---
name: "xcolmix"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xcolmix"
version: "1.07-10.4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xcolmix"
---

# xcolmix(1)

an RGB colour mixer

## NAME

xcolmix - an RGB colour mixer

## SYNOPSIS

**xcolmix** *\[-display host:dpy\] \[-name appname\] \[-visual class\] \[-depth d\] \[-private\] \[-shared\] \[-stdcmap\] \[-debug d\] \[-sync\] rgb-database-file*

The rgb-database-file is the file which holds the X-windows colour definitions, when absent: /etc/X11/rgb.txt is used.

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **xcolmix**, command. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page.

**xcolmix** is a colour mixer that enables you to mix your own colours in order to determine three values (the R/G/B code, or red-green-blue mix) of a colour. You can use those colours to, e.g., define the foreground or background of X applications which support it. Furthermore, xcolmix lets you retrieve RGB values from the X system's database of \`predefined' colours.

**xcolmix is non longer actively maintained upstream. If you would like to take it over, talk to the author: Karel Kubat \<karel@icce.rug.nl\>.**

## OPTIONS

xcolmix is built with the XForms Graphical User Interface Toolkit for X, and hence supports a number of flags which are interpreted by XForms.  The flags must be stated before any file arguments, and are:

- **-display host:dpy**

  defines the X display.

- **-name appname**

  defines the application name (default is xcolmix).

- **-visual class**

  TrueColor, PseudoColor etc...

- **-depth d**

  visual depth in bits

- **-private**

  forces a private colourmap.

- **-shared**

  forces a shared colourmap.

- **-stdcmap**

  forces a standard colourmap.

- **-debug l**

  prints debugging information, l is the level.

- **-sync**

  forces synchronous mode.

## USING XCOLMIX

Xcolmix lets you define a separate background and a foreground colour for a part of the mixer window (the logo). Use this logo to, e.g., compare whether a particular text colour looks good on a particular background.

Use the \`foreground / background' buttons to select between the foreground or the background. Then, use the three silders labelled \`red', \`green' and \`blue' to change the colour.

The button \`lookup' starts a second window, with a browser showing the system colour database. The default database name is /etc/X11/rgb.txt, though you can overrule this filename with a file argument in the command that starts up xcolmix.

## AUTHOR

Karel Kubat \<karel@icce.rug.nl\>

This manual page was written by Peter S Galbraith \<psg@debian.org\>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).