[GH-ISSUE #741] Possible to force block-character rendering even if your terminal supports image protocols? #441

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opened 2026-03-02 23:47:31 +03:00 by kerem · 3 comments
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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 2026-03-02 23:47:31 +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

<!-- gh-comment-id:2946537528 --> @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
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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:

pixelated album art 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".

<!-- gh-comment-id:3148728395 --> @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".
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@itsfrank commented on GitHub (Aug 4, 2025):

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

<!-- gh-comment-id:3148852499 --> @itsfrank commented on GitHub (Aug 4, 2025): @KUHLwasStolen that is awesome, yeah exactly the asthetic I was hoping for!
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starred/spotify-player#441
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