Display image directly on desktop

[pkleiber]

I am searching for a way to display a graphical image with transparent parts directly on the desktop. I can make gif or png images, but I don't know how to display them other than with utilities such as Kview or EyeOfGnome which always have their own (non transparent) background in the way. I'm running Centos5 and gnome, and I've search the documentation without luck. Any suggestions of where to look next?
Thanks, Pierre

[Rubberman]

I don't know, other than as wallpaper. I display a personal image that way, but to overlay the normal background image, I'm not sure. I'll look into that a bit to see what I can find, other than writing a custom X-Windows application.

[pkleiber]

Thanks in advance for anything you find.... And to clarify what I'm seeking, I'd like to be able to drag the image around with the mouse just like I can drag an icon. In fact an icon would be ideal except that they seem to have a size limitation.

[Rubberman]

I've been looking at the documentation for Gimp. There is a lot of control over what the image window looks like. You might be able to use that to display an image as you want. I'm going to try that now to see what can be done.

[Rubberman]

Well, I wasn't able to get rid of the basic window border and title bar. So far, no joy in Mudville!

[nmset]

You can easily do that in KDE4, there is a plasmoid for still or changing images, which can be moved around with the mouse.

[Rubberman]

What about KDE 3.5? Not all of us are running, or can run KDE4. It isn't really supported on CentOS/RHEL 5.x as yet.

[nmset]

KDE 3.5 does not have this feature built-in, and I don't know of some utility than can do this.

[pkleiber]

I'm not sure what a "plasmoid" is and whether it would do what I want. Let me explain further what I'm after... I'd like a giant moveable crosshair image that would lie on top of everything on the screen but would obscure nothing except what's under the thin lines. It would be something like a cursor image except that it would only move with the cursor if I drag with the mouse, and it wouldn't change depending on what it's on top of the way the mouse cursor does. It seems like it should be simple, but then nothing is ever simple till after you find the solution.

[GNU-Fan]

Look for the X Shape extension. It is for windows with arbitrary shapes.