xlogo

xlogo [-help] [-fg color] [-bg color] [-font font] [-display display] [-geometry geometry] [-scale pixels] [-scaleinc pixels] [-nolabel] [-label string] [-logofile file]

-help
    Prints usage message and exits

-fg color
    Sets foreground color for logo and text

-bg color
    Sets background color of the window

-font font or -fn
    Specifies font for the label text

-display display
    X server to connect to (e.g., :0)

-geometry geometry
    Window position and size (standard Xt option)

-scale pixels
    Initial logo size in pixels (default: 64)

-scaleinc pixels
    Scale change step for arrow keys (default: 30)

-nolabel
    Omits the 'X' label below the logo

-label string
    Custom label text instead of 'X'

-logofile file
    XPM or XBM file to display instead of X logo

xlogo is a lightweight demonstration utility for the X Window System (X11). It opens a window displaying the iconic X logo, serving as a quick visual test to confirm that an X server is operational and rendering correctly. The logo is scalable and customizable via command-line options, allowing users to adjust size, colors, fonts, and even replace it with a custom pixmap file in XPM or XBM format.

Interactivity is provided through keyboard controls: press the Up or Down arrow keys to increase or decrease the logo scale incrementally (default step: 30 pixels), with wraparound at limits. The program responds to standard X Toolkit events and can be resized via window manager. Primarily used for testing X11 setups, demos, or as a minimal graphical application example, xlogo highlights basic Xlib/Xt usage in its implementation.

It is part of the x11-apps package in most Linux distributions and exemplifies early X11 demo programs.

Requires running X11 server (works via XWayland on Wayland); standard X Toolkit options apply but not all listed here; keyboard scaling wraps at limits.

Up/Down arrows: resize logo (±scaleinc)
Window manager resize also works

Customizable via Xrm or ~/.Xresources: e.g., xlogo.scale: 100

Introduced in early X11 releases (circa X11R4, 1989) as a demo; maintained in Xorg project; bundled in x11-apps since XFree86 era; minimal changes over decades.

xclock(1), xeyes(1), xcalc(1), xmag(1)