PIXFADE(1)

📦
version 7.44.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 PIXFADE(1) — the BRL-CAD glow-down manual 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to pixfade(1), straight outta the BRL-CAD manual set. this is the little tool that takes your pic and makes it darker, and honestly? it ate. let's get into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

pixfade — darken a pix file. that's it. that's the whole gig. 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

pixfade [-f fraction] [-p percentage] [-m max] [-s squaresize] [-w width] [-n height] [-o out_file.pix] [infile.pix] [> outfile.pix]

read it like a little recipe, no cap — everything in brackets is optional, and you can just yeet the output wherever 🌈

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so pixfade darkens a color pix(5) image. it's giving two whole personalities, and you get to pick which one shows up:

  • scaling mode — every pixel gets multiplied by a fractional amount
  • truncation mode — each color channel gets clamped to a maximum level

by default pixfade is in scaling mode, bestie. the -f option hands you a non-negative fractional multiplier that gets applied to the red, green, and blue values of each pixel, and -p gives you that exact same multiplier but as a non-negative percentage instead. the default? -f 0.5 (-p 50.0). half brightness, slay. ✨

then there's -m, the main character who switches the whole vibe to truncation mode by supplying a ceiling pixel level (0 - 255). every channel gets replaced by the minimum of the ceiling and its original value. and the way that -m works? when it's given, -f and -p are literally ignored. ignored! 💀

input comes from infile.pix if you give it one, otherwise it reads from standard input. the faded image goes to standard output, and additionally to the -o file whenever you name one. and if you've got both an output file and a redirected standard output going at the same time? same image written to each, no drama, both eat. 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -f fraction — scales every channel of each pixel by fraction, a non-negative multiplier (clamped to 0 - 255). default is 0.5. 🍓
  • -p percentage — same as -f but expressed as a non-negative percentage; percentage gets divided by 100 to form the multiplier. default is 50.0. iconic twin behavior honestly
  • -m max — truncation mode: clamps each channel to the ceiling max (0 - 255). values outside this range get clamped to the nearest bound. overrides -f and -p. 👑
  • -s squaresize — sets both input width and height to squaresize pixels. one number, two jobs, efficiency queen
  • -w width — sets the input scanline width in pixels. default is 512. 🦋
  • -n height — sets the number of input scanlines in pixels. default is 512. 🦋
  • -o out_file.pix — writes the faded image to out_file.pix in addition to standard output. both. and. 💖

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

✨ Example 1. Dim an image to a quarter brightness ✨

pixfade -f 0.25 -w 1024 -n 768 scene.pix > dim.pix

reads the 1024x768 image scene.pix and scales every channel to 25% of its original value, producing a darkened dim.pix. soft dark academia filter, lowkey obsessed 🌸

✨ Example 2. Clamp highlights and view the result ✨

pixfade -m 200 scene.pix | pix-fb -w 512 -n 512

caps each color channel at 200 to tame bright highlights, then pipes the result straight to a framebuffer with pix-fb(1) for inspection. pipeline slay, iykyk ⭐

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

brlcad(1), pix-fb(1), pixscale(1), pix(5)

go read those too, bestie, they're all part of the same friend group 🫶

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

BRL-CAD Team. legends, fr fr 👑

This software is Copyright (c) 1991-2026 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 — don't be shy, they wanna hear it 🙈

ok that's the whole page, no notes. go darken something. 🦋

and that's a wrap, bestie — this page came to you from the BRL-CAD crew and their PIXFADE(1) manual, signed off with all the love 💜 ✨ 🎀

📦 where this page comes from