MonoGlyph

MonoGlyph converts pixels into a field of characters, dots, lines, planes, or edge-aware glyphs. It can print a terminal preview, emit plain text, produce a scalable SVG asset, or build a self-contained animated HTML canvas. Current public CDN contract: monoglyph 0.3.0, OpenCLIs build 2026-07-12-153753.

The OpenCLIs installed-state row, shell-resolved binary, and public CDN now agree on monoglyph 0.3.0, build 2026-07-12-153753. A developer checkout can currently report source version 0.4.0 with unreleased screentone, ordered dithering, ring/polarity controls, and animation presets. Those source-ahead features are not in latest.json; portable/public workflows must use the 0.3.0 contract documented here.

The public payload has 14 rendering modes and four output targets. The supported-combination matrix matters: 14 × 4 does not mean every one of the 56 pairs is valid.

Quick Start

openclis install monoglyph

monoglyph --version
monoglyph photo.jpg --mode glyph --cols 120
monoglyph photo.jpg --mode dots --target svg --color -o photo.svg

MonoGlyph accepts a PNG or JPEG path as its single positional input.

Complete Option Reference

Option	Values or behavior
`--mode <mode>`	Selects the rendering primitive. The complete published mode table is below. Default: `glyph`.
`--target <target>`	`ansi`, `text`, `svg`, or `html`. Default: `ansi`. Not every mode supports every target.
`--cols <n>`	Sets output width in character cells; default 100. Height preserves image aspect using terminal-cell proportions.
`--color`, `--colour`	Uses source-image colors where the selected mode supports them.
`--invert`	Makes light pixels produce more ink instead of dark pixels.
`--dither`	Applies Floyd–Steinberg error diffusion in glyph mode.
`--fg <hex>`	Overrides monochrome ink color.
`--bg <hex>`	Sets SVG/HTML background color.
`--charset <set>`	Uses `ramp`, `binary`, `blocks`, or a literal darkest-last character sequence.
`-o`, `--out <file>`	Writes the rendered artifact to a file instead of stdout.
`-h`, `--help`	Prints the installed command reference.
`version`, `--version`, `-V`	Prints the executing binary’s version.

Published Rendering Modes

Family	Modes	Intended form
Characters	`glyph`	Density-selected ASCII/Unicode characters
Dots	`dots`, `halftone45`, `stipple`, `braille`	Halftone, randomized stipple, or 2×4 Braille detail
Lines	`scanlines`, `wave`, `flow`, `crosshatch`	Bands, ridges, gradients, and pen hatching
Planes	`cells`, `quadtree`, `blocks`	Mosaic, adaptive subdivision, or true-color half-block terminal image
Structure	`structure`, `match`	Edge-tangent glyphs or CodexMono patch-shape matching

Valid Target Combinations

Modes	Targets
`glyph`, `structure`, `match`	ANSI, text, SVG
`glyph`, `dots`	Animated HTML
`braille`	ANSI, text
`blocks`	ANSI
`dots`, `halftone45`, `stipple`, `scanlines`, `wave`, `flow`, `crosshatch`, `cells`, `quadtree`	SVG

--color is available across the published combinations except the continuous indigo wave and crosshatch modes. An unsupported mode/target pair is a contract error, not an automatic format substitution.

Published Platforms

Target	Artifact
macOS Arm64	Yes
Linux x86_64	Yes
Linux Arm64	Yes
Windows x86_64	Yes
Windows Arm64	Yes
Intel macOS	No

Both Windows packages include monoglyph.exe. The release is a single-run converter with no daemon or database on every platform.

Workflow Handoffs

web page ── MonoSurf screenshot ──┐
                                  ├── image file ── MonoGlyph ── terminal/text/SVG/HTML
desktop ── Kernel CLI capture ────┘

Tool	Boundary
MonoSurf	Captures a web page through CDP; MonoGlyph begins only after an image file exists.
Kernel CLI	Captures the desktop, display, window, or region; MonoGlyph owns conversion, not OS consent/capture.
CodexMono	Intended cell font for alignment-sensitive glyph output.
Monogrid	Verifies textual box geometry; it does not validate raster, SVG, or HTML image fidelity.

MonoGlyph does not maintain an index or background service. Its persistent effects are limited to the path supplied with --out or an explicit shell redirection.

Get Started

Articles

So Anthropic

User Guide

Philosophy

Applied Philosophy

Architecture

Gestalt Color

Transparency

Terminal Core

Features

VariableMD

Research

CodexMono

OpenCLIs

vpncli

MonoSurf

AI-CLIs

Quick Start

Complete Option Reference

Published Rendering Modes

Valid Target Combinations

Published Platforms

Workflow Handoffs

​Quick Start

​Complete Option Reference

​Published Rendering Modes

​Valid Target Combinations

​Published Platforms

​Workflow Handoffs

Quick Start

Complete Option Reference

Published Rendering Modes

Valid Target Combinations

Published Platforms

Workflow Handoffs