Click on the Edit / Preferences to see all the preference options. There are a lot of things you can change (probably too many). This section will list the most important.
This column has the options which control how nip2 starts and how and when it calculates.
This is a list of directories where nip2 searches for data files. These are any files that nip2 can use but which aren’t loaded at startup. I usually append the main areas on my machine where I store image files, for example.
The default value is [”$HOME/.$PACKAGE-$VERSION/data”, ”$VIPSHOME/share/nip/data”, ”.”].
This is where any intermediate files will be stored. It defaults to a directory called tmp under your home area’s .nip2-xx directory. If nip crashes, it may leave old files here.
This lists directories which are searched when nip2 starts for any loadable files. Anything that nip2 comes across will be loaded up.
The default value is [”$HOME/.$PACKAGE-$VERSION/start”, ”$VIPSHOME/share/nip/start”].
With this on (the default) nip2 will recalculate whenever anything changes. Turn this off if recalculations are taking a long time and you want to make a series of small changes.
This sets whether recalculation happens as sliders are dragged, or whether the recalculation waits until the drag finishes. There’s a similar setting for regions.
With this tured on (the default) nip2 will save the current workspace to the temporary files area a second after the last recalculation. If nip2 crashes, you can restart it and click File / Search for Workspace Backups and nip2 will reload the last workspace where you made a change.
With this turned on nip2 will automatically reload any image files that change while it has them open. Handy if you’re using nip2 to watch a file that another program is updating.
This sets the number of characters nip2 shows for string values. Turn it up if you want to see inside long strings.
This sets the limit on the heap size. Turn it up if you start getting Heap full error messages. If you left-click on the space free label in the bottom right of the main window, it will change to display the current heap statistics. There’s a useful tooltip as well.
If you have a machine with more than one CPU, you can make nip2 faster by upping this number.
This set of options control the default image display window settings. Useful if you’re always having to turn the status bar on (for example). The maximum size option is handy if you’re using nip2 on a machine with a small display.
The Auto popup option makes nip2 pop up an image display window automatically whenever you make a new image object.
Other areas of preferences are less useful.
If you’re using a theme which uses bitmaps for widgets, you won’t be able to see the button colour changes nip2 usually uses to indicate state. This option adds three small LEDs to each row which indicate select, busy and error.
By default nip2 file browsers show only VIPS images. If you find you mostly use (for example) JPEG images, you’ll save yourself a few clicks on every file operation by switching this option to JPEG format.
You can set the save options for the various image formats.
If you running Linux and have a capture card that supports the V4L interface, you can capture straight from the card into nip2. Set the capture options here.
The paintbox normally tracks all undo operations. This can chew up a lot of memory, especially for flood fills. Reduce the number of undo steps to free up some RAM.