---
name: "fractalnow"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "fractalnow"
version: "0.8.2-5+b1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fractalnow"
---

# fractalnow(1)

Generate fractal images.

## NAME

fractalnow - Generate fractal images.

## SYNOPSYS

**fractalnow** \[OPTIONS\] -c \<Config\> \[-x \<Width\>\|-y \<Height\>\] -o \<Output\>\
 **fractalnow** \[OPTIONS\] -f \<Fractal\> -r \<Rendering\> \[-x \<Width\>\|-y \<Height\>\] -o \<Output\>

## DESCRIPTION

FractalNow is a command line tool that generates pictures of fractals as Portable PixMap (PPM) files.\
 It is multi-threaded and implements advanced algorithms and heuristics that make computation very fast compared to most existing free fractal generators.\
 See QFractalNow, a graphical tool to explore fractals.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**

  Print help.

- **-q**

  Quiet mode, only errors are displayed.

- **-v**

  Verbose mode.

- **-j \<NbThreads\>**

  Specify number of threads (see help for default value).

- **-g \<GradientFile\>**

  Specify gradient file, overriding gradient from configuration/ rendering file.

- **-l \<FloatType\>**

  Specify float type:

  single     Single precision.\
   double     Double precision.\
   ldouble    Long double precision.\
   mp         Multiple precision.

- **-L \<MPPrecision\>**

  Specify precision of Multiple Precision (MP) floats (see help for default value).

- **-a \<AntiAliasingMethod\>**

  Specify anti-aliasing method:

  none          By default.\
   blur          Gaussian blur.\
   oversampling  Oversampling.\
   adaptive      Smart oversampling.

- **-s \<AAMSize\>**

  Specify size for anti-aliasing:

  Radius for blur (values in \[2.5, 4\] are generally good).\
   Scale factor for oversampling (\[3, 5\] is good for a high quality image).\
   Scale factor for adaptive (integers between 3-5 are good for a high quality image).

- **-p \<AAMThreshold\>**

  Threshold for adaptive anti-aliasing (see help for default value).

- **-i \<QuadSize\>**

  Maximum size of quadrilaterals for linear interpolation.

  Default is good for no visible loss of quality (see help for default value).\
   1 means no interpolation (all pixels are computed).

- **-t \<Threshold\>**

  Dissimilarity threshold for quad interpolation.

  Default is good for no visible loss of quality (see help for default value).\
   A quadrilateral that shows too dissimilar values at its corners will be computed,  as opposed to interpolated.

## AUTHOR

FractalNow was written by Marc Pegon \<pe.marc@free.fr\>.

## COPYRIGHT

FractalNow is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

## SEE ALSO

QFractalNow manual page.\
 Documentation files describing configuration, fractal, rendering and gradient files formats.