--- name: "sxiv" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "sxiv" version: "26-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/sxiv" --- # sxiv(1) Simple X Image Viewer ## NAME sxiv - Simple X Image Viewer ## SYNOPSIS **sxiv** \[**-abcfhiopqrtvZ**\] \[**-A** *FRAMERATE*\] \[**-e** *WID*\] \[**-G** *GAMMA*\] \[**-g** *GEOMETRY*\] \[**-N** *NAME*\] \[**-n** *NUM*\] \[**-S** *DELAY*\] \[**-s** *MODE*\] \[**-z** *ZOOM*\] *FILE*... ## DESCRIPTION sxiv is a simple image viewer for X. It has two modes of operation: image and thumbnail mode. The default is image mode, in which only the current image is shown. In thumbnail mode a grid of small previews is displayed, making it easy to choose an image to open. Please note, that the fullscreen mode requires an EWMH/NetWM compliant window manager. ## OPTIONS - **-A** *FRAMERATE* Play animations with a constant frame rate set to *FRAMERATE*. - **-a** Play animations of multi-frame images. - **-b** Do not show info bar on bottom of window. - **-c** Remove all orphaned cache files from the thumbnail cache directory and exit. - **-e** *WID* Embed sxiv's window into window whose ID is *WID*. - **-f** Start in fullscreen mode. - **-G** *GAMMA* Set image gamma to GAMMA (-32..32). - **-g** *GEOMETRY* Set window position and size. See section GEOMETRY SPECIFICATIONS of [X(7)](/X/7.md) for more information on GEOMETRY argument. - **-N** *NAME* Set the resource name of sxiv's X window to NAME. - **-n** *NUM* Start at picture number NUM. - **-h** Print brief usage information to standard output and exit. - **-i** Read names of files to open from standard input. Also done if FILE is \`-'. - **-o** Write list of all marked files to standard output when quitting. In combination with **-i** sxiv can be used as a visual filter/pipe. - **-p** Enable private mode, in which sxiv does not write any cache or temporary files. - **-q** Be quiet, disable warnings to standard error stream. - **-r** Search the given directories recursively for images to view. - **-S** *DELAY* Start in slideshow mode. Set the delay between images to *DELAY* seconds. *DELAY* may be a floating point number. - **-s** *MODE* Set scale mode according to MODE character. Supported modes are: \[d\]own, \[f\]it, \[w\]idth, \[h\]eight. - **-t** Start in thumbnail mode. - **-v** Print version information to standard output and exit. - **-Z** The same as \`-z 100'. - **-z** *ZOOM* Set zoom level to ZOOM percent. ## KEYBOARD COMMANDS ### General The following keyboard commands are available in both image and thumbnail mode: - **0**-**9** Prefix the next command with a number (denoted via *count*). - **q** Quit sxiv. - **Return** Switch to thumbnail mode / open selected image in image mode. - **f** Toggle fullscreen mode. - **b** Toggle visibility of info bar on bottom of window. - **Ctrl-x** Send the next key to the external key-handler. See section EXTERNAL KEY HANDLER for more information. - **g** Go to the first image. - **G** Go to the last image, or image number *count*. - **r** Reload image. - **D** Remove current image from file list and go to next image. - **Ctrl-h**, **Ctrl-Left** Scroll left one screen width. - **Ctrl-j**, **Ctrl-Down** Scroll down one screen height. - **Ctrl-k**, **Ctrl-Up** Scroll up one screen height. - **Ctrl-l**, **Ctrl-Right** Scroll right one screen width. - **+** Zoom in. - **-** Zoom out. - **m** Mark/unmark the current image. - **M** Reverse all image marks. - **Ctrl-M** Repeat last mark action on all images from the last marked/unmarked up to the current one. - **Ctrl-m** Remove all image marks. - **N** Go *count* marked images forward. - **P** Go *count* marked images backward. - **{** Decrease gamma correction by *count* steps. - **}** Increase gamma correction by *count* steps. - **Ctrl-g** Reset gamma correction. ### Thumbnail mode The following keyboard commands are only available in thumbnail mode: - **h**, **Left** Move selection left *count* times. - **j**, **Down** Move selection down *count* times. - **k**, **Up** Move selection up *count* times. - **l**, **Right** Move selection right *count* times. - **R** Reload all thumbnails. ### Image mode The following keyboard commands are only available in image mode: - Navigate image list: - **n**, **Space** Go *count* images forward. - **p**, **Backspace** Go *count* images backward. - **\[** Go *count* \* 10 images backward. - **\]** Go *count* \* 10 images forward. - Handle multi-frame images: - **Ctrl-n** Go *count* frames of a multi-frame image forward. - **Ctrl-p** Go *count* frames of a multi-frame image backward. - **Ctrl-Space** Play/stop animations of multi-frame images. - Panning: - **h**, **Left** Scroll image 1/5 of window width or *count* pixel left. - **j**, **Down** Scroll image 1/5 of window height or *count* pixel down. - **k**, **Up** Scroll image 1/5 of window height or *count* pixel up. - **l**, **Right** Scroll image 1/5 of window width or *count* pixel right. - **H** Scroll to left image edge. - **J** Scroll to bottom image edge. - **K** Scroll to top image edge. - **L** Scroll to right image edge. - Zooming: - **=** Set zoom level to 100%, or *count*%. - **w** Set zoom level to 100%, but fit large images into window. - **W** Fit image to window. - **e** Fit image to window width. - **E** Fit image to window height. - Rotation: - **\<** Rotate image counter-clockwise by 90 degrees. - **\>** Rotate image clockwise by 90 degrees. - **?** Rotate image by 180 degrees. - Flipping: - **\|** Flip image horizontally. - **\_** Flip image vertically. - Miscellaneous: - **a** Toggle anti-aliasing. - **A** Toggle visibility of alpha-channel, i.e. image transparency. - **s** Toggle slideshow mode and/or set the delay between images to *count* seconds. ## MOUSE COMMANDS The following mouse mappings are available in image mode: - General: - **Button3** Switch to thumbnail mode. - Navigate image list: - **Button1** Go to the next image if the mouse cursor is in the right part of the window or to the previous image if it is in the left part. - Panning: - **Button2** Pan the image according to the mouse cursor position in the window while keeping this button pressed down. - Zooming: - **ScrollUp** Zoom in. - **ScrollDown** Zoom out. ## CONFIGURATION The following X resources are supported: - **background** Color of the window background and bar foreground - **foreground** Color of the window foreground and bar background - **font** Name of Xft bar font - Please see [xrdb(1)](/xrdb/1.md) on how to change them. ## STATUS BAR The information displayed on the left side of the status bar can be replaced with the output of a user-provided script, which is called by sxiv whenever an image gets loaded. The path of this script is *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/sxiv/exec/image-info* and the arguments given to it are: 1) path to image file, 2) image width, 3) image height. There is also an example script installed together with sxiv as */usr/share/sxiv/exec/image-info*. ## EXTERNAL KEY HANDLER Additional external keyboard commands can be defined using a handler program located in *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/sxiv/exec/key-handler*. The handler is invoked by pressing **Ctrl-x**. The next key combo is passed as its first argument. Passed via stdin are the images to act upon, one path per line: all marked images, if in thumbnail mode and at least one image has been marked, otherwise the current image. [sxiv(1)](/sxiv/1.md) will block until the handler terminates. It then checks which images have been modified and reloads them. The key combo argument has the following form: "\[C-\]\[M-\]\[S-\]KEY", where C/M/S indicate Ctrl/Meta(Alt)/Shift modifier states and KEY is the X keysym as listed in /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h without the "XK\_" prefix. There is also an example script installed together with sxiv as */usr/share/sxiv/exec/key-handler*. ## THUMBNAIL CACHING sxiv stores all thumbnails under *$XDG\_CACHE\_HOME/sxiv/*. Use the command line option *-c* to remove all orphaned cache files. Additionally, run the following command afterwards inside the cache directory to remove empty subdirectories: find . -depth -type d -empty ! -name '.' -exec rmdir {} \\; ## AUTHOR ``` Bert Muennich ``` ## CONTRIBUTORS ``` Bastien Dejean Dave Reisner Fung SzeTat Max Voit ``` ## HOMEPAGE ``` https://github.com/muennich/sxiv ``` ## SEE ALSO [**X**(7)](/X/7.md), [**xrdb**(1)](/xrdb/1.md)