Introduction

libcaca is a graphics library that outputs text instead of pixels, so that it can work on older video cards or text terminals. It is not unlike the famous ​AAlib library, with the following improvements:

• Unicode support
• 2048 available colours (some devices can only handle 16)
• dithering of colour images
• advanced text canvas operations (blitting, rotations)

Libcaca works in a text terminal (and should thus work on all Unix systems including Mac OS X) using the S-Lang or ncurses libraries. It also works natively on DOS and Windows.

Libcaca was written by Sam Hocevar and Jean-Yves Lamoureux. It is free software, and can be used, modified and distributed under the terms of the ​Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License.

News

• 18 May 2008: zzuf 0.11
• 1 Apr 2008: libcaca to be ​OpenOffice.org’s official multiplatform rendering backend
• 24 Feb 2008: we are now using Trac!
• 24 Jan 2008: img2oric, the first Caca Labs piece of research software
• 28 Nov 2007: libcaca 0.99.beta13
• 24 Oct 2007: Report on CacaCon’07, the first international libcaca conference.

Screenshots

Here are a few libcaca screenshots.

cacaview	cacaball	cacaplas	TrueColor
Unicode	swallowing applications	canvas rotation

See also the various export formats, generated from an old ANSI file: PNG (through TGA), HTML, SVG, PostScript?.

Why?

Que dites-vous ?... C’est inutile ?... Je le sais !
Mais on ne se bat pas dans l’espoir du succès !
Non ! non, c’est bien plus beau lorsque c’est inutile !
-- Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

I am perfectly aware that libcaca is the waste of time it looks to be. No need to tell me about that. I urge you to read Théophile Gautier’s preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin, which also gives an excellent explanation for the name “libcaca”:

Il n’y a rien de vraiment beau que ce qui ne peut servir à rien ; tout ce qui est utile est laid ; car c’est l’expression de quelque besoin ; et ceux de l’homme sont ignobles et dégoûtants, comme sa pauvre et infirme nature. - L’endroit le plus utile d’une maison, ce sont les latrines.

As for the name “libcucul”, please refer to the pioneer of modernist Polish fiction:

Mais contre le cucul, il n’y a pas de refuge. Courez après moi si vous voulez, je m’enfuis la gueule entre les mains. Et voilà, tralala, Zut à celui qui le lira !
-- Witold Gombrowicz, Ferdydurke