Print image in your terminal

A Node.js utility that displays images directly in your terminal using ANSI escape codes and Unicode characters.

Features

• Display PNG and JPEG images in the terminal
• True color (24-bit RGB) support for high-quality rendering
• Fallback to 256-color mode for older terminals
• Flexible sizing with pixel or percentage values
• Automatic image resizing to fit terminal dimensions
• No external commands required - pure JavaScript implementation

Installation

npm install climg -g

Usage

Basic Usage

Display an image with default settings (fills terminal width):

climg image.jpg

Size Options

Set custom width and height using pixels:

climg image.jpg -w 100 -h 30

Set custom width and height using percentages:

climg image.jpg -w 50% -h 80%

Set only width (height will be calculated to maintain aspect ratio):

climg image.jpg -w 120

Set only height (width will be calculated to maintain aspect ratio):

climg image.jpg -h 40

Color Mode

Disable true color and use 256-color mode instead:

climg image.jpg -t

Command Line Options

Usage: climg <image.png|jpg> [options]

Options:
  -w <size>      Set width in pixels or percentage (e.g., 80 or 50%)
  -h <size>      Set height in pixels or percentage (e.g., 40 or 80%)
  -t             Disable true color, use 256 colors instead

Examples

Display a photo at 75% of terminal width:

climg photo.jpg -w 75%

Display a logo at exact dimensions:

climg logo.png -w 60 -h 20

Display using 256 colors for compatibility:

climg image.jpg -w 100 -t

How It Works

1. Loading and decoding PNG or JPEG images using pngjs and jpeg-js libraries
2. Resizing the image to fit the specified or terminal dimensions
3. Converting RGB pixel values to ANSI escape codes
4. Using the half-block character (▀) to display two vertical pixels per character
5. Setting foreground color for the top pixel and background color for the bottom pixel

Supported Formats

• PNG (.png)
• JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)

Terminal Compatibility

Works best with terminals that support true color (24-bit):

• iTerm2 (macOS)
• Windows Terminal
• GNOME Terminal (recent versions)
• Konsole
• Alacritty
• Kitty
• Hyper

For older terminals, use the -t flag to enable 256-color mode.

Requirements

• Node.js (version 10 or higher)
• Terminal with ANSI color support

API Usage

You can also use climg as a module in your own Node.js programs:

import { climg, loadImage, renderImage, ClimgOptions, ImageData } from "climg";

(async () => {
  // Define rendering options (with full IntelliSense)
  const options: ClimgOptions = {
    width: 100,
    height: 30,
    trueColor: true,
  };

  // Display an image directly in the terminal
  await climg("image.jpg", options);

  // Load an image and inspect its pixel data
  const image: ImageData = await loadImage("image.jpg");
  console.log(`Image dimensions: ${image.width}x${image.height}`);

  // Render the image to an ANSI string (instead of printing directly)
  const output: string = renderImage(image.pixels, {
    width: 80,
    trueColor: true,
  });

  // Print the ANSI-rendered image manually
  console.log(output);
})();

You can also run it in plain JavaScript (same syntax, just replace import with require).

Notes

• Size percentages are calculated based on terminal dimensions at runtime
• When only width or height is specified, the aspect ratio is preserved
• Image quality depends on terminal color support and font rendering
• Very large images are automatically scaled down to fit the terminal