NAME

       chafa - Character art facsimile generator

SYNOPSIS

       chafa [OPTION...] [IMAGE...]

DESCRIPTION

       chafa is a command-line utility that converts image data, including animated GIFs, into
       graphics formats or ANSI/Unicode character art suitable for display in a terminal. It has
       broad feature support, allowing it to be used on devices ranging from historical
       teleprinters to modern terminal emulators and everything in between.

       You can specify one or more input files, but the default behavior is slightly different
       with multiple files -- for instance, animations will not loop forever when there is more
       than one input file.

OPTIONS

       --animate bool
           Whether to allow animation [on, off]. Defaults to on. When off, will show a still
           frame from each animation.

       --bg color
           Background color of display (color name or hex). Partially transparent input will be
           blended with this color. Color names are based on those provided with X.Org. Defaults
           to black.

       -C bool, --center bool
           Center images [on, off]. Defaults to off.

       --clear
           Clear screen before processing each file.

       -c mode, --colors mode
           Set output color mode; one of [none, 2, 8, 16/8 16, 240, 256, full]. Defaults to full
           (24-bit). The 240-color mode is recommended over the 256-color one, since the lower 16
           colors are unreliable and tend to differ between terminals. 16-color mode will use
           aixterm extensions to produce 16 foreground and background colors. The 16/8 mode
           allows for 8 colors plus another "bright" 8 colors in the foreground implemented with
           the "bold" escape sequence. 2-color mode will only emit the ANSI codes for reverse
           color and attribute reset, while "none" will emit no escape sequences at all.

           In sixel mode, "full" will dynamically generate a 256-color palette for each image or
           animation frame. The other modes refer to built-in palettes. "none" and "2" are
           interchangeable and will use the specified foreground/background colors (see --fg and
           --bg).

       --color-extractor extractor
           Method for extracting color from an area; one of [average, median]. Median normally
           produces crisper output, while average may perform better on noisy images. Defaults to
           average.

       --color-space cs
           Color space used for quantization; one of [rgb, din99d]. Defaults to rgb, which is
           faster but less accurate.

       --dither type
           Type of dithering to apply during quantization. One of [none, ordered, diffusion].
           "Bayer" is a synonym for "ordered", and "fs" (Floyd-Steinberg) is a synonym for
           "diffusion".

       --dither-grain widthxheight
           Dimensions of grain used when dithering. Specified as width x height, where each can
           be one of [1, 2, 4, 8] pixels. One character cell is by definition 8 pixels across in
           both dimensions. Defaults to 4x4 in symbol mode and 1x1 in sixel mode.

       --dither-intensity intensity
           Intensity of dithering pattern. Ranges from 0.0 to infinity, with 1.0 considered
           neutral. Lower values tend to reduce the amount of dithering done, while higher values
           increase it. In practice, values higher than 10.0 are unlikely to produce useful
           results.

       -d, --duration seconds
           Time to show each file, in seconds. Defaults to zero for still images and for
           animations when multiple files are specified. If a single animation is specified,
           defaults to infinite. Animations will always be played through at least once, even if
           duration is e.g. zero.

       --fg color
           Foreground color of display (color name or hex). Together with the background color
           specified by --bg, this specifies the terminal's palette in color modes 2 and none.
           Color names are based on those provided with X.Org. Defaults to white.

       --fg-only
           Leave the background color untouched. This produces character-cell output using
           foreground colors only, and will avoid resetting or inverting the colors.

       --fill symbols
           Specify character symbols to use for fill/gradients. Defaults to none. Usage is
           similar to that of --symbols; see below.

       --font-ratio width/height
           Target font's width/height ratio. Can be specified as a real number or a fraction.
           Defaults to 1/2.

       -f, --format format
           Set output format; one of [iterm, kitty, sixels, symbols]. The default is iterm, kitty
           or sixels if the connected terminal supports one of these, falling back to symbols
           ("ANSI art") otherwise.

       --glyph-file file
           Load glyph information from file, which can be any font file supported by FreeType
           (TTF, PCF, etc). The glyph outlines will replace any existing outlines, including
           builtins. Useful in symbol mode for custom font support or for improving quality with
           a specific font. Note that this only makes sense if the output terminal is using a
           matching font. Can be specified multiple times.

       -h, --help
           Show a brief help text.

       --invert
           Invert video. For display with bright backgrounds in color modes 2 and none. Swaps
           --fg and --bg.

       --margin-bottom num
           When terminal size is detected, reserve at least this many rows at the bottom as a
           safety margin. Can be used to prevent images from scrolling out. Defaults to 1.

       --margin-right num
           When terminal size is detected, reserve at least this many columns on the right-hand
           side as a safety margin. Defaults to 0.

       -O num, --optimize num
           Compress the output by using control sequences intelligently [0-9]. 0 disables, 9
           enables every available optimization. Defaults to 5, except for when used with "-c
           none", where it defaults to 0.

       --polite bool
           Polite mode [on, off]. Defaults to on. Turning this off may enhance presentation and
           prevent interference from other programs, but risks leaving the terminal in an altered
           state (rude).

       -p bool, --preprocess bool
           Image preprocessing [on, off]. Defaults to on with 16 colors or lower, off otherwise.
           This enhances colors and contrast prior to conversion, which can be useful in
           low-color modes.

       --scale NUM
           Scale image, respecting terminal's maximum dimensions. 1.0 approximates original pixel
           dimensions. Specify "max" to use all available space. Defaults to 1.0 for pixel
           graphics and 4.0 for symbols.

       -s widthxheight, --size widthxheight
           Set maximum output dimensions in columns and rows. By default this will be the size of
           your terminal, or 80x25 if size detection fails.

       --speed speed
           Set the speed animations will play at. This can be either a unitless multiplier
           (fractions are allowed), or a real number followed by "fps" to apply a specific
           framerate.

       --stretch
           Stretch image to fit output dimensions; ignore aspect. Implies --scale max.

       --symbols symbols
           Specify character symbols to employ in final output. See below for full usage and a
           list of symbol classes.

       --threads num
           Maximum number of CPU threads to use. If left unspecified or negative, this will equal
           available CPU cores.

       -t threshold, --threshold threshold
           Threshold above which full transparency will be used [0.0 - 1.0]. Setting this to 0.0
           will render a blank image, while a value of 1.0 will replace any transparency with the
           background color (configurable with --bg).

       --version
           Show version, feature and copyright information.

       --watch
           Watch a single input file, redisplaying it whenever its contents change. Will run
           until manually interrupted or, if --duration is set, until it expires.

       -w num, --work num
           How hard to work in terms of CPU and memory [1-9]. 1 is the cheapest, 9 is the most
           accurate. Defaults to 5.

EXIT STATUS

       chafa will return 0 on success, 1 on partial failure or 2 on complete failure (including
       when invoked with no arguments).

       Status   Meaning
       0        Success
       1        Some files failed to display
       2        All files failed to display

SYMBOLS

       Accepted classes for --symbols are [all, none, space, solid, stipple, block, border,
       diagonal, dot, quad, half, hhalf, vhalf, inverted, braille, technical, geometric, ascii,
       legacy, sextant, wedge, wide, narrow]. Some symbols belong to multiple classes, e.g.
       diagonals are also borders.

       You can specify a list of classes separated by commas, or prefix them with + and - to add
       or remove symbols relative to the existing set. The ordering is significant.

       The default symbol set is block+border+space-wide-inverted for all modes except "none",
       which uses block+border+space-wide (including inverse symbols).

EXAMPLES

       chafa in.gif
           Show a potentially animated GIF image in the terminal. If this is an animation, it
           will run until the user generates an interrupt (typically ctrl-c). All parameters will
           be autodetected based on the current environment.

       chafa -c full -s 200 in.gif
           Like the above, but force truecolor output that is 200 characters wide and calculate
           the height preserving the aspect of the original image.

       chafa -c 16 --color-space din99d --symbols -dot in.jpg
           Generate 16-color output with perceptual color picking and avoid using dot symbols.

       chafa -c none --symbols block+border-solid in.png
           Generate uncolored output using block and border symbols, but avoid the solid block
           symbol.

FURTHER READING

       See the Chafa homepage[1] for more information.

AUTHOR

       Written by Hans Petter Jansson[2] <hpj@hpjansson.org>.

NOTES

        1. Chafa homepage
           https://hpjansson.org/chafa/

        2. Hans Petter Jansson
           https://hpjansson.org/