Display a Image in a console application

Question

I have a console application that manages images. Now i need something like a preview of the Images within the console application. Is there a way to display them in the con

Answer 1

If you use ASCII 219 ( █ ) twice, you have something like a pixel ( ██ ). Now you are restricted by the amount of pixels and the number of colors in your console application.

• if you keep default settings you have about 39x39 pixel, if you want more you can resize your console with Console.WindowHeight = resSize.Height + 1;and Console.WindowWidth = resultSize.Width * 2;

• you have to keep the image's aspect-ratio as far as possible, so you won't have 39x39 in the most cases

• Malwyn posted a totally underrated method to convert System.Drawing.Color to System.ConsoleColor

so my approach would be

using System.Drawing;

public static int ToConsoleColor(System.Drawing.Color c)
{
    int index = (c.R > 128 | c.G > 128 | c.B > 128) ? 8 : 0;
    index |= (c.R > 64) ? 4 : 0;
    index |= (c.G > 64) ? 2 : 0;
    index |= (c.B > 64) ? 1 : 0;
    return index;
}

public static void ConsoleWriteImage(Bitmap src)
{
    int min = 39;
    decimal pct = Math.Min(decimal.Divide(min, src.Width), decimal.Divide(min, src.Height));
    Size res = new Size((int)(src.Width * pct), (int)(src.Height * pct));
    Bitmap bmpMin = new Bitmap(src, res);
    for (int i = 0; i < res.Height; i++)
    {
        for (int j = 0; j < res.Width; j++)
        {
            Console.ForegroundColor = (ConsoleColor)ToConsoleColor(bmpMin.GetPixel(j, i));
            Console.Write("██");
        }
        System.Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

so you can

ConsoleWriteImage(new Bitmap(@"C:\image.gif"));

sample input:

sample output: