---
name: "lolcat"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "lolcat"
version: "100.0.1-5"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lolcat"
---

# lolcat(6)

rainbow coloring effect for text console display

## NAME

lolcat - rainbow coloring effect for text console display

## SYNOPSIS

**lolcat** \[*options*\] \[*files*\] ...

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **lolcat** command.

**lolcat** is a program that concatenates files, or standard input, to standard output (like the generic **cat**), and adds rainbow coloring to it.

## OPTIONS

- **-p** *X*, **--spread=***X*

  **Inclination of the rainbow stripes**\
   **(character widths per line hight; high values (\>1000) give almost horizonal stripes, low values (0.1) almost vertical ones; default: 3.0).**

- **-F** *X***, --freq=***X*

  **Frequency of the rainbow effect.**\
   **(low values around 0.0001 give almost monochromous screens; default: 0.1).**

- **-S** *X***, --seed=***X*

  **Initial value for the random number generator; 0 means automatic.**\
   **(default: 0).**

- **-a, --animate**

  **Fade every line through an animation before printing the next one.**

- **-d** *X***, --duration=***X*

  **Duration of the animation.**\
   **(number of steps before showing next line; default: 12)**

- **-s** *X***, --speed=***X*

  **Speed of the animation.**\
   **(frame rate, ie. number of steps per second; default: 20)**

- **-i, --invert**

  **Inverts the background and foreground colors.**

- **-t, --truecolor**

  **Enables 24-bit truecolor mode.**

- **-f, --force**

  **Force color even when stdout is not a tty.**

- **-v, --version**

  **Shows lolcat version.**

- **-h, --help**

  **Shows options summary.**

## EXAMPLES

**Typical combinations of lolcat include other programs that generate text:**\
\
 **Large colorful words can be written like this:**

-

  ```
  echo "KTHXBAI" | toilet | lolcat
  ```

**Cows are popular, come in all colors, and tell random epigrams:**

-

  ```
  fortune | cowsay | lolcat -a
  ```

## SEE ALSO

[**cat**(1)](/cat/1.md), [**toilet**(1)](/toilet/1.md), [**fortune**(6)](/fortune/6.md), [**cowsay**(6)](/cowsay/6.md)\

## AUTHOR

**lolcat was written by Moe \<moe@busyloop.net\>.**

**This manual page was originally written by chrysn \<chrysn@fsfe.org\>,** **for the Debian project.**\
 **Very quickly revamped by Mathieu Aubin \<mathieu@zeroserieux.com\> to** **include as part of official code repository.**