I recently built a project called PIT (Phono In Terminal) — a terminal image viewer written in C that renders .png/.jpg images using actual RGB colors in your terminal (with optional 256-color fallback).
What makes it different?
Zero dependencies (just stb_image.h)
Works even on very old or embedded systems
Fully cross-platform (Linux, macOS, WSL, Windows Terminal, Termux, etc.)
Compiles down to ~250 KB
CLI options for zoom, flip, resize, offset, background fill, and more
Doesn’t require X11, SDL, or curses
Here's a screenshot from Termux showing Tux inside a text-mode terminal (demoed using ANSI blocks and real RGB shading): (HN doesn't support images, but you can try it yourself from the repo)
Comparison with tiv: tiv is an excellent and mature tool (C++ + ImageMagick), optimized for Unicode and quality. PIT, on the other hand, is hyper-minimal — no dependencies, fully embeddable, and runs even in initramfs or micro distros.
Zero dependencies (just stb_image.h)
Works even on very old or embedded systems
Fully cross-platform (Linux, macOS, WSL, Windows Terminal, Termux, etc.)
Compiles down to ~250 KB
CLI options for zoom, flip, resize, offset, background fill, and more
Doesn’t require X11, SDL, or curses
Here's a screenshot from Termux showing Tux inside a text-mode terminal (demoed using ANSI blocks and real RGB shading): (HN doesn't support images, but you can try it yourself from the repo)
Comparison with tiv: tiv is an excellent and mature tool (C++ + ImageMagick), optimized for Unicode and quality. PIT, on the other hand, is hyper-minimal — no dependencies, fully embeddable, and runs even in initramfs or micro distros.
GitHub: https://github.com/Ferki-git-creator/phono-in-terminal-image... Would love to hear your feedback or ideas!
I don't want to be greedy, but please, if you can, support me by putting a star on the repository, you will help me develop the project. :)