Difference between revisions of "How to preview images"
(Add information about using Sixel) |
(Add tools that interpolate) |
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* <code>%ph</code> height of preview area. | * <code>%ph</code> height of preview area. | ||
− | + | {{NOTE|text=Because terminals were built to display text rather than images, making them display images can be problematic. Some solutions work better in some environments than others, but none of them is perfect.}} | |
== Überzug == | == Überzug == | ||
Line 141: | Line 141: | ||
* [https://github.com/vifm/vifm/issues/82 Issue #82 on GitHub] for similar description and some discussion of some issues. | * [https://github.com/vifm/vifm/issues/82 Issue #82 on GitHub] for similar description and some discussion of some issues. | ||
* [https://github.com/vifm/vifm/issues/102 Issue #102 on GitHub] for report on image clearing issues. | * [https://github.com/vifm/vifm/issues/102 Issue #102 on GitHub] for report on image clearing issues. | ||
+ | |||
+ | == Other options == | ||
+ | |||
+ | In case everything else doesn't work well and you're fine sacrificing quality, there are numerous other tools which approximate images using characters. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{NOTE|text=As of v0.11 Vifm doesn't support 24-bit colors, so undefine <code>$COLORTERM</code> when using some of these tools (e.g., by prepending <code>env -u COLORTERM</code>).}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some of those tools: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * [https://github.com/larsjsol/shellpic shellpic] | ||
+ | * [https://github.com/rr-/termi termi] | ||
+ | * [https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer TerminalImageViewer] | ||
+ | * [https://github.com/atanunq/viu viu] |
Revision as of 14:23, 29 September 2020
Vifm v0.8 onward provides four macros describing preview area that can be used along with external applications to preview images in a terminal, they are:
%px
x coordinate of top-left corner of preview area;%py
y coordinate of top-left corner of preview area;%pw
width of preview area;%ph
height of preview area.
NOTE Because terminals were built to display text rather than images, making them display images can be problematic. Some solutions work better in some environments than others, but none of them is perfect. |
Überzug
For an instruction on how to use Überzug, which is likely to work better than w3m
, see this video.
The video is based on this thread.
iTerm2
See issue #299 on GitHub for a command for OS X in iTerm2.
Sixel graphics
If you're using a terminal which has good support of Sixel (i.e., it clears it properly) along with Vifm v0.10.1+ (for %pd
macro), see issue #419 on GitHub for sample configuration.
w3m
Below is a description and an example of making this work using w3m
on GNU/Linux.
Mind that the support is lacking and you might have trouble making this work in many terminals. xterm
without double-buffering tends to work better than others.
Prerequisites
1. w3mimgdisplay
which might be part of w3m
package or a separate one.
2. Terminal emulator without double buffering, otherwise w3m
will fail to display images properly.
Setup
1. Create script that invokes w3m
. w3mimgdisplay
executable might reside in
different locations depending on the distribution. Below is a sample script, which can be used
after correcting several parameters at the top.
#!/bin/bash
#
# Based on script by z3bra -- 2014-01-21
W3MIMGDISPLAY="/usr/libexec/w3m/w3mimgdisplay"
FONTH=15 # Size of one terminal row
FONTW=7 # Size of one terminal column
X=$1
Y=$2
COLUMNS=$3
LINES=$4
FILENAME=$5
read width height <<< `echo "5;$FILENAME" | $W3MIMGDISPLAY`
if [ -z "$width" -o -z "$height" ]; then
echo 'Error: Failed to obtain image size.'
exit 1
fi
x=$((FONTW * X))
y=$((FONTH * Y))
max_width=$((FONTW * COLUMNS))
max_height=$((FONTH * LINES))
if [ "$width" -gt "$max_width" ]; then
height=$((height * max_width / width))
width=$max_width
fi
if [ "$height" -gt "$max_height" ]; then
width=$((width * max_height / height))
height=$max_height
fi
w3m_command="0;1;$x;$y;$width;$height;;;;;$FILENAME\n4;\n3;"
echo -e "$w3m_command" | $W3MIMGDISPLAY
2. Update vifmrc with preview command like the following:
fileviewer *.bmp,*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.gif,*.xpm
\ imgt %px %py %pw %ph %c
Replace "imgt" with path to preview script or just update name if
script is available in your $PATH
(which is the case if you put it
under $VIFM/scripts
).
Notes
State of terminal support
One should be aware that this is kinda hack as terminals weren't made to display pictures, thus there might be some difficulties (like double buffering or incomplete clearing). That said, it does work in sufficient amount of configurations.
Positioning
When running inside terminal emulators, coordinates known to applications are relative to pane/window position. This should be taken into account, because without applying proper offsets images may appear in unexpected locations.
Clearing
Depending on your terminal this may be enough or require additional
script for clearing image leftovers (below), development version of vifm and changed :fileviewer
command like this:
fileviewer *.bmp,*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.gif,*.xpm
\ imgt %px %py %pw %ph %c
\ %pc
\ imgc %px %py %pw %ph
Where imgc
is a script that clears background of the terminal (it's configuration is at the top):
#!/bin/bash
W3MIMGDISPLAY="/usr/libexec/w3m/w3mimgdisplay"
FONTH=15 # Size of one terminal row
FONTW=7 # Size of one terminal column
X=$1
Y=$2
COLUMNS=$3
LINES=$4
x=$((FONTW * X))
y=$((FONTH * Y))
erase="6;$x;$y;$(( FONTW*COLUMNS ));$(( FONTH*LINES ))\n3;"
echo -e "$erase" | $W3MIMGDISPLAY
This is the case at least for urxvt
.
See also
- Images in terminal for base of the script above.
- Issue #82 on GitHub for similar description and some discussion of some issues.
- Issue #102 on GitHub for report on image clearing issues.
Other options
In case everything else doesn't work well and you're fine sacrificing quality, there are numerous other tools which approximate images using characters.
NOTE As of v0.11 Vifm doesn't support 24-bit colors, so undefine |
Some of those tools: