Textinator is a Python 3 command line program that converts images to text, allowing you to view them from the console. It uses a palette by default, but you can use any set of characters to display an image. There is also a colour mode using ANSI colour codes.
If you're not on Windows and want to convert JPEG or TIFF files, you will first need to install some dependencies. In most cases, you just need to install libjpeg-dev
and libtiff-dev
from your package manager (e.g. apt-get
or brew
). See the Pillow documentation page on external libraries for more info.
In any case, run this command to install Textinator:
$ pip install git+https://github.com/ijks/textinator.git
Usage: textinate [OPTIONS] IMAGE [OUT]
Converts INPUT to a text representation. OUT is an optional file to save
to.
Supports most image filetypes by default, except for JPEG. For that you
need to install libjpeg. For more info see:
http://pillow.readthedocs.org/installation.html#external-libraries
Options:
-w, --width INTEGER Width of output. If height is not given, the
image will be proportionally scaled.
-h, --height INTEGER Height of output. If width is not given, the
image will be proportionally scaled. If
neither width nor height are given, the
current terminal width is used instead.
--correct / --no-correct Wether to account for the proportions of
monospaced characters. On by default.
-r, --resample [nearest|bilinear|bicubic|antialias]
Filter to use for resampling. Default is
antialias.
-p, --palette TEXT A custom palette for rendering images, from
from dark to bright.
-i, --invert Inverts the palette.
-c, --colour Enables colour output. This does not disable
the normal character palette. Rather, the
characters get a foreground colour
corresponding to the colour in the original.
--background / --foreground Wether to colour the foreground or
background of characters. Does nothing if
--colour is not present
--debug Debug mode.
--help Show this message and exit.
- More control over how pixels get translated to characters (e.g. 2 characters per pixel)
- Dithering
- Smarter conversion
- Animation (.gif and png sequence)