Provided by: chafa_1.14.0-1.1build1_amd64 
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.
GENERAL OPTIONS
-h, --help
Show a brief help text.
--version
Show version, feature and copyright information.
OUTPUT ENCODING
-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.
-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.
--relative bool
Use relative cursor positioning [on, off]. When on, control sequences will be used to position images
relative to the cursor. When off, newlines will be used to separate rows instead for e.g. 'less -R'
interop. Defaults to off.
--passthrough mode
Graphics protocol passthrough [auto, none, screen, tmux]. Used to show pixel graphics from within
multiplexers. Defaults to auto, which will enable passthrough if the Kitty terminal is detected along
with one of the supported multiplexers. Other combinations must be enabled manually; use with the -f
option to select the appropriate graphics protocol.
--polite bool
Polite mode [on, off]. Inhibits escape sequences that on rare occasions may confuse the terminal or
other programs. Defaults to off.
SIZE AND LAYOUT
--align ALIGN
Align images in viewport. The following alignments are understood: left, right, top, bottom, hcenter,
vcenter, center. Two orthogonal alignments can be separated by a comma, e.g. "center,right". The
meaning of "center" depends on context, and defaults to "hcenter" if ambiguous. "center,center" will
center along both axes.
Centering vertically makes sense when used together with "--clear", or possibly as part of a scheme
where the cursor is pre-positioned at the top-left corner of the view, or a subview when used with
"--relative on".
-C bool, --center bool
Center images horizontally in the view [on, off]. Defaults to off. This option is deprecated; use
"--align center" instead.
--clear
Clear screen before processing each file.
--exact-size mode
Try to match the input's size exactly [auto, on, off]. When on, this will override other sizing
options and produce output images at the exact pixel size of the inputs. In auto mode, scaling will
be avoided (in exchange for padding) if the output size is equal to or slightly bigger than the
input. When off, padding will never be added, and the image is scaled to fit the containing cell
extent. Defaults to auto.
--fit-width
Fit images to the view's width, potentially exceeding its height.
--font-ratio width/height
Target font's width/height ratio. Can be specified as a real number or a fraction. Defaults to 1/2.
--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.
--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 image dimensions in columns and rows. By default this will be equal to the view
size (see --view-size).
--stretch
Stretch image to fit output dimensions; ignore aspect. Implies --scale max.
--view-size widthxheight
Set the view size in columns and rows. By default this will be the size of your terminal, or 80x25 if
size detection fails. If one dimension is omitted (by providing a size of e.g. 80x or x25), it will
be set to a reasonable approximation of infinity.
ANIMATION AND TIMING
--animate bool
Whether to allow animation [on, off]. Defaults to on. When off, will show a still frame from each
animation.
-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, or "inf".
Animations will always be played through at least once, even if duration is e.g. zero. See the
"Duration" section for more.
--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.
--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.
COLORS AND PROCESSING
--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 mode, --colors mode
Set output color mode; one of [none, 2, 8, 16/8 16, 240, 256, full]. 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).
If left unspecified, an optimal default will be chosen based on the current environment.
--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.
--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.
--invert
Invert video. For display with bright backgrounds in color modes 2 and none. Swaps --fg and --bg.
-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.
-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).
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
--threads num
Maximum number of CPU threads to use. If left unspecified or negative, this will equal available CPU
cores.
-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.
EXTRA OPTIONS FOR SYMBOL ENCODING
--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.
--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.
--symbols symbols
Specify character symbols to employ in final output. See below for full usage and a list of symbol
classes.
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 and --fill 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 add specific characters with the letter "u" followed by a hexadecimal code point, e.g. "ue080",
or a range of code points by separating the first and last index by "..", e.g. "u100..u200".
Symbol sets can also be specified as a string of UTF-8 characters in square brackets, e.g. [abcd]. To
include a closing bracket in the set, escape it with a backslash.
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).
DURATION
In order to accommodate both interactive use and batch processing, an animation's duration is determined
according to a few simple rules:
1. If one or more --duration arguments are present, the final instance is respected and applied to every
file.
2. Otherwise, if there's a controlling terminal attached (indicating there's an interactive session),
and only a single file argument is provided, and that file is an animation, it will have infinite
duration.
3. Otherwise (no controlling terminal, multiple files, file is a still image), duration will be zero,
causing animations to play once and then stop.
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/
chafa CHAFA(1)