chafa

Display image in terminal

$ chafa [image.png]

$ chafa -s [80x40] [image.jpg]

$ chafa --format sixels [image.png]

$ chafa --format kitty [image.gif]

$ chafa --colors [256] [image.png]

$ chafa --animate [animation.gif]

$ chafa --symbols ascii [image.jpg]

chafa [options] image...

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.

-s, --size WxH

Output size in characters

Output format: symbols, sixels, kitty, iterm

Color mode: none, 2, 8, 16, 256, full

Symbol set: all, ascii, block, braille

Foreground color

Background color

Enable animation for GIFs

Animation duration

Animation speed multiplier

Watch file for changes

Font width/height ratio

JPEG, PNG, GIF, AVIF, SVG, TIFF, WebP, JPEG XL, QOI, XWD

Output quality depends on terminal capabilities. Sixels require compatible terminal. Best results with Truecolor support.

catimg(1), timg(1), img2txt(1)