Mcat: Terminal image, video, directory, and Markdown viewer

8 hours ago 1

or ~

git clone https://github.com/Skardyy/mcat cd mcat cargo install --path ./crates/core

or prebuilt from the latest release

Advanced explanation

Inputs can be:

local file
url
bytes from stdin

The type of each input is inferred automatically, and it continues through the pipeline until it reaches the output format the user requested.

For example, if the user runs:

mcat file.docx file.pdf -o inline

mcat will:

Convert both file.docx and file.pdf into a single Markdown file
Convert that Markdown into HTML
Convert the HTML into an image
Convert the image into an inline terminal image and print it

You can also start from the middle of the pipeline.
For example:

mcat file.html -o image > image.png

This starts at an HTML file and directly converts it into a PNG image.

Explanation of the blocks

Markdown - set when -o md or when the stdout isn't the terminal (piped)
Pretty Terminal is markdown with ANSI formatting, and is the default for any non video / image file. (the -c flag forces it)
HTML set when -o html -- only works for non image / video files
Static Image set when -o image and gives an image
Interactive Image set when -o interactive and launches an interactive view to zoom and pan the image in the terminal.
Inline Display set when -o inline or -i and prints the content as image in the terminal

#------------------------------------# # View a documents in the terminal # #------------------------------------# mcat resume.pdf mcat project.docx -t monokai # With a different theme mcat "https://realpdfs.com/file.pdf" # From a url cat file.pptx | mcat # From stdin mcat . # Select files interactively #-----------------# # Convert files # #-----------------# mcat archive.zip > README.md # Into Markdown mcat f1.rs f2.rs -o html > index.html # Into HTML mcat index.html -o image > page.png # Into image #--------------------------# # View Images and Videos # # in the terminal # #--------------------------# mcat img.png # Image mcat video.mp4 # Video mcat "https://giphy.com/gifs/..." # From a URL mcat README.md -i # Converts to image and then shows it mcat ls # ls command with images mcat massive_image.png -o interactive # zoom and pan the image interactively in the terminal #--------------------------# # What I use it most for # #--------------------------# mcat ls # To find the image i was looking for mcat . | scb # Selects files, concat them, and copy to clipboard ~ for AI prompts mcat index.html -o image > save.png # Render HTML into images

Mcat will continue working without them

Chromium (for rendering HTML to image)

Available by default on most Windows machines via Microsoft Edge.
Also works with any installed Chrome, Edge, or Chromium.
You can install it manually via mcat --fetch-chromium

pdftocairo/pdftoppm (for rendering PDF to image)

Is included by default in most major distros
Windows users can install from poppler-windows
If not installed, mcat will fallback into converting the PDF to Markdown and then screenshot using chromium

FFmpeg (for videos)

If it's already on your machine 🫠.
Otherwise, you can install it with mcat --fetch-ffmpeg

Using Flags

the main flags for configuring are:

--opts for inline image printing
--ls-opts for the ls command

run mcat --help for full detail, and other flags.

Using Environment Variables

each variable mimicks its corresponding flag alternative.

MCAT_ENCODER, Options: kitty,iterm,sixel,ascii. e.g. MCAT_ENCODER=kitty is the same as doing --kitty
MCAT_PAGER, the full command mcat will try to pipe into.
MCAT_THEME, same as the --theme flag
MCAT_INLINE_OPTS, same as the --opts flag
MCAT_LS_OPTS, same as the --ls-opts flag
MCAT_SILENT, same as the --silent flag
MCAT_NO_LINENUMBERS, same as the --no-linenumbers flag
MCAT_MD_IMAGE, same as the --no-images flag