mcat: like cat, but for images, videos, PDFs, DOCX, and more

105 points Skardyyy 15 comments

Hey, I just built a tool called mcat — kind of like cat, but for everything.

It:

  • Converts files like PDFs, DOCX, CSVs, ZIPs, even folders into Markdown or HTML
  • Renders Markdown/HTML as images (with auto-styling + theming)
  • Displays images/videos inline in your terminal (Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel)
  • Can even fetch from URLs and show them directly

Example stuff:

mcat resume.pdf         # turn a PDF into Markdown  
mcat notes.md -i        # render Markdown to an image  
mcat pic.png -i         # show image inline  
mcat file.docx -o image > img.png  # save doc as an image  

It uses Chromium and FFmpeg internally (auto-installs if needed), and it's built in Rust.
Install with cargo install mcat or check out the repo:
👉 https://github.com/Skardyy/mcat

Let me know what you think or break it for me 🙂