## Introduction

libcaca is a graphics library that outputs text instead of pixels, so that it can work on older video cards or text terminals. It is not unlike the famous AAlib library, with the following improvements:

- Unicode support
- 2048 available colours (some devices can only handle 16)
- dithering of colour images
- advanced text canvas operations (blitting, rotations)

Libcaca works in a text terminal (and should thus work on all Unix systems including Mac OS X) using the S-Lang or ncurses libraries. It also works natively on DOS and Windows.

Libcaca was written by Sam Hocevar <sam@zoy.org> and Jean-Yves Lamoureux <jylam@lnxscene.org>. It is free software, and can be used, modified and distributed under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License.

## News

- 18 May 2008: zzuf 0.11
- 1 Apr 2008: libcaca to be OpenOffice.org’s official multiplatform rendering backend
- 24 Feb 2008: we are now using Trac!
- 24 Jan 2008: img2oric, the first Caca Labs piece of research software
- 28 Nov 2007: libcaca 0.99.beta13
- 24 Oct 2007: Report on CacaCon’07, the first international libcaca conference.

## Screenshots

Here are a few libcaca screenshots.

`cacaview` | `cacaball` | `cacaplas` | TrueColor |
Unicode | swallowing applications | canvas rotation |  |

See also the various export formats, generated from an old ANSI file: PNG (through TGA), HTML, SVG, PostScript.

## Why?

> Que dites-vous ?... C’est inutile ?... Je le sais !
> Mais on ne se bat pas dans l’espoir du succès !
> Non ! non, c’est bien plus beau lorsque c’est inutile !
> -- Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

I am perfectly aware that libcaca is the waste of time it looks to be. No need to tell me about that. I urge you to read Théophile Gautier’s preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin, which also gives an excellent explanation for the name “libcaca”:

> Il n’y a rien de vraiment beau que ce qui ne peut servir à rien ; tout ce qui est utile est laid ; car c’est l’expression de quelque besoin ; et ceux de l’homme sont ignobles et dégoûtants, comme sa pauvre et infirme nature. - L’endroit le plus utile d’une maison, ce sont les latrines.

As for the name “libcucul”, please refer to the pioneer of modernist Polish fiction:

> Mais contre le cucul, il n’y a pas de refuge. Courez après moi si vous voulez, je m’enfuis la gueule entre les mains. Et voilà, tralala, Zut à celui qui le lira !
> -- Witold Gombrowicz, Ferdydurke