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.

Screenshots

Here are a few libcaca screenshots.

cacaview	cacaball	cacaplas	TrueColor
Unicode	swallowing applications	canvas rotation	ANSI to PNG

Download

The latest development version of libcaca is 0.99.beta19 (16 May 2014):

• libcaca-0.99.beta19.tar.gz

The old, deprecated 0.9 release is still available. You are encouraged to evaluate and use 0.99, though.

• libcaca-0.9.tar.gz
• libcaca-win32-0.9.zip

Development

Read the following if you wish to hack on libcaca:

• development notes

Development happens in a centralised Subversion repository:

• ​svn://svn.zoy.org/caca/libcaca/trunk
• associated web interface

There is also a Git repository that mirrors the central one:

• using the Git protocol: ​git://git.zoy.org/libcaca.git
• using HTTP: http://caca.zoy.org/git/libcaca.git

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.