imq

A fast command-line image color quantizer written in Rust. Extract the dominant colors from an image and display them in your preferred color format, rendered with inline terminal color swatches.

Installation

Requires Rust (edition 2024 / Rust 1.85+).

git clone https://github.com/CORVUS047/imq
cd imq
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/imq. Optionally, install it to your PATH:

cargo install --path .

Usage

imq --image <PATH> --color-format <FORMAT> [--quant <N>] [--visible-swath]

Options

Flag	Short	Description	Default
--image	-i	Path to the image file	required
--color-format	-c	Output color format (hex, rgb, hsl, cmyk)	required
--quant	-q	Number of dominant colors to extract	5
--visible-swath	-v	Render inline terminal color swatches	false

Examples

Extract the top 5 colors from an image as hex:

imq --image photo.jpg --color-format hex

Extract the top 8 colors in RGB with terminal swatches:

imq --image photo.jpg --color-format rgb --quant 8 --visible-swath

Extract colors in HSL for use in a script (no swatches):

imq --image photo.jpg --color-format hsl --quant 3

By default, output is plain text with no ANSI escape codes — safe to pipe into other programs. Pass --visible-swath to render inline terminal color swatches.

Supported Formats

Format	Status
hex	Supported
rgb	Supported
hsl	Supported
cmyk	Supported
lab	Planned

Supported Image Types

Format	Status
JPEG / JPG	Supported
PNG	Supported
WebP	Supported