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1<?php header("Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8"); ?>
2<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
3       "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
4
5<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
6
7<head>
8   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
9   <meta name="GENERATOR" content="vim" />
10   <meta name="Author" content="sam@zoy.org (Sam Hocevar)" />
11   <meta name="Description" content="libcaca - Colour AsCii Art library" />
12   <meta name="Keywords" content="libcaca, ASCII, ASCII ART, console, text mode, ncurses, slang, AAlib" />
13   <title>libcaca - Colour AsCii Art library</title>
14   <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
15   <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
16   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/main.css" />
17</head>
18
19<body>
20
21<?php include($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/header.inc"); ?>
22
23<img src="logo-caca.png" width="128" height="128"
24     alt="libcaca logo" class="caca" />
25
26<h2> Introduction </h2>
27
28<p> <i>libcaca</i> is a graphics library that outputs text instead of pixels,
29so that it can work on older video cards or text terminals. It is not unlike
30the famous <a href="http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aalib/">AAlib</a>
31library, with the following improvements: </p>
32
33<ul>
34  <li> Unicode support </li>
35  <li> 2048 available colours (some devices can only handle 16) </li>
36  <li> dithering of colour images </li>
37  <li> advanced text canvas operations (blitting, rotations) </li>
38</ul>
39
40<p> Libcaca works in a text terminal (and should thus work on all Unix
41systems including Mac OS X) using the S-Lang or ncurses libraries. It also
42works natively on DOS and Windows. </p>
43
44<p> Libcaca was written by Sam Hocevar &lt;<a
45href="mailto:sam@zoy.org">sam@zoy.org</a>&gt; and Jean-Yves Lamoureux
46&lt;<a href="mailto:jylam@lnxscene.org">jylam@lnxscene.org</a>&gt;. It is
47<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software</a>,
48and can be used, modified and distributed under the terms of the <a
49href="http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/">Do What The Fuck You Want To Public
50License</a>. </p>
51
52<h2> News </h2>
53
54<p> <b>24 Oct 2007</b>: <a href="/cacacon07/">CacaCon’07</a> </p>
55<p> <b>30 Sep 2007</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta12 </p>
56<p> <b>16 Nov 2006</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta11 </p>
57<p> <b>16 Nov 2006</b>: <a href="/toilet.html">TOIlet</a> 0.1 </p>
58<p> <b>12 Nov 2006</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta10 </p>
59<p> <b>6 Nov 2006</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta9 </p>
60<!-- old news
61<p> <b>22 Oct 2006</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta8 </p>
62<p> <b>4 Oct 2006</b>: libcaca 0.99.beta7 </p>
63-->
64
65<h2> Screenshots </h2>
66
67<p> Here are a few <i>libcaca</i> screenshots. </p>
68
69<table cellspacing="5" border="0">
70  <tr>
71    <td align="center">
72      <a href="img/stitch-80x45.png"><img alt="cacaview"
73         width="73" height="90"
74         src="img/tn-stitch-80x45.jpeg" /></a>
75      <br /><small><code>cacaview</code></small>
76    </td>
77    <td align="center">
78      <a href="img/cacaball-80x50.png"><img alt="cacaball"
79         width="101" height="90"
80         src="img/tn-cacaball-80x50.jpeg" /></a>
81      <br /><small><code>cacaball</code></small>
82    </td>
83    <td align="center">
84      <a href="img/cacaplas-80x50.png"><img alt="cacaplas"
85         width="101" height="90"
86         src="img/tn-cacaplas-80x50.jpeg" /></a>
87      <br /><small><code>cacaplas</code></small>
88    </td>
89    <td align="center">
90      <a href="img/truecolor-32x16.png"><img alt="truecolor"
91         width="87" height="90"
92         src="img/tn-truecolor-32x16.jpeg" /></a>
93      <br /><small>TrueColor</small>
94    </td>
95    <td align="center">
96      <a href="img/unicode-80x24.png"><img alt="unicode"
97         width="120" height="75"
98         src="img/tn-unicode-80x24.jpeg" /></a>
99      <br /><small>Unicode</small>
100    </td>
101  </tr>
102  <tr>
103    <td align="center">
104      <a href="img/swallow-80x32.png"><img alt="swallow"
105         width="120" height="81"
106         src="img/tn-swallow-80x32.jpeg" /></a>
107      <br /><small>swallowing applications</small>
108    </td>
109    <td align="center">
110      <a href="img/rotate.png"><img alt="rotation"
111         width="75" height="90"
112         src="img/tn-rotate.jpeg" /></a>
113      <br /><small>canvas rotation</small>
114    </td>
115  </tr>
116</table>
117
118<p> See also the various export formats, generated from an old
119  <a href="lc-mw1.ans">ANSI file</a>:
120  <a href="export.png">PNG</a> (through TGA),
121  <a href="export.html">HTML</a>,
122  <a href="export.svg">SVG</a>,
123  <a href="export.ps">PostScript</a>.
124</p>
125
126<!--
127<p> Here are my first libcaca attempts. The first image is,
128<code>cacaview</code>, the libcaca image viewer. Then, two
129screenshots of my first port of an application to libcaca: the <a
130href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC</a> media player. The last
131screenshots are from <code>cacafire</code> (the libcaca port of aafire) and
132<code>cacaball</code> (a mini metaballs demo). </p>
133
134<table cellspacing="5" border="0">
135  <tr>
136    <td align="center">
137      <a href="caca-stitch.png"><img alt="cacaview"
138         width="78" height="90"
139         src="tn-caca-stitch.jpeg" /><br /><code>cacaview</code></a>
140    </td>
141    <td align="center">
142      <a href="caca-vlc.png"><img alt="VLC playing the Matrix: Revolutions"
143         width="120" height="74"
144         src="tn-caca-vlc.jpeg" /><br />VLC media player</a>
145    </td>
146    <td align="center">
147      <a href="caca-vlc3.png"><img alt="VLC playing a Dolby trailer"
148         width="120" height="74"
149         src="tn-caca-vlc3.jpeg" /><br />VLC media player</a>
150    </td>
151    <td align="center">
152      <a href="caca-fire.png"><img alt="cacafire"
153         width="120" height="87"
154         src="tn-caca-fire.jpeg" /><br /><code>cacafire</code></a>
155    </td>
156    <td align="center">
157      <a href="caca-ball.png"><img alt="cacaball"
158         width="104" height="90"
159         src="tn-caca-ball.jpeg" /><br /><code>cacaball</code></a>
160    </td>
161  </tr>
162</table>
163
164<p> As with all image processing applications, I needed the obligatory <a
165href="http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/lennapg/">Lenna</a> samples. From
166left to right: the currently in development Floyd-Steinberg dithering, the
167antialiasing introduced in libcaca 0.5, the new renderer in libcaca 0.2, no
168dithering, ordered dithering, random dithering. </p>
169
170<table cellspacing="5" border="0">
171  <tr>
172    <td align="center">
173      <a href="lenna-fs.png"><img alt="Lenna (Floyd-Steinberg)"
174         width="87" height="90"
175         src="tn-lenna-fs.jpeg" /><br />Floyd-Steinberg</a>
176    </td>
177    <td align="center">
178      <a href="lenna-antialias.png"><img alt="Lenna (antialiased)"
179         width="97" height="90"
180         src="tn-lenna-antialias.jpeg" /><br />antialiasing</a>
181    </td>
182    <td align="center">
183      <a href="lenna-new.png"><img alt="Lenna (new renderer)"
184         width="99" height="90"
185         src="tn-lenna-new.jpeg" /><br />new renderer</a>
186    </td>
187    <td align="center">
188      <a href="lenna-nodither.png"><img alt="Lenna (no dithering)"
189         width="99" height="90"
190         src="tn-lenna-nodither.jpeg" /><br />no dithering</a>
191    </td>
192    <td align="center">
193      <a href="lenna-ordered.png"><img alt="Lenna (ordered dithering)"
194         width="99" height="90"
195         src="tn-lenna-ordered.jpeg" /><br />ordered dithering</a>
196    </td>
197    <td align="center">
198      <a href="lenna-random.png"><img alt="Lenna (random dithering)"
199         width="99" height="90"
200         src="tn-lenna-random.jpeg" /><br />random dithering</a>
201    </td>
202  </tr>
203</table>
204
205<p> Here are a few examples of my libcaca patch for libSDL. Once there is a
206libcaca backend for <a href="http://www.libsdl.org">libSDL</a>, any program
207using SDL can automatically benefit from libcaca’s rendering routines. These
208examples show <a href="http://www.frozen-bubble.org/">Frozen Bubble</a>, the
209<a href="http://sabre.cobite.com/">SABRE</a> flight simulator, and the famous
210<a href="http://www.idsoftware.com/games/doom/">Doom</a>. Frozen Bubble is
211fully playable, but SABRE and Doom aren’t much due to the Ctrl and Shift keys
212not being recognized (see the TODO list about that). </p>
213
214<table cellspacing="5" border="0">
215  <tr>
216    <td align="center">
217      <a href="caca-fb.png"><img alt="ASCII art Frozen Bubble"
218         width="120" height="90"
219         src="tn-caca-fb.jpeg" /><br />Frozen Bubble</a>
220    </td>
221    <td align="center">
222      <a href="caca-sabre.png"><img alt="the SABRE flight simulator"
223         width="120" height="90"
224         src="tn-caca-sabre.jpeg" /><br />SABRE</a>
225    </td>
226    <td align="center">
227      <a href="caca-doom.png"><img alt="the Doom splash screen in ASCII art"
228         width="120" height="90"
229         src="tn-caca-doom.jpeg" /><br />Doom splash screen</a>
230    </td>
231    <td align="center">
232      <a href="caca-doom2.png"><img alt="Doom in ASCII art"
233         width="120" height="90"
234         src="tn-caca-doom2.jpeg" /><br />first Doom level</a>
235    </td>
236  </tr>
237</table>
238
239<h2> Download libcaca </h2>
240
241<p> libcaca is already in the Debian sid distribution. Debian woody users or
242sid users in a hurry may use one of the following apt sources: (sorry, sarge
243is not supported yet) </p>
244
245<table class="leftmenu" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="0">
246  <tr>
247    <td class="nowrap" valign="top">
248      <code>
249        deb http://sam.zoy.org/projects/debian woody main<br />
250        deb-src http://sam.zoy.org/projects/debian woody main<br />
251        <br />
252        deb http://sam.zoy.org/projects/debian sid main<br />
253        deb-src http://sam.zoy.org/projects/debian sid main<br />
254      </code>
255    </td>
256  </tr>
257</table>
258
259<p> Users of RPM-based distributions (Red Hat, Fedora, Mandrake) may find RPM
260packages on the <a href="http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=552">Fresh
261RPMs</a> page. If no package is available, you are encouraged
262to build packages for your system using this SRPM (<a
263href="libcaca-0.9-1.src.rpm">libcaca-0.9-1.src.rpm</a>, 176KB) and this simple
264command line: </p>
265
266<table class="leftmenu" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="0">
267  <tr>
268    <td class="nowrap" valign="top">
269      <code>rpm -<!>-rebuild libcaca-0.9-1.src.rpm</code>
270    </td>
271  </tr>
272</table>
273
274<p> BSD users should see the <a
275href="http://www.netbsd.org/packages/graphics/libcaca/README.html">NetBSD port
276page</a> and the <a href="http://www.freshports.org/graphics/libcaca/">FreeBSD
277port page</a> (I am not aware of an OpenBSD port yet, but <a
278href="http://news.gw.com/openbsd.ports/15502">this email</a> has
279information on it), Gentoo users may find information on the <a
280href="http://gentoo-portage.com/browse-program.php?program=6273">Gentoo
281portage</a> and Slackware users have a package on <a
282href="http://www.linuxpackages.net/pkg_details.php?id=2144">linuxpackages.net</a>.
283</p>
284
285<h2> Patch for libSDL </h2>
286
287<p> This simple patch was quickly hacked from the AAlib video
288driver. Apply it to the libSDL sources and configuree libSDL with
289<code>-<!>-enable-video-caca</code>. Then use the <code>SDL_VIDEODRIVER</code>
290environment variable to run your SDL programs with libcaca output, for
291instance Frozen Bubble: </p>
292
293<table class="leftmenu" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="0">
294  <tr>
295    <td class="nowrap" valign="top">
296      <code>SDL_VIDEODRIVER=caca frozen-bubble</code>
297    </td>
298  </tr>
299</table>
300
301<p> Download <a href="patch-libsdl1.2-libcaca0.7.diff">patch-libsdl1.2-libcaca0.7.diff</a> (to be used with the Debian unstable SDL sources and libcaca 0.7. </p>
302
303<h2> Patches for VLC, xine, mplayer... </h2>
304
305<p> The libcaca patch for the <a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC</a>
306media player was already applied upstream. Check the CVS version. </p>
307
308<p> There is a work in progress for <a href="http://xine.sf.net/">xine</a>
309called cacaxine (see <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3605187&amp;forum_id=7131">this email</a>). Zeeshan Ali wrote a
310<a href="http://gstreamer.sf.net/">GStreamer</a> plugin. I am not
311aware of an <a href="http://mplayerhq.hu/">MPlayer</a> patch yet (but you
312should not be using MPlayer anyway, because it sucks). </p>
313
314<h2> Development </h2>
315
316-->
317
318<h2> Why? </h2>
319
320<blockquote><p>
321Que dites-vous ?... C’est inutile ?... Je le sais !
322<br />Mais on ne se bat pas dans l’espoir du succès !
323<br />Non ! non, c’est bien plus beau lorsque c’est inutile !
324<br /><small> -- Edmond Rostand, <i>Cyrano de Bergerac</i> </small>
325</p></blockquote>
326
327<p> I am perfectly aware that <i>libcaca</i> is the waste of time it looks to
328be. No need to tell me about that. I urge you to read Théophile Gautier’s
329preface to <i>Mademoiselle de Maupin</i>, which also gives an excellent
330explanation for the name “libcaca”: </p>
331
332<blockquote><p>
333Il n’y a rien de vraiment beau que ce qui ne peut servir à rien ; tout ce
334qui est utile est laid ; car c’est l’expression de quelque besoin ; et ceux
335de l’homme sont ignobles et dégoûtants, comme sa pauvre et infirme nature. -
336L’endroit le plus utile d’une maison, ce sont les latrines.
337</p></blockquote>
338
339<p> As for the name “libcucul”, please refer to the pioneer of modernist
340Polish fiction: </p>
341
342<blockquote><p>
343Mais contre le cucul, il n’y a pas de refuge. Courez après moi
344si vous voulez, je m’enfuis la gueule entre les mains. Et voilà,
345tralala, Zut à celui qui le lira !
346<br /><small> -- Witold Gombrowicz, <i>Ferdydurke</i> </small>
347</p></blockquote>
348
349<?php $rev = '$Id: index.html 1845 2007-10-25 00:37:36Z sam $';
350      include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/footer.inc'); ?>
351
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