# posva/catimg

🦦 Insanely fast image printing in your terminal

Repository: https://github.com/posva/catimg
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/catimg
Homepage: http://posva.net/shell/retro/bash/2013/05/27/catimg
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: shell, c, imagemagick, catimg, terminal, fun
Last push: 2026-04-07T08:59:37+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 63/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 76, release rhythm 26, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4847, "days_push": 148, "days_rel": 280, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1577, forks 64 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:06.203578+00:00)

## What it is
catimg is a small C program that prints images (JPEG, PNG, GIF) directly in the terminal using 256-color and unicode escape codes, with no dependencies. It originated as a shell script using ImageMagick and is now a fast standalone binary.

## Use cases
- print an image in the terminal
- preview images without leaving the shell
- display a picture in a terminal prompt
- render png or gif files in a 256-color terminal
- fast terminal image viewer

## When to choose
- you want dependency-free, very fast image rendering in a terminal
- you use a 256-color capable shell on Linux or macOS
- you want to show images inline in scripts or prompts

## When to avoid
- you need true-color or pixel-perfect image fidelity
- you are on a terminal without 256-color support
- you need a full graphical image viewer

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: image-processing, cli
- domain: image-processing, developer-tools
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: terminal-graphics, ansi-colors, jpeg, png, gif, no-dependencies, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- posva/catimg (main) score 63

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:06.203578+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:57:10.556607+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/posva/catimg (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:06.203578+00:00, sha 7191e847b154)
  - homepage: http://posva.net/shell/retro/bash/2013/05/27/catimg (fetched 2026-08-29T11:27:22.391361+00:00, sha 53ae76121e5b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.