ANSIpants¹⁶

Yesterday's text tomorrow!

ANSIpants16 running in a terminal

ANSIpants16 is a free ANSI art editor that lives in your terminal. 16 colors, the CP437 character set, and real .ANS files with SAUCE — the classic scene format, kept alive with care.

Paint with the mouse, type with the keyboard. One friendly static binary, ready when you are. Made with love for text art and everyone who draws it.

  • 16-color ANSI · CP437
  • .ANS load & save, SAUCE, iCE
  • Paint, pen, line, box, oval
  • Fills, gradients, spray
  • Color & character fades
  • Block fonts & text tool
  • Mirror mode · undo
  • Mouse + keyboard

Download

Free. Linux & Mac

Version 0.7.15 · updated 2026-07-31

ships with anscat, a tiny viewer for classic .ans files.

Linux

→  x86_64 · Intel / AMD →  ARM64 · aarch64 
tar -xzf ansipants16-linux-*.tar.gz
./install.sh
ansipants16

fully static, works on any distro.

macOS

→  Apple Silicon →  Universal · Intel + Apple Silicon 
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ansipants16-macos*.tar.gz
tar -xzf ansipants16-macos*.tar.gz
./install.sh
ansipants16

the xattr line clears Gatekeeper's quarantine on the unsigned binary.
or run it once, then allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Apple Silicon build needs macOS 11 (Big Sur)+; the Universal build also runs on Intel (macOS 10.14.4+).

Windows

the Linux build runs great under WSL — install as above inside your distro.


Runs in any 16-color terminal — truecolor terminals get the authentic CGA palette. Mouse optional.
sha256 x86_64:  0a33bc439839537b10b4eb9cc42e93e755b0bf85efa92a41f43efd676c4734fe
sha256 aarch64: a7cdf3cae5ce875701190b947fb208095d167c94e5c9de2b6dcbd421835a6a93
sha256 macOS:   ad96bbe6895784610a3ef781814f0780b34f77029b52d4108ba5512bcf8f0ad0
sha256 macOS uni:  ad00c07a9865c010801b251445d417d7ab342680d75a6b5502a3a7b1bfb3d2a5