[GH-ISSUE #741] Possible to force block-character rendering even if your terminal supports image protocols? #1375

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opened 2026-03-14 14:34:41 +03:00 by kerem · 3 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-14 14:34:41 +03:00

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Originally created by @itsfrank on GitHub (Jun 2, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/aome510/spotify-player/issues/741

This is a bit niche, feel free to close as "won't do", I actually kinda dig the look of the block-character rendering, it fits better with the terminal aesthetic than high res images.

I would love a way to force the use of that rendering technique even if my terminal supports image protocols.

Is this possible?

Originally created by @itsfrank on GitHub (Jun 2, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/aome510/spotify-player/issues/741 This is a bit niche, feel free to close as "won't do", I actually kinda dig the look of the block-character rendering, it fits better with the terminal aesthetic than high res images. I would love a way to force the use of that rendering technique even if my terminal supports image protocols. Is this possible?

kerem

2026-03-14 14:34:41 +03:00

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kerem commented

2026-03-14 14:34:57 +03:00

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@SirenGlitch commented on GitHub (Jun 5, 2025):

There's probably some environment variable hackery you could use to tell spotify_player that the terminal doesn't have image protocols. There might also be a way of doing it at compile time (turning off the image feature for example), but I'm not sure if that will leave the block-character rendering in the build.

Worst case scenario, there will be some sort of check in the code that you can force to be false and build yourself

@SirenGlitch commented on GitHub (Jun 5, 2025): There's probably some environment variable hackery you could use to tell spotify_player that the terminal doesn't have image protocols. There might also be a way of doing it at compile time (turning off the image feature for example), but I'm not sure if that will leave the block-character rendering in the build. Worst case scenario, there will be some sort of check in the code that you can force to be false and build yourself

kerem commented

2026-03-14 14:35:02 +03:00

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@KUHLwasStolen commented on GitHub (Aug 3, 2025):

@itsfrank inspired by this I played a bit around with the image rendering and I've come up with a feature that pixelates the album art.
Here's a 16x16 example:

I think this matches the aesthetic pretty closely and it can still be tuned to taste (image size, scaling algorithms, ...).
It would then of course also make sense to add a config option to set the image size/"pixelation factor".

@KUHLwasStolen commented on GitHub (Aug 3, 2025): @itsfrank inspired by this I played a bit around with the image rendering and I've come up with a feature that pixelates the album art. Here's a 16x16 example: <img width="169" height="161" alt="pixelated album art example" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c2088b5b-5f67-4e99-b4f8-4abda3cad5dc" /> I think this matches the aesthetic pretty closely and it can still be tuned to taste (image size, scaling algorithms, ...). It would then of course also make sense to add a config option to set the image size/"pixelation factor".

kerem commented

2026-03-14 14:35:08 +03:00

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@itsfrank commented on GitHub (Aug 4, 2025):

@KUHLwasStolen that is awesome, yeah exactly the asthetic I was hoping for!

@itsfrank commented on GitHub (Aug 4, 2025): @KUHLwasStolen that is awesome, yeah exactly the asthetic I was hoping for!