Introduction

Complexitty is a simple terminal-based application that lets you explore the classic Mandelbrot set in full character-based glory.

Installation

pipx

The application can be installed using pipx:

pipx install complexitty

uv

If you are a uv user you can:

uv tool install complexitty

Also, if you do have uv installed, you can simply use uvx:

uvx complexitty

to run complexitty.

Homebrew

The package is available via Homebrew. Use the following commands to install:

brew tap davep/homebrew
brew install complexitty

Running Complexitty

Once you've installed Complexitty using one of the above methods, you can run the application using the complexitty command.

Command line options

Complexitty has a number of command line options; they include:

`-b`, `--bindings`

Prints the application commands whose keyboard bindings can be modified, giving the defaults too.

complexitty --bindings

ChangeTheme - Change the application's theme
    Default: f9
CopyCommandLineToClipboard - Copy the command line for the current view to the clipboard
    Default: c
DecreaseMaximumIteration - Decrease the maximum iterations for the calculations by 10
    Default: comma
DecreaseMultibrot - Decrease the 'multibrot' value
    Default: /
GoMiddle - Centre the display on the 'middle' of the Mandelbrot set
    Default: home
GoTo - Prompt for a location and go to it
    Default: g
GreatlyDecreaseMaximumIteration - Decrease the maximum iterations for the calculations by 100
    Default: <
GreatlyIncreaseMaximumIteration - Increase the maximum iterations for the calculations by 100
    Default: >
Help - Show help for and information about the application
    Default: f1, ?
IncreaseMaximumIteration - Increase the maximum iterations for the calculations by 10
    Default: .
IncreaseMultibrot - Increase the 'multibrot' value
    Default: *
MoveDown - Move down
    Default: down, s, j
MoveDownSlowly - Move down slowly
    Default: shift+down, S, J
MoveLeft - Move left
    Default: left, a, h
MoveLeftSlowly - Move left slowly
    Default: shift+left, A, H
MoveRight - Move right
    Default: right, d, l
MoveRightSlowly - Move right slowly
    Default: shift+right, D, L
MoveUp - Move up
    Default: up, w, k
MoveUpSlowly - Move up slowly
    Default: shift+up, W, K
Quit - Quit the application
    Default: f10, escape
Reset - Reset the plot to the default values
    Default: r
SetColourToBluesAndBrowns - Set the colours to combination of blues and browns
    Default: 2
SetColourToBluesAndPinks - Set the colours to a blue/pink palette
    Default: 6
SetColourToDefault - Set the colours to the default palette
    Default: 1
SetColourToRainbow - Set the colours to a rainbow palette
    Default: 7
SetColourToShadesOfBlue - Set the colours to various shades of blue
    Default: 5
SetColourToShadesOfGreen - Set the colours to various shades of green
    Default: 4
SetColourToShadesOfRed - Set the colours to various shades of red
    Default: 3
Undo - Undo the latest change
    Default: backspace
ZeroZero - Centre the display on 0,0
    Default: end
ZoomIn - Zoom in
    Default: pageup, right_square_bracket
ZoomInFaster - Zoom in twice as much
    Default: ctrl+pageup, right_curly_bracket
ZoomOut - Zoom out
    Default: pagedown, left_square_bracket
ZoomOutFaster - Zoom out twice as much
    Default: ctrl+pagedown, left_curly_bracket

`-c`, `--colour-map`, `--color-map`

Set the colour map to use in the plot.

`-h`, `--help`

Prints the help for the complexitty command.

complexitty --help

usage: complexitty [-h] [-v] [--license] [-b]
                   [-c {blue_brown_map,default_map,shades_of_blue,shades_of_green,shades_of_red,blues_and_pinks,rainbow}]
                   [-i MAX_ITERATION] [-m MULTIBROT] [-x X_POSITION]
                   [-y Y_POSITION] [-z ZOOM] [-t THEME]

A simple Mandelbrot Set explorer for the terminal.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         Show version information
  --license, --licence  Show license information
  -b, --bindings        List commands that can have their bindings changed
  -c, --colour-map, --color-map {blue_brown_map,default_map,shades_of_blue,shades_of_green,shades_of_red,blues_and_pinks,rainbow}
                        Set the colour map
  -i, --max-iteration MAX_ITERATION
                        Set maximum iterations
  -m, --multibrot MULTIBROT
                        Set the 'multibrot' value
  -x, --x-position X_POSITION
                        Set the X position
  -y, --y-position Y_POSITION
                        Set the Y position
  -z, --zoom ZOOM       Set the zoom level
  -t, --theme THEME     Set the theme for the application (set to ? to list
                        available themes)

v0.3.0

`-i`, `--max-iteration`

Set the maximum number of iterations for the plot's calculation.

`--license`, `--licence`

Prints a summary of Complexitty's license.

complexitty --license

Complexitty - A Mandelbrot Set explorer for the terminal.  
Copyright (C) 2025 Dave Pearson

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

`-m`, `--multibrot`

Set the 'multibrot' parameter for the plot.

`-t`, `--theme`

Sets Complexitty's theme; this overrides and changes any previous theme choice made via the user interface.

To see a list of available themes use ? as the theme name:

complexitty --theme=?

catppuccin-latte
catppuccin-mocha
dracula
flexoki
gruvbox
monokai
nord
solarized-light
textual-dark
textual-light
tokyo-night

`-v`, `--version`

Prints the version number of Complexitty.

complexitty --version

complexitty v0.3.0

`-x`, `--x-position`

Set the X position of the centre of the plot.

`-y`, `--y-position`

Set the Y position of the centre of the plot.

`-z`, `--zoom`

Set the amount of zoom to use for the plot.

Getting help

A great way to get to know Complexitty is to read the help screen. Once in the application you can see this by pressing F1.

The command palette

Another way of discovering commands and keys in Complexitty is to use the command palette (by default you can call it with ctrl+p or meta+x).

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions about Complexitty, or you have ideas for how it might be improved, do please feel free to visit the discussion area and ask your question or suggest an improvement.

When doing so, please do search past discussions and also issues current and previous to make sure I've not already dealt with this, or don't have your proposed change already flagged as something to do.