Images

Image preview modes

h5v renders datasets inline as images when they match the HDF5 image convention.

For the full subclass and shape rules, see Image conventions.

Terminal support

Image previews work best in terminals with a full graphics protocol. Kitty is the strongest target.

Kitty graphics protocol: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/
ratatui-image backend support: https://github.com/ratatui/ratatui-image
ratatui-image terminal screenshot matrix: https://benjajaja.github.io/ratatui-image-screenshots/

Raw JPEG and PNG payloads

h5v supports raw encoded image payloads stored as:

u8 byte streams
variable-length arrays of u8

Multi-frame image datasets

Image navigation works for multi-frame data as well:

grayscale and truecolor image stacks can use the leading dimension as a frame axis
raw JPEG and PNG payloads can be stored as variable-length byte arrays
frame movement is clamped to the available range

Viewport behavior

For very wide or tall datasets, h5v switches to a windowed viewport. The HUD shows:

the currently visible row or column range
total coverage percentage
how many rows or columns are visible
how far each arrow-key press pans the viewport

Try /images/truecolor_rgb and /images/wide_grayscale in the bundled example file.