Cthulhu preferences allow you to customize functionality in Cthulhu which applies to all applications. An example of an Cthulhu preference is echo because echo is something that applies to all applications.

Note that Cthulhu preferences can be customized on an application-by-application basis. For instance you can set the default echo to words and then set the echo for Pidgin to be none. Having done so, Cthulhu would always echo each word that you typed, unless you were in Pidgin.

In contrast to Cthulhu preferences, there are application-unique preferences. These preferences allow you to customize Cthulhu functionality that only applies in certain environments, such as on web pages or in chat applications. As a result, you will only find these options available in the application-specific preferences dialogs and only for those applications to which these options apply.