---
name: "cacaview"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "libcaca"
version: "0.99.beta20-7"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/cacaview"
---

# cacaview(1)

ASCII image browser

## NAME

cacaview - ASCII image browser

## SYNOPSIS

**cacaview \[FILE...\]**

## DESCRIPTION

**cacaview** is a lightweight text mode image viewer. It renders images using colour ASCII characters. It is a powerful add-on to famous console programs such as the mutt email client, the slrn newsreader and the links or w3m web browsers.

**cacaview** can load the most widespread image formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP etc.

You can zoom and scroll the image around for more details, and choose four different dithering modes. All commands are accessible through a single key press.

## KEYS

- **?**

  show the help screen

- **n, p**

  switch to next image, previous image

- **Left, Right, Up, Down or h, l, k, j**

  scroll the image around

- **+, -**

  zoom in and out

- **z**

  reset the zoom level to normal

- **f**

  switch fullscreen mode (hide/show menu and status bars)

- **d**

  toggle the dithering mode (no dithering, 4x4 ordered dithering, 8x8 ordered dithering and random dithering)

- **q**

  exit the program

## EXAMPLE

cacaview /usr/share/pixmaps/\*.\*

## BUGS

There is no support for aspect ratio yet. Also, since there is no way yet to load an image from **cacaview** it is completely useless when run without an argument.

## SEE ALSO

[img2txt(1)](/img2txt/1.md)

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Sam Hocevar \<sam@hocevar.net\>.