chafa
terminal image viewer using character art
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
chafa [options] image...
DESCRIPTION
chafa converts images to character art for display directly in the terminal. It uses Unicode block characters, braille patterns, and ASCII art to approximate images at the resolution of the terminal grid.For terminals with advanced graphics support, chafa can output using the Sixel, Kitty, or iTerm2 graphics protocols, producing much higher fidelity results. It handles a wide range of image formats including JPEG, PNG, GIF (with animation), AVIF, SVG, WebP, TIFF, and JPEG XL.Output can be tuned by adjusting size, color depth, symbol sets, and animation speed. chafa automatically detects terminal capabilities and selects the best available output mode.
PARAMETERS
-s, --size WxH
Output size in characters-f, --format format
Output format: symbols, sixels, kitty, iterm-c, --colors n
Color mode: none, 2, 8, 16, 256, full--symbols set
Symbol set: all, ascii, block, braille--fg color
Foreground color--bg color
Background color--animate
Enable animation for GIFs--duration secs
Animation duration--speed factor
Animation speed multiplier-w, --watch
Watch file for changes--font-ratio ratio
Font width/height ratio
SUPPORTED FORMATS
JPEG, PNG, GIF, AVIF, SVG, TIFF, WebP, JPEG XL, QOI, XWD
INSTALL
CAVEATS
Output quality depends on terminal capabilities. Sixels require compatible terminal. Best results with Truecolor support.