cowsay-files

These files are intended to supplement the cow files in /usr/share/cowsay/cows.

echo Exterminate! | cowsay -f dalek

examples

A sample of each cow file in this repository is here. Note that the ANSI cows like bender.cow will only render properly if your terminal client supports color. True color (ending in ‘-tc’) cows will only render in terminals that support full 24-bit color.

.cowrc file

This file allows you to configure a list of cows to randomly display when opening a new terminal session.

• Note - this file counts on fortune being installed to display your random fortunes.

Can be made use of by adding the following line to your .bashrc file (or .zshrc if you use ZSH):

. ${GIT}/cowsay-files/.cowrc

Replace ${GIT} with the path to your git directory, and you will get a random cow fortune on every new terminal session :)

Cowsay file converter

Fancy pixel art cows can now be created with ease using Charc0al’s cowsay file converter

Instructions:

1. Create PNG or other uncompressed image of the size you want (recommend no larger than 50 x 50). I recommend using GIMP.
   • Note: The first (upper-left) pixel (0, 0) color is assumed to be background color and will not appear in the cowsay image.
   • Colors will be mapped to default bash color palette, any colors in your image that are not part of the 256 color bash palette will be mapped to the nearest color in the palette.
2. Upload image in converter & press Convert!
3. Enjoy!

Tips for creating pixel art cows:

• For manually editing colors or creating cows, you can run the palette command (if you are making use of .cowrc) to get a display of your terminal color palette and the corresponding color codes.
• If you are scaling down a pixel art image from a larger size, make sure to set “Interpolation” to None/Off or you will get color bleed between pixels
• It is helpful to use a background color that is bright and very different from all other colors on your image so you can clearly see which pixels are background and which are image. I usually use hot pink or neon green.

Try converting some of the examples!