PIXCOLORS(1)

📦
version 7.44.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 PIXCOLORS(1) — the BRL-CAD one where we count colors 💖

okay so bestie, this is the manual page for pixcolors from BRL-CAD, and it's genuinely one of the most satisfying little tools ever — like a vibe check for your image's palette. let's get into it ✨

🌈 NAME 🌈

pixcolors — count or list the distinct colors used in a pix image 🎨

🫶 SYNOPSIS 🫶

pixcolors [-v] [file.pix]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so here's the tea: pixcolors reads a pix(5) format image and writes to standard output the number of distinct color values it contains. that's it, that's the whole personality 💅

Where does the image come from? From the named file.pix, or from standard input if no file is given — so you can absolutely pipe into it, and honestly you should, it's giving main character energy 🎀

Every single pixel gets treated as a 24-bit RGB value, so the count ranges from 1 all the way up to 16,777,216. yes, sixteen million, she's got range 👑

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

  • -v — Verbose. Not only does it print the color count, it also prints a sorted list of every unique color used, one per line, as three decimal R G B component values. it's the difference between "cool, some colors" and "here is the entire receipt" 🧾✨

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

Example 1. List the unique colors in a region of an image

pixrect -s 512 -w 64 -n 64 -x 100 -y 100 frame.pix | pixcolors -v

So what's happening here 👀 — pixrect(1) extracts a 64x64 tile from a 512-line image, and then it's piped straight into pixcolors to print the count followed by every distinct R G B triple in that tile. why do we care? because it's so useful for checking whether an area is a flat color or a gradient, and honestly that's the kind of intel that changes your whole day 🕵️‍♀️💖

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

brlcad(1), pixrect(1), pixhist(1), pixstat(1), pix(5)

🫡 AUTHOR 🫡

BRL-CAD Team 👑

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

🐛 BUG REPORTS 🐛

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org 📧

ngl if something's weird, just email them — they're nice, and a good bug report is honestly a slay 💅

and that's the whole page bestie 🎀 shoutout to BRL-CAD for shipping pixcolors(1) — go count some colors, you're gonna ate it 💜🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from