Enhance Your GNOME Desktop with ANSI Art Thumbnails

Do you appreciate the nostalgic charm of ASCII art and ANSI art? Are you a fan of the classic BBS art that adorned computer screens in the early days of the internet? If so, you’ll be delighted to learn about ansi-art-thumbnailer, a repository developed by 1j01 that allows you to add ANSI art thumbnail support to your GNOME desktop.

Installation

To begin, follow these steps to install ansi-art-thumbnailer and start enjoying vibrant ANSI art thumbnails on your GNOME desktop:

1. Before proceeding, make sure to quit all Nautilus processes by running the command nautilus -q. Even if you don’t have any Nautilus windows open at the moment, it’s important to run this command.

2. Next, delete the thumbnails folder by running rm -r ~/.cache/thumbnails.

3. Clone the repository by running git clone https://github.com/1j01/ansi-art-thumbnailer.git.

4. Change the directory to the cloned repository by running cd ansi-art-thumbnailer.

5. Finally, run sudo make install to install the necessary python packages. Note that this will run PIP as root, so ensure you have system-wide pip installation. If you don’t, you can set it up with sudo apt install python3-pip.

Once the installation is complete, you will be able to see the ANSI art thumbnails on your GNOME desktop.

Uninstallation

If you ever decide to remove ansi-art-thumbnailer from your system, follow these steps:

1. Run sudo make uninstall.

2. Quit all file managers and delete the cached thumbnails folder.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues while using ansi-art-thumbnailer, here are a couple of troubleshooting tips:

Thumbnails do not show up on some Ubuntu-based distributions 18.04 and later

This issue is likely related to bubblewrap. You can find possible solutions and workarounds in the following threads: 1, 2, and many more online. One temporary workaround is to install a bwrap wrapper in /usr/local/bin. However, it is recommended to update to the latest version of Ubuntu, where this issue is already fixed.

ANSI art is not rendered properly

Currently, the script assumes UTF-8 encoding, which may not be common for ANSI art files. To address this, the repository has plans to detect encoding in the future. Stay tuned for updates!

Credits and License

ansi-art-thumbnailer is based on mrc-em-gnome-thumbnailer, with the Makefile structure taken from there as well. It utilizes Stransi to parse ANSI escape sequences and Pillow to render the text. The project is licensed under the MIT License.

Other Projects to Explore

In addition to ansi-art-thumbnailer, there are a couple of related projects that you may find interesting:

• ansilove: This repository contains an ANSI art to PNG converter. It supports a wider range of formats and fonts, making it a great choice for converting ANSI art to thumbnails. There is also a library version available if you need it for your projects.

• Textual Paint: If you enjoy working with ANSI art, you might also appreciate Textual Paint, an ANSI art editor TUI inspired by MS Paint. Check it out for a playful and creative way to work with ASCII and ANSI art.

With ansi-art-thumbnailer and these related projects, you can embrace the beauty of ANSI art and customize your GNOME desktop to reflect your unique style and interests.

Whether you’re a fan of retro aesthetics or simply enjoy the creativity and expression of ASCII and ANSI art, ansi-art-thumbnailer is a must-have tool for your GNOME desktop. Follow the installation instructions, troubleshoot any issues you encounter, and explore the related projects to dive deeper into the world of ANSI art. Get ready to bring a touch of nostalgia and artistic flair to your digital workspace!