Build vibrant text user interfaces for modern terminal emulators with the Notcurses library.
NotCurses
Build terminal user interfaces with Notcurses, a library for character-based graphics in modern terminals.
About NotCurses
Notcurses is a library facilitating complex TUIs on modern terminal emulators, supporting vivid colors, multimedia, threads, and Unicode. It provides TUI mode for high-performance full-screen apps and CLI mode for scrolling shell utilities. It is not a source-compatible X/Open Curses implementation nor a replacement for NCURSES on existing systems. It supports 24-bit color, images, video, and bitmapped graphics using Sixel, Kitty, and the Linux framebuffer console.
Pricing is not clearly stated.
Key features
- Build full-screen TUI mode and scrolling CLI mode apps
- Display 24-bit color with images, video and sprites
- Handle Unicode text with Extended Grapheme Cluster support
- Show bitmapped graphics via Sixel, Kitty and framebuffer
- Run thread-safe code for parallel terminal programs
- Use unambiguous keyboard protocols for input handling
Best for: Developers building complex terminal interfaces for modern terminal emulators.
NotCurses at a glance
- Category
- Software & Utilities › Desktop Customization
- Type
- Open-source project
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Details verified
- Oct 22, 2026 · Official source
- Open source
- Yes · Source code
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 5, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
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