---
name: "boxfit"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "xscreensaver"
version: "6.15-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/boxfit"
---

# boxfit(6)

fills space with a gradient of growing boxes or circles.

## NAME

boxfit - fills space with a gradient of growing boxes or circles.

## SYNOPSIS

**boxfit** \[--display *host:display.screen*\] \[--visual *visual*\] \[--window\] \[--root\] \[--window-id *number*\] \[--delay *usecs*\] \[--count *int*\] \[--growby *int*\] \[--spacing *int*\] \[--border *int*\] \[--circles \| --squares \| --random\] \[--grab\] \[--peek\] \[--fps\]

## DESCRIPTION

Packs the screen with growing boxes or circles, colored according to a horizontal or vertical gradient.  The objects grow until they touch, then stop.  When the screen is full, they shrink away and the process restarts.

## OPTIONS

- **--visual *visual***

  Specify which visual to use.  Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.

- **--window**

  Draw on a newly-created window.  This is the default.

- **--root**

  Draw on the root window.

- **--window-id *number***

  Draw on the specified window.

- **--delay *microseconds***

  How much of a delay should be introduced between steps of the animation. Default 20000, or about 0.02 seconds.

- **--count *int***

  How many boxes or circles to animate simultaneously; default 50. Smaller numbers yield larger boxes/circles.

- **--growby *int***

  How many pixels the objects should grow by, each frame.  Default 1.

- **--spacing *int***

  How many pixels of space should be left between the objects.  Default 1.

- **--border *int***

  Thickness of the colored border around each object.  Default 1.

- **--circles \| --squares \| --random**

  Draw circles, squares, or choose randomly (the default).

- **--grab**

  Normally it colors the boxes with a horizontal or vertical gradient. If *--grab* is specified, it will instead load a random image, and color the boxes according to the colors in that image. As the picture fills in, some features of the underlying image may become recognisable.

  When grabbing images, the image will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the *grabDesktopImages*, *grabVideoFrames*, and *chooseRandomImages* options in the *~/.xscreensaver* file; see [**xscreensaver-settings**(1)](/xscreensaver-settings/1.md) for more details.

- **--peek**

  This option says to briefly show you the underlying image before beginning.  The default is not to show the unadulterated image at all. (This only has an effect when *--grab* is used.)

- **--fps**

  Display the current frame rate and CPU load.

## ENVIRONMENT

- **DISPLAY**

  to get the default host and display number.

- **XENVIRONMENT**

  to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE\_MANAGER property.

- **XSCREENSAVER\_WINDOW**

  The window ID to use with *--root*.

## SEE ALSO

**X**(1), [**xscreensaver**(1)](/xscreensaver/1.md) [**xscreensaver-settings**(1)](/xscreensaver-settings/1.md), [**xscreensaver-getimage**(6)](/xscreensaver-getimage/6.md)

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2005 by Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to use, copy, modify,  distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is  hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear  in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.  No representations are made about the  suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

## AUTHOR

Jamie Zawinski \<jwz@jwz.org\>