From: ldo@nz.invalid

Quite impressed to discover that a sixel graphics renaissance seems to
be in progress <https://www.arewesixelyet.com/>.

This is an old idea invented by DEC from the 1980s, for a terminal
graphics mode that allowed for each line of characters to become 6
rows of pixels (“six pixel” = “sixel”). A bit slow to send the resulting volume of data over a serial line, but modern network
connections cope with it just fine. It was eclipsed by the advent of
proper graphics terminals with more advanced display hardware,
accessed via network connections, X11, OpenGL and all the rest of it.
But now some folks are dusting off the old idea, and having some fun
with it.

Certainly a bit nicer than blocky character graphics.

What use is it? Think of remote access via SSH, where you have a need
for some basic ability to view graphics in your terminal emulator. The
above site gives a roll call of terminal emulators, and their status
of support (or not) for sixel graphics. Is yours in the list?

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From: bencollver@tilde.pink

On 2025-09-17, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Quite impressed to discover that a sixel graphics renaissance seems to
be in progress <https://www.arewesixelyet.com/>.

That web site gives a list of terminal emulators that support sixel
graphics. I'd be interested in seeing a list of software that
supports sixel graphics. Off the top of my head, i've used:

* gnuplot
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/patches/742/
* chafa
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/

I have also used gnuplot with xterm's Tektronix 4014 emulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010

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From: ldo@nz.invalid

On Wed, 17 Sep 2025 13:50:13 -0000 (UTC), Ben Collver wrote:

That web site gives a list of terminal emulators that support sixel
graphics. I'd be interested in seeing a list of software that supports
sixel graphics.

That’s less important, though, given the likely usage scenarios. This
package <https://packages.debian.org/trixie/libsixel-bin> contains the img2sixel utility, which will convert various graphics formats to sixel.
That is enough to display the result in a sixel-supporting terminal
window.

With that, there isn’t much need for the usual graphics software to output sixel format directly.

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From: *@eli.users.panix.com

In comp.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Quite impressed to discover that a sixel graphics renaissance seems to
be in progress <https://www.arewesixelyet.com/>.

...

Certainly a bit nicer than blocky character graphics.

I've seen the Unicode Braille codepoints used, too. Those support 2
dot wide and 8 dot Braille symbols, which render with white space
surrounding.

What use is it? Think of remote access via SSH, where you have a need
for some basic ability to view graphics in your terminal emulator. The
above site gives a roll call of terminal emulators, and their status
of support (or not) for sixel graphics. Is yours in the list?

My xterm is new enough, but I don't seem to get output. The HI example
on the Wikipedia page just outputs a blank line and img2sixel gives no
visible output.

But a related project: fifteenel. It is a font using a Unicode private
block for a fifteen pixel tall by one pixel wide drawing scheme.

https://drj11.itch.io/fifteenel-font

Elijah
------
not sure if his xterm config is the source of problems or something else

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From: candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote at 13:50 this Wednesday (GMT):

On 2025-09-17, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Quite impressed to discover that a sixel graphics renaissance seems to
be in progress <https://www.arewesixelyet.com/>.

That web site gives a list of terminal emulators that support sixel
graphics. I'd be interested in seeing a list of software that
supports sixel graphics. Off the top of my head, i've used:

* gnuplot
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/patches/742/
* chafa
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/

I have also used gnuplot with xterm's Tektronix 4014 emulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010

chafa is a incredible program that I use a lot! I like how it can
automatically detect and use the highest graphics mode for the
program.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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From: *@eli.users.panix.com

In comp.misc, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

My xterm is new enough, but I don't seem to get output. The HI example
on the Wikipedia page just outputs a blank line and img2sixel gives no
visible output.

You added at least
XTerm*decTerminalID: vt340

Hmmm. Nope. Didn't try that.

With that the HI example from Wikipedia works but img2sixel still gives
no visible output. (I tried adding -o outfile and I can see sixel code
there in vi.)

Elijah
------
ppmtosixel dumps visible sixel code to terminal

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From: ldo@nz.invalid

On Fri, 19 Sep 2025 04:30:03 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:

In comp.misc, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

XTerm*decTerminalID: vt340

With that the HI example from Wikipedia works but img2sixel still gives
no visible output. (I tried adding -o outfile and I can see sixel code
there in vi.)

Something about 7-bit versus 8-bit encoding, at a wild guess?

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From: kludge@panix.com

Lots of stuff on VMS supported sixel. We used a matrix manipulation program called MatrixX which would generate plot files which you could RENDER into different formats including postscript to print and sixel to display on your VT240. I think IslandWrite/Draw/Paint also supported sixel display terminals. --scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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From: ldo@nz.invalid

On Fri, 19 Sep 2025 22:43:31 -0400 (EDT), Scott Dorsey wrote:

Lots of stuff on VMS supported sixel. We used a matrix manipulation
program called MatrixX which would generate plot files which you
could RENDER into different formats including postscript to print
and sixel to display on your VT240.

Why did you bother with sixel graphics on a VT240? That supported
ReGIS, which was far superior.

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