background.

| If you want to change the names of your desktop, you can do that in another module. See Numbers and Names for mor e details.

Preview Monitor

This is a preview window. It will give you a sense of what to expect with each change.

The display background can be filled: with a single color, with a single color with a pattern over it, by any external program of your choice, or with one of several color gradients.

Determining the contents of the background.

The area at the bottom is for determining the background contents. It is divided into three tabs.

Background

This tab, allows you to fill the screen with color.

You should first select the appropriate choice in the drop down box labeled Mode. Your options are:

Flat

  By choosing this mode, you select one color (using the color button labeled Color 1), and the entire background is covered with this one color.

Pattern

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons).

  You then select a pattern by clicking Setup. This opens a new dialog window, which gives you the opportunity to Select a pattern. Simply click once on the pattern of your choice, then click on OK, and KDE will render the pattern you selected using the two colors you selected. For more on patterns, see the section Adding, Removing and Modifying Patterns.

Background Program

  By selecting this option, you can have KDE use an external program to determine the background. This can be any program of your choosing. For more information on this option, see the section entitled Using an external program.

Horizontal Gradient

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons). KDE will then start with the color selected by Color 1 on the left edge of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by Color 2 by the time it gets to the right edge of the screen.

Vertical Gradient

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons). KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 1" on the top edge of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2" as it moves to the bottom of the screen.

Pyramid Gradient

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons). KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 1" in each corner of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2" as it moves to the center of the screen.

Pipecross Gradient

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons). KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 1" in each corner of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2" as it moves to the center of the screen. The "shape" of this gradient is different then the pyramid gradient.

Elliptic Gradient

  By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color buttons). KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 2" in the center of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 1" as it moves to the edges, in an elliptical pattern.

Wallpaper

This tab, allows you to load a wallpaper on top of the color gradient.

The wallpaper is an image displayed in the background of your display.

Before you select your wallpaper, you should choose one of the modes from the drop down box labeled Mode. Your choices are:

No wallpaper

  No image is displayed. Just the background colors.

Centered

  The image will be centered on the screen without changing the size of the image. The background colors will be present anywhere the image does not cover.

Tiled

  The image will be duplicated until it fills the entire desktop. The first image will be placed in the upper left corner of the screen, and duplicated downward and to the right.

Center Tiled

  The image will be duplicated until it fills the entire desktop. The first image will be placed in the center of the screen, and duplicated upward, downward to the right, and to the left.

Centered Maxpect

  The image will be placed in the center of the screen. It will be scaled to fit the desktop, but it will not change the aspect ratio of the original image. This will provide you with an image that is not distorted.

Scaled

  The image will be scaled to fit the desktop. It will be stretched to fit to all four corners.

| If the drop-down box labled Mode has "No Wallpaper" selected, you will not be able to choose a wallpaper. Simply change this drop down box to any other mode. You will now be able to select a wallpaper.

To select a wallpaper, you may either select the wallpaper from the drop down list labeled Wallpaper, or by clicking on the Browse button.

| Displaying wallpaper requires that the image be kept in memory. If you are low on memory, using a small, tiled image or none at all is recommended. Scaling or centering a small image still requires an image the size of your display to be maintained in memory.

You may also select Multiple which causes a sequence of backgrounds to be displayed. The sequence can be either random, or in a specific order.

You select this, by placing a mark in the checkbox labeled Multiple. You then click Setup. For more on this, read the section entitled Sequential Backgrounds.

Advanced

The third tab, contains the options to make a smooth transition (blend) from the wallpaper as it changes to the background.

The blending area consists of three elements:

1. A drop-down box, which allows you to select the blending mode. Many of the modes are similar to blending modes for background colors. Select your mode from the list, and the preview window shows you what it will look like.

2. Balance slider. This adjusts the blending. The results can be seen in the preview window.

3. Limit pixmap cache. This check box, when selected, allows you to determine how much maximum memory KDE will use to store pixmap info. The default is usually the best choice.

Clicking Apply, changes the actual desktop backgrounds and makes the change permanent.

## 5.3.1. Adding, Removing and Modifying Patterns

A pattern, is a picture file, which KDE uses as a template to draw your background. The picture file provides the shapes, but KDE provides the colors. KDE 2.0 is packaged with several patterns, but you can add new patterns.

You use a pattern by first selecting "Pattern", from the Mode drop down box in the "Background" section.

Then you click Setup.

This opens a dialog box. The dialog box consists of a list of all current patterns, and three buttons: Add, Remove, and Modify.

In front of some of the pattern names, is a small globe. This signifies that this is a system wide (or global) pattern, and is available to everyone. Those patterns without a picture, are user patterns, and not available to other users.

Using a pattern in the list

To use a pattern that is already on the list, simply click once on the pattern, then click on OK.

Adding a pattern to the list

If you click on the Add button, yet another dialog box appears, with three blanks:

- A text entry line labeled Name. This will be the descriptive name of the newly created pattern.

- A text entry line labeled Comment. This is a descriptive comment. It is also a good place to enter the artist, date of creation, etc.

- A text entry line labeled Image, and a Browse button next to it. Either by entering the filename directly into the text entry line, or by browsing through the button labeled Browse, you need to locate for KDE an image file to use in the pattern. These image files are usually JPEG files.

  Once you have selected a file, you can press OK to create the new pattern based on the information you have edited, or click Cancel, to stop without creating a new pattern.

You should now see your new pattern in the list.

Removing a pattern from the list

To remove a pattern from the list, simply click on the name of the pattern once, and click "Remove". KDE will verify that you do want to delete this pattern. Simply Click Yes. Clicking No will not remove the pattern from the list.

| Deleting a pattern does not delete the image file associated with the pattern.

| If you did not create the pattern, you cannot remove the pattern from the system. Only the system administrator can remove global patterns.

Modifying a pattern

To modify a pattern, simply click on the pattern name and then click on Modify. You will now have a chance to change any parameters of the pattern. Click OK to save your changes, or click Cancel to ignore your changes

## 5.3.2. Using external programs to determine background

To use an external program to determine and change the background of KDE, simply select "Background Program". To configure this option, then click Setup.

This will bring up a dialog box, which will let you add in one or more programs, determine their options, set their "refresh" times, etc.

Using external programs to modify or change the background is beyond the scope of this document.

## 5.3.3. Sequential and Random Backgrounds

KDE can automatically change wallpapers on your system at a specified time. You give it the list of image files, and it can either change them in a predetermined order, or randomly.

To have KDE automatically change your wallpaper, first you must set the layout of the wallpaper in the drop down box labeled Mode. Then select the Multiple Wallpapers option. The Setup Multiple ... Button will become active. Click it once.

This will bring up a dialog box.

First, set the time between changes in the spin box labeled Interval. You can select from common values, or enter your own. The range of values is from once every 5 minutes to once every 240 minutes.

Now, use the drop down box labeled mode to determine if the backgrounds should be chosen randomly, or displayed in the order listed below.

Once this is done, you can now create a list of backgrounds for KDE to choose from. Use the Add and Remove buttons to alter the list to your satisfaction.

Click OK to accept your changes, or Cancel to leave without making any changes permanent.

## 5.3.4. Section Author

Mike McBride `<mpmcbride7@yahoo.com>`, Mark Donohoe, Martin Jones `<mjones@kde.org>`, Duncan H.

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