Interface Understanding

This page gives you a tour of the GpgFrontend window, so you can find your way around and do your tasks with ease.

When GpgFrontend starts, a small Starting GpgFrontend window may appear first. It shows a progress bar and a line that says what is being loaded, such as your key databases or modules. The main window opens when it is done.

About the screenshots

The screenshots in this manual are made automatically from the current version of GpgFrontend, so they stay up to date. They are all taken on Windows. On macOS and Linux the window looks a little different, but the parts, buttons, and menus are the same.

The Window at a Glance

The window has five main parts:

• Operations Bar (top): the main buttons, like Encrypt, Decrypt, Sign, and Verify.
• Workspaces (center): tabs where you work on files, text, or email.
• Key ToolBox (right): the list of your keys.
• Status Panel (below the workspace): shows the result of each task.
• Status Bar (bottom): tells you which setup and which engine you are using.

The rest of this page looks at each part in turn.

Workspaces

GpgFrontend splits your work into tabs called workspaces, so you can work on files, plain text, and email at the same time.

There are three kinds of workspace, each shown as a tab:

• File Panel: work on files and folders.
• Text Editor: write, encrypt, and decrypt plain text.
• Mail Editor: work with email messages.

You can open many tabs of each kind and switch between them whenever you like.

File Panel

The File Panel handles tasks on files and folders. You can:

• Browse and select files or folders from your system.
• Encrypt, decrypt, sign, or verify one file or many at once.
• Choose between text (ASCII) and binary output.
• Turn on Batch Mode to work on many files at once.
• Automatically pack and encrypt whole folders (see the File Operations guide for details).

Along the top is a path bar showing the folder you are in, one step at a time. Click any step to jump straight there.

Files and folders you open always appear in a File Panel tab.

Text Editor

The Text Editor lets you type new text or open existing files.

Main Features

• Operations Bar: at the top, with buttons to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify text.
• Standard Shortcuts: supports basic shortcuts like Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and Ctrl+S for copy, paste, and save.
• Plain Text Only: text is saved as UTF-8 with no formatting, for clarity and compatibility. Rich text editing may come later.
• Built-in font: by default the editor uses JetBrains Mono NL, a font that comes with GpgFrontend. It covers Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters. Other scripts, such as Arabic or Chinese, use a font from your system. To pick another font, open Settings > Appearance.
• Files up to 1 MB work best. Bigger files may slow things down and aren’t recommended.
• While a large file loads, editing is paused until it finishes.

Text Direction

Some languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, are written from right to left. To change which way the text runs, click View > Text Direction, or right-click in the editor and choose Text Direction. There are three choices:

• Automatic: each line follows the direction of its own first letter. This is the default.
• Left-to-Right: every line runs from left to right.
• Right-to-Left: every line runs from right to left.

The choice applies only to the tab you are in. It is not saved: every new tab starts with Automatic.

New in v2.2.3

Text Direction and the built-in JetBrains Mono NL font are new.

Mail Editor

The Mail Editor is made for email messages in EML format.

• Open and edit EML files: load .eml files (a standard email format) to view and edit them.
• Write and secure email: to start a new message, click File > Workspace > Mail Editor. Write or change the message, then encrypt, sign, or verify it.
• Two views: at the top of an email tab, click Message to see the message as you would read it, or Raw Source to see the raw text of the file.

In an email tab, the Status Panel starts as a thin bar, so the message has more room. It opens again when a new result arrives.

For everything you can do with email, see the Email overview.

Note

The Mail Editor works best with .eml files. This keeps things compatible with normal email apps and keeps the formatting and details intact during your tasks.

Status Panel

The Status Panel shows what happened after each task (encrypt, decrypt, sign) and whether it worked. It also shows useful details like the time, key IDs, and algorithms used.

Color Coding for Status

• Green: the task worked, no problems.
• Orange: the task worked, but with a warning to check.
• Red: the task failed, or the result cannot be trusted.
• Grey: nothing has happened yet.

Switching Views

The panel has two views. Use the switch at the top to change them:

• Status: a short, easy-to-read summary of the task.
• Details: the full, raw text straight from the engine.

Your choice is remembered, so the panel keeps showing the view you like.

Making the Panel Smaller

You can shrink the panel to a thin bar when you need more room:

• Click Collapse to shrink it to a thin bar. The bar still shows a coloured dot and the result of the last task.
• Click Expand, or double-click the bar, to open it again.
• Click the X on the bar to close the panel. To bring it back, click View > Status Panel.

When a new result arrives, the panel opens again by itself, even if you collapsed or closed it.

Email tabs shrink the panel to a bar on their own. A panel you dragged out into its own window (a floating panel) is never shrunk this way.

New in v2.2.3

The Status Panel can now collapse to a thin bar.

Reading the Report

In the Status view, each result is drawn as a small report page with the heading SECURITY OPERATION REPORT. It has short cards for each file or piece of text, with the important facts lined up.

The report also has a round stamp with a check mark, a cross, or an exclamation mark. It shows the result at a glance, in the same colours as above.

Caution

The stamp is only a picture. It is not a digital signature, and it does not prove anything about the data. To check a signature, use Verify and read the result.

Changed in v2.2.3

The report has a new look. A cancelled or failed task now always shows a clear card, never an empty one.

Panel Actions

• Copy: copies the status text to the clipboard.
• Save: what it saves depends on the view.
  • In the Status view, it saves the report as a picture (a PNG file).
  • In the Details view, it saves the text as a plain text file.
• Magnify: opens the summary in a bigger view. Available only when the Status view is showing a summary.
• Clear: empties the panel, ready for the next task.

Key ToolBox

On the right side, the Key ToolBox lists all your keys: public keys, private keys, and key groups.

Main features:

• Selection: tick the boxes to pick keys for a task. With the keyboard, move to a key and press Space to tick or untick it.
• Type / Usage / Email: see at a glance what each key is for.
• Search: the box at the top finds keys by name, email, key ID, or fingerprint. Press Escape to clear it.
• Categories: the thin coloured strip beside the list filters your keys. See Key Categories.

Keys that are expired, revoked, or unavailable are hidden by default. You can find them in the Manage Keys window, which is also where you look after your keys rather than just pick them. See Manage Your Keys.

The Small Buttons Above the List

• Refresh: read your keys again from disk.
• Check All and Uncheck All: tick or untick every key in the current category. The uncheck button shows a small count of how many keys are ticked right now.
• Columns: choose which columns to show, and reset their widths.
• New Key Group: make a group from the keys you have ticked.
• Key database button: switch between key databases. The button shows the name of the one you are in. See Key Database.

Keep your ticks between sessions

Open Settings, go to General, and tick Remember which keys are checked in the key list between restarts. GpgFrontend then brings back your usual recipients each time it opens.

Reading the Key ToolBox Table

Each key has some columns and short codes (in the Type and Usage columns) that aren’t obvious at first. Here is what they mean.

• Type:
  • pub: a public key (for encryption or verification).
  • pub/sec: a key pair with both a public and a private key.
  • pub/sec#: a key pair whose primary key is missing.
  • pub/sec^: a key pair stored on a smart card.
  • group: a key group (several public keys used together as one recipient).
• Usage (what the key can do):
  • C (Certification): can sign other keys (usually primary keys only).
  • E (Encryption): can encrypt data to this key.
  • S (Signing): can create digital signatures.
  • A (Authentication): can be used to log in (for example, SSH).
• Status (whether the key is fit to use):
  • OK: nothing wrong with it.
  • Expiring Soon: still works, but will expire soon.
  • Expired, Revoked, Disabled: cannot be used.

Rows are tinted to match the Status column, so a problem key stands out at a glance.

Use the Columns button to show or hide columns such as Expire Date and Status. Each key list remembers its own choice, so you can keep the Key ToolBox short and the Manage Keys window detailed.

Operations Bar

The Operations Bar at the top gives you one-click access to the main features. Here are the buttons, from left to right:

1. Open: open a file or folder in the File Panel.
2. Workspace: manage and switch between tabs (File Panel, Text Editor, Mail Editor).
3. Encrypt: lock the selected files or text for the chosen recipients. This button can also hold Encrypt & Sign and Sym. Encrypt.
4. Decrypt: unlock the selected files or text. You don’t need to pick a key; GPG finds the right private key for you. This button can also hold Decrypt & Verify.
5. Sign: sign the selected files or text with your private key.
6. Verify: check the signature on the selected files or text.
7. New Keypair: make a new key pair.
8. Import: add existing public or private keys.
9. Manage Keys: open the key management window.

Buttons With More Than One Action

Some actions are close cousins, so they share one button:

• The Encrypt button holds Encrypt, Encrypt & Sign and Sym. Encrypt.
• The Decrypt button holds Decrypt and Decrypt & Verify.

Here is how to use such a button:

• Click it to run the action shown on the button.
• Right-click it, or press and hold it, to see all its actions. Then pick the one you want.
• If the action on the button can’t be used right now, a click opens the list instead. So you can still reach the other actions.

Sym. Encrypt is never the action shown on the button. You always pick it from the list.

Changed in v2.2.3

Before v2.2.3, every ticked action had its own button. Now related actions share one button, and all the buttons have the same width.

Customization

You can hide buttons you don’t use, or add ones you use often:

1. Open Settings and go to Appearance.
2. Under Toolbar, tick what you want in the Actions list. The list is arranged by button: the Encrypt row, then the Decrypt row, then Sign and Verify.
3. If you ticked more than one action in the Encrypt or Decrypt row, an On click choice appears for that row. Pick the action you want a plain click to run. The other ticked actions stay in the right-click list.

On click only lists the actions you ticked. It does not show at all when a row has only one action ticked.

One action is off by default and worth knowing about: Sym. Encrypt. It encrypts with a passphrase instead of a key. See Symmetric Crypto.

New in v2.2.3

The On click choice is new in v2.2.3.

Instant messaging has no toolbar buttons. Its actions are in the Operations menu. See Instant Messaging.

Status Bar

Along the bottom of the window, on the right, three small labels tell you what you are working with. Click any of them for more details.

• Profile: which setup this window is using. Click it to manage your setups. See Profiles.
• Engine: the OpenPGP engine and its version, such as GnuPG 2.4.3. Hover it to see which key database you are in.
• Mode: whether this is an installed copy or a portable one. See Portable Mode.