Configuration #############

Manim provides an extensive configuration system that allows it to adapt to many different use cases. There are many configuration options that can be configured at different times during the scene rendering process. Each option can be configured programmatically via the ManimConfig class, at the time of command invocation via command-line arguments, or at the time the library is first imported via the config files_.

The most common, simplest, and recommended way to configure Manim is via the command-line interface (CLI), which is described directly below.

Command-line arguments

By far the most commonly used command in the CLI is the render command, which is used to render scene(s) to an output file. It is used with the following arguments:

.. program-output:: manim render --help :ellipsis: 9

However, since Manim defaults to the :code:render command whenever no command is specified, the following form is far more common and can be used instead:

.. code-block:: bash

manim [OPTIONS] FILE [SCENES]

An example of using the above form is:

.. code-block:: bash

manim -qm file.py SceneOne

This asks Manim to search for a Scene class called :code:SceneOne inside the file file.py and render it with medium quality (specified by the -qm flag).

Another frequently used flag is -p ("preview"), which makes manim open the rendered video after it's done rendering.

.. note:: The -p flag does not change any properties of the global config dict. The -p flag is only a command-line convenience.

Advanced examples

To render a scene in high quality, but only output the last frame of the scene instead of the whole video, you can execute

.. code-block:: bash

manim -sqh <file.py> SceneName

The following example specifies the output file name (with the :code:-o flag), renders only the first ten animations (:code:-n flag) with a white background (:code:-c flag), and saves the animation as a .gif instead of as a .mp4 file (--format=gif flag). It uses the default quality and does not try to open the file after it is rendered.

.. code-block:: bash

manim -o myscene --format=gif -n 0,10 -c WHITE <file.py> SceneName

A list of all CLI flags

.. command-output:: manim --help .. command-output:: manim render --help .. command-output:: manim cfg --help .. command-output:: manim plugins --help

The ManimConfig class

The most direct way of configuring Manim is through the global config object, which is an instance of :class:.ManimConfig. Each property of this class is a config option that can be accessed either with standard attribute syntax or with dict-like syntax:

.. code-block:: pycon

from manim import * config.background_color = WHITE config["background_color"] = WHITE

.. note:: The former is preferred; the latter is provided for backwards compatibility.

Most classes, including :class:.Camera, :class:.Mobject, and :class:.Animation, read some of their default configuration from the global config.

.. code-block:: pycon

Camera({}).background_color
<Color white> config.background_color = RED # 0xfc6255 Camera({}).background_color

:class:.ManimConfig is designed to keep internal consistency. For example, setting frame_y_radius will affect frame_height:

.. code-block:: pycon

>>> config.frame_height
8.0
>>> config.frame_y_radius = 5.0
>>> config.frame_height
10.0

The global config object is meant to be the single source of truth for all config options. All of the other ways of setting config options ultimately change the values of the global config object.

The following example illustrates the video resolution chosen for examples rendered in our documentation with a reference frame.

.. manim:: ShowScreenResolution :save_last_frame:

class ShowScreenResolution(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        pixel_height = config["pixel_height"]  #  1080 is default
        pixel_width = config["pixel_width"]  # 1920 is default
        frame_width = config["frame_width"]
        frame_height = config["frame_height"]
        self.add(Dot())
        d1 = Line(frame_width * LEFT / 2, frame_width * RIGHT / 2).to_edge(DOWN)
        self.add(d1)
        self.add(Text(str(pixel_width)).next_to(d1, UP))
        d2 = Line(frame_height * UP / 2, frame_height * DOWN / 2).to_edge(LEFT)
        self.add(d2)
        self.add(Text(str(pixel_height)).next_to(d2, RIGHT))

The config files

As the last example shows, executing Manim from the command line may involve using many flags simultaneously. This may become a nuisance if you must execute the same script many times in a short time period, for example, when making small incremental tweaks to your scene script. For this reason, Manim can also be configured using a configuration file. A configuration file is a file ending with the suffix .cfg.

To use a local configuration file when rendering your scene, you must create a file with the name manim.cfg in the same directory as your scene code.

.. warning:: The config file must be named manim.cfg. Currently, Manim does not support config files with any other name.

The config file must start with the section header [CLI]. The configuration options under this header have the same name as the CLI flags and serve the same purpose. Take, for example, the following config file.

.. code-block:: ini

[CLI]

my config file

output_file = myscene save_as_gif = True background_color = WHITE

Config files are parsed with the standard python library configparser. In particular, they will ignore any line that starts with a pound symbol #.

Now, executing the following command

.. code-block:: bash

manim -o myscene -i -c WHITE <file.py> SceneName

is equivalent to executing the following command, provided that manim.cfg is in the same directory as <file.py>,

.. code-block:: bash

manim <file.py> SceneName

.. tip:: The names of the configuration options admissible in config files are exactly the same as the long names of the corresponding command- line flags. For example, the -c and --background_color flags are interchangeable, but the config file only accepts :code:background_color as an admissible option.

Since config files are meant to replace CLI flags, all CLI flags can be set via a config file. Moreover, any config option can be set via a config file, whether or not it has an associated CLI flag. See the bottom of this document for a list of all CLI flags and config options.

Manim will look for a manim.cfg config file in the same directory as the file being rendered, and not in the directory of execution. For example,

.. code-block:: bash

manim -o myscene -i -c WHITE <path/to/file.py> SceneName

will use the config file found in path/to/file.py, if any. It will not use the config file found in the current working directory, even if it exists. In this way, the user may keep different config files for different scenes or projects, and execute them with the right configuration from anywhere in the system.

The file described here is called the folder-wide config file because it affects all scene scripts found in the same folder.

The user config file

As explained in the previous section, a :code:manim.cfg config file only affects the scene scripts in its same folder. However, the user may also create a special config file that will apply to all scenes rendered by that user. This is referred to as the user-wide config file, and it will apply regardless of where Manim is executed from, and regardless of where the scene script is stored.

The user-wide config file lives in a special folder, depending on the operating system.

Windows: :code:UserDirectory/AppData/Roaming/Manim/manim.cfg
MacOS: :code:UserDirectory/.config/manim/manim.cfg
Linux: :code:UserDirectory/.config/manim/manim.cfg

Here, :code:UserDirectory is the user's home folder.

.. note:: A user may have many folder-wide config files, one per folder, but only one user-wide config file. Different users in the same computer may each have their own user-wide config file.

.. warning:: Do not store scene scripts in the same folder as the user-wide config file. In this case, the behavior is undefined.

Whenever you use Manim from anywhere in the system, Manim will look for a user-wide config file and read its configuration.

Cascading config files

What happens if you execute Manim and it finds both a folder-wide config file and a user-wide config file? Manim will read both files, but if they are incompatible, the folder-wide file takes precedence.

For example, take the following user-wide config file

.. code-block:: ini

user-wide

[CLI] output_file = myscene save_as_gif = True background_color = WHITE

and the following folder-wide file

.. code-block:: ini

folder-wide

[CLI] save_as_gif = False

Then, executing :code:manim <file.py> SceneName will be equivalent to not using any config files and executing

.. code-block:: bash

manim -o myscene -c WHITE <file.py> SceneName

Any command-line flags have precedence over any config file. For example, using the previous two config files and executing :code:manim -c RED <file.py> SceneName is equivalent to not using any config files and executing

.. code-block:: bash

manim -o myscene -c RED <file.py> SceneName

There is also a library-wide config file that determines Manim's default behavior and applies to every user of the library. It has the least precedence, so any config options in the user-wide and any folder-wide files will override the library-wide file. This is referred to as the cascading config file system.

.. warning:: The user should not try to modify the library-wide file. Contributors should receive explicit confirmation from the core developer team before modifying it.

Order of operations

.. raw:: html

<div class="mxgraph" style="max-width:100%;border:1px solid transparent;" data-mxgraph="{&quot;highlight&quot;:&quot;#0000ff&quot;,&quot;nav&quot;:true,&quot;resize&quot;:true,&quot;toolbar&quot;:&quot;zoom layers lightbox&quot;,&quot;edit&quot;:&quot;_blank&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1WYVKKoRbXrumHEcyQKQ9s1yCnBvfU2Ui&amp;export=download&quot;}"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://viewer.diagrams.net/embed2.js?&fetch=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fuc%3Fid%3D1WYVKKoRbXrumHEcyQKQ9s1yCnBvfU2Ui%26export%3Ddownload"></script>

With so many different ways of configuring Manim, it can be difficult to know when each config option is being set. In fact, this will depend on how Manim is being used.

If Manim is imported from a module, then the configuration system will follow these steps:

The library-wide config file is loaded.
The user-wide and folder-wide files are loaded if they exist.
All files found in the previous two steps are parsed in a single :class:ConfigParser object, called parser. This is where cascading happens.
:class:logging.Logger is instantiated to create Manim's global logger object. It is configured using the "logger" section of the parser, i.e. parser['logger'].
:class:ManimConfig is instantiated to create the global config object.
The parser from step 3 is fed into the config from step 5 via :meth:ManimConfig.digest_parser.
Both logger and config are exposed to the user.

If Manim is being invoked from the command line, all of the previous steps happen, and are complemented by:

The CLI flags are parsed and fed into config via :meth:~ManimConfig.digest_args.
If the --config_file flag was used, a new :class:ConfigParser object is created with the contents of the library-wide file, the user-wide file if it exists, and the file passed via --config_file. In this case, the folder-wide file, if it exists, is ignored.
The new parser is fed into config.
The rest of the CLI flags are processed.

To summarize, the order of precedence for configuration options, from lowest to highest precedence is:

Library-wide config file,
user-wide config file, if it exists,
folder-wide config file, if it exists OR custom config file, if passed via --config_file,
other CLI flags, and
any programmatic changes made after the config system is set.

A list of all config options

.. code::

['aspect_ratio', 'assets_dir', 'background_color', 'background_opacity', 'bottom', 'custom_folders', 'disable_caching', 'dry_run', 'ffmpeg_loglevel', 'flush_cache', 'frame_height', 'frame_rate', 'frame_size', 'frame_width', 'frame_x_radius', 'frame_y_radius', 'from_animation_number', fullscreen, 'images_dir', 'input_file', 'left_side', 'log_dir', 'log_to_file', 'max_files_cached', 'media_dir', 'media_width', 'movie_file_extension', 'notify_outdated_version', 'output_file', 'partial_movie_dir', 'pixel_height', 'pixel_width', 'plugins', 'preview', 'progress_bar', 'quality', 'right_side', 'save_as_gif', 'save_last_frame', 'save_pngs', 'scene_names', 'show_in_file_browser', 'sound', 'tex_dir', 'tex_template', 'tex_template_file', 'text_dir', 'top', 'transparent', 'upto_animation_number', 'use_opengl_renderer', 'verbosity', 'video_dir', 'window_position', 'window_monitor', 'window_size', 'write_all', 'write_to_movie', 'enable_wireframe', 'force_window']

Accessing CLI command options

Entering manim, or manim --help, will open the main help page.

.. code::

Usage: manim [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

 Animation engine for explanatory math videos.

Options: --version Show version and exit. --help Show this message and exit.

Commands: cfg Manages Manim configuration files. init Sets up a new project in current working directory with default settings.

          It copies files from templates directory and pastes them in the
          current working dir.
 new      Create a new project or insert a new scene.
 plugins  Manages Manim plugins.
 render   Render SCENE(S) from the input FILE.

See 'manim <command>' to read about a specific subcommand.

Made with <3 by Manim Community developers.

Each of the subcommands has its own help page which can be accessed similarly:

.. code::

manim render manim render --help