Exploring brow6el: A Full‑Featured Sixel‑Enabled Terminal Browser
brow6el is a terminal‑only web browser that leverages the Sixel bitmap format and the Chromium embedded framework to deliver fully rendered pages, mouse input, bookmarks, download management, ad‑blocking, and Vim‑style navigation, offering a privacy‑focused alternative to AI‑laden mainstream browsers.
Overview
brow6el is a terminal‑only web browser that renders full‑featured web pages inside a terminal emulator supporting the Sixel graphics protocol. It embeds the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) to provide HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript support while translating the rendered framebuffer into Sixel escape sequences.
Sixel graphics handling
Sixel is a bitmap graphics format for terminals and printers. Each printable character encodes a 6‑pixel‑high, 1‑pixel‑wide column; by emitting a sequence of such characters the terminal can display full‑color images and animations. brow6el relies on the libsixel library to convert Chromium’s pixel buffer into Sixel data, which is then written to the terminal’s standard output.
Key features
Full Chromium rendering engine (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript).
Complete mouse input handling even in a text‑only environment.
Bookmark management and a built‑in download manager.
Separate privacy (incognito) and normal browsing modes.
Page inspection tools, JavaScript console, and popup handling.
Pre‑installed ad blocker.
Periodic re‑rendering of the Sixel image to keep dynamic pages up‑to‑date.
Support for multiple concurrent instances, allowing several terminal windows to run independent browser sessions.
Vim‑style navigation: single‑key commands and mouse emulation using H, J, K, L for cursor movement.
Limitations
Requires a terminal emulator that implements the Sixel protocol (e.g., XTerm, mlterm, Kitty with Sixel support).
Does not work with localized keyboard layouts; accented character input is unsupported.
Behaviour may vary across different Linux distributions because the project is a proof‑of‑concept.
Getting the software
Pre‑compiled binary packages are hosted at:
https://www.brow6el.dev/
The source code can be cloned from the Codeberg repository:
git clone https://codeberg.org/janantos/brow6el.gitBuilding from source requires the libsixel development package and the usual C/C++ toolchain used for Chromium‑based projects.
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