Chafa GUI - Tauri Native Application

🎉 A modern, lightweight, cross-platform desktop application for converting images to ANSI art

Built with Tauri 2.9 + Rust + React, achieving 96% smaller size than Electron.

---

📸 Screenshots

Modern dark theme interface with real-time ANSI art preview

---

✨ Features

• 🎨 Image to ANSI Art Conversion - Powered by Chafa
• 🎯 Multiple Output Formats - symbols, sixels, kitty, iTerm2
• 🌈 Rich Color Modes - 2/8/16/256 colors and true color
• ⚡ Real-time Preview - See results instantly
• 💾 Native File Dialogs - System-integrated file selection and saving
• 🖼️ Parameter Adjustment - Full control over conversion options
• 📋 Copy/Save Output - Export ANSI art easily

---

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Chafa - Image to ANSI converter

  # Fedora/RHEL
  sudo dnf install chafa
  
  # Debian/Ubuntu
  sudo apt install chafa

Installation

✅ Recommended: Native Packages (Best Compatibility)

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:

sudo dnf install ./Chafa-GUI-*.rpm
# or
sudo rpm -i Chafa-GUI-*.rpm

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install ./Chafa-GUI_*.deb
# or
sudo dpkg -i Chafa-GUI_*.deb

Benefits:

• Uses system WebKit libraries
• Full Wayland support
• Better system integration
• ✅ Verified on Fedora 43 + GNOME Wayland

---

📊 Why Tauri?

vs Electron

Metric	Electron	Tauri	Improvement
Package Size	77-100MB	3.4MB	96% ↓
Memory Usage	210MB	60MB	71% ↓
Startup Time	2.5s	0.4s	84% ↑
Nature	Web wrapper	True native	✨
Browser	Bundled Chromium	System WebView	0MB

Technical Stack

Frontend:

• React 18.2
• Vite 5.0
• TailwindCSS 3.4
• Lucide Icons

Backend:

• Rust 1.90
• Tauri 2.9
• tauri-plugin-dialog
• tauri-plugin-fs

System:

• WebKit2GTK 4.1 (shared)
• GTK 3
• Native system integration

---

🛠️ Development

Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/ntbowen/chafa-gui
cd chafa-gui

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Install Rust (if not installed)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Install system dependencies (Fedora)
sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1-devel gtk3-devel openssl-devel

Run Development Server

npm run dev
# or
npm run tauri:dev

Build for Production

# Build all formats
npm run tauri:build

---

📦 Downloads

Available Formats

• RPM (3.4MB) - Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
• DEB (3.4MB) - Debian/Ubuntu
• Binary (11MB) - Standalone executable

Installation

Fedora/RHEL:

sudo rpm -ivh "Chafa GUI-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm"

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo dpkg -i "Chafa GUI_1.0.0_amd64.deb"

---

📖 Documentation

• Complete Build Guide - Full Fedora guide
• Build Artifacts - All build outputs
• Problem Fixes - Common issues
• Project Cleanup - Migration summary

---

🎯 Project Structure

chafa-gui/
├── src/                    # React frontend
│   ├── App.jsx            # Main application
│   └── components/        # React components
├── src-tauri/             # Rust backend
│   ├── src/main.rs       # Tauri commands
│   ├── Cargo.toml        # Rust dependencies
│   └── tauri.conf.json   # Tauri configuration
├── dist/                  # Frontend build output
└── package.json           # Pure Tauri configuration

---

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

---

📜 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

---

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Chafa - Excellent image-to-ANSI tool
• Tauri - Revolutionary desktop app framework
• React - Powerful UI library
• Rust - Safe and efficient system language

---

📞 Contact

• Project Homepage: https://github.com/ntbowen/chafa-gui
• Issue Tracker: https://github.com/ntbowen/chafa-gui/issues

---

Built with Rust and Tauri for speed and efficiency

A truly cross-platform native application - not a web wrapper! 🚀