Viewer Preferences

The second page of the Preferences dialog is for the configuration of the different image viewing modes; it is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Viewer Preferences

This page of the Preferences dialog is divided into two parts. The first one specifies the options for image windows, and the second one specifies the options for the full screen viewing mode.

Options for Image Windows

Use scrollbars

This option specifies when to display scrollbars. Some people find them distracting and prefer to scroll the image by using only the keyboard or by dragging the image directly with the mouse.

Never. Guess what? This specifies that scrollbars should never be displayed.

Only if image does not fit. Scrollbars will not be displayed if the image is zoomed to be smaller than the display area. If it doesn't fit, the scrollbars will automatically pop up for your perusal.

Pick window size and zoom factor automatically

When you open an image, it is convenient to have Eye of Gnome automatically pick the size of the window based on the image size. If the image is small then it makes sense to make the window just as big as it needs to be to fit the image. If the image is too big, then it is convenient to have Eye of Gnome automatically scale it down to a reasonable size so that it will fit inside a window on the screen.

In general you should turn this option off only if the thought of resizing your windows every five seconds excites you very greatly.

Open images in a new window

When opening an image, Eye of Gnome will normally substitute the current image of a window with the new image that it just opened. You may prefer it to create a new image window and open the new image there instead.

Options for the Full Screen View

Use scrollbars

This option has the same function as the one for image windows.

Use 1:1 zoom factor

This will cause the full screen view to use a zoom factor of 1:1 when it is initially opened.

Use same zoom factor as image window

This will cause the full screen view to use the same zoom factor that the image window was using. This gives you the effect of just switching to a bigger viewport.

Fit all images to screen

This makes the full screen view scale all images so that they will fill the whole screen.

Fit standard-sized images to screen

Sometimes you may want to use the aforementioned options to start the full screen view at 1:1 zoom or with the same zoom factor as the image window, yet you may want images with sizes like 640×480 or 1024×768 to automatically fill the whole screen. These sizes are “standard” in that they represent common monitor resolutions, i.e. images at that size were designed to be viewed using the whole screen. When you turn this switch on, Eye of Gnome will scale images with similar well-known sizes to the size of the whole screen regardless of the setting of the full screen zooming options.

Put a bevel around the edge of the screen

Some people like to have a well-defined border at the edge of the screen instead of fading into the eternal and unfathomable pitch-blackness of the monitor's edges.

Other people like the author have buggy X servers that cause incorrect results when scrolling stuff near the edge of the screen.

In any case, turning this option on will cause Eye of Gnome to draw a 3D bevel at the edge of the screen instead of using the whole screen for your image.