There are various similar tools (such as `timg`) that use the unicode half block character to display two 24bit pixels per character cell. This program enhances the resolution by mapping 4x8 pixel cells to different unicode characters, using the following algorithm for each 4x8 pixel cell of the (potentially downscaled) image:
The shell will expand wildcards. By default, thumbnails and file names will be displayed if more than one image is provided. For a list of options, run the command without any parameters or with `--help`.
- 2024-03-20: Added a section on how to use the API.
- 2024-02-01: We are currently working on splitting the source code into dependency-free library files and a client that uses CImg.
- 2023-09-29: Today marks the 40th anniversary of the GNU project. If you haven't learned the news concerning it and Stallman, please do.
Support for MSVC has been added and the repository is now under an Apache 2.0 or GPL3 dual license. CI building for each release will hopefully be setup soon. The main program has also adopted a mostly Google code-style because I (aaron) think it simply makes sense.
- 2021-05-22: We now support Apple Clang, thanks to the C++ filesystem library being no longer experimental. Issue forms have also been added to the GitHub repository.
- 2020-10-22: The Java version is now **deprecated**. Development has long shifted to the C++ version since that was created, and the last meaningful update to it was in 2016.
Our makefile currently only supports `g++`. It should be possible to compile `tiv` manually using any of your favorite compilers that support C++17 and Unix headers (`ioctl.h` and `sysexits.h`, specifically) or `windows.h`. PRs are welcome.
- Errors such as "unrecognized file format"? Make sure ImageMagic is installed.
- On some linux platforms, an extra flag seems to be required: `make LDLIBS=-lstdc++fs` (but it also breaks MacOs), see <https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer/issues/103>
- If you see strange horizontal lines, the characters don't fully fill the character cell. Remove additional line spacing in your terminal app
- Wrong colors? Try -256 to use a 256 color palette instead of 24 bit colors
- Strange characters? Try -0 or install an use full unicode font (e.g. inconsolata or firacode)
## Using the TIV API
Tiv can be used as an API. So if you always wanted to run your favorite FPS in a shell, this is the opportunity.
All the code useful as a library is isolated in [tiv_lib.h](https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer/blob/master/src/tiv_lib.h)
and [tiv_lib.cc](https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer/blob/master/src/tiv_lib.cc).
The main entry point is
```CharData findCharData(GetPixelFunction get_pixel, int x0, int y0,
const int &flags)
```
The call takes a std::Function that allows the TIV code to request pixels from your framebuffer.
From this framebuffer, the call will query pixels for a 4x8 pixel rectangle, where x0 and y0
define the top left corner. The call searches the best unicode graphics character and colors to approximate this
cell of the image, and returns these in a CharData struct.
- 2019-03-26: Exciting week: @cabelo has fixed output redirection, @boretom has added cross-compilation support to the build file and @AlanDeSmet has fixed tall thumbnails and greyscale images.
- This program currently only depends on CImg and ImageMagick as image processing libraries and I'd prefer to keep it that way.
- Support for additional platforms, CPUs or similar will require somebody who is happy to help with maintenance, in particular if Idon't have access to it.
You are free to use this code under either the GPL (3 or later) or version 2.0 of the Apache license. We include the CImg library, which
is licensed under either [CeCILL 2.0](https://spdx.org/licenses/CECILL-2.0.html) (close to GPL and compatible with it) or [CeCILL-C] (https://spdx.org/licenses/CECILL-C) (close to LGPL and compatible with Apache).
