A macOS screensaver that brings back the art of the BBS era.
Remember dialing into BBSes at 14.4k, watching ANSI art fill your terminal line by line? The vibrant CP437 characters, the neon color palettes, the logos crafted pixel-by-pixel by scene artists — that whole world lives on at 16colo.rs, the largest ANSI/ASCII art archive on the internet.
AnsiSaver pulls art directly from 16colo.rs packs and scrolls it across your screen, rendered with the same libansilove library the archive uses. It's like leaving your terminal connected to a BBS you never logged off from.
.ANS, .ICE, .ASC, .BIN, .XB, .PCB, and .ADF files with authentic CP437 fontsRequirements: macOS Sequoia (15.0) or later. Supports both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Grab the latest release from the Releases page:
AnsiSaver-arm64.saver.zipAnsiSaver-x86_64.saver.zipAnsiSaver.savermacOS security notice: Since the screensaver is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate, macOS will block it on first launch. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the AnsiSaver message. You only need to do this once.
If you prefer to build it yourself, you need Homebrew and Xcode:
brew install libgd git clone --recursive https://github.com/lardissone/ansi-saver.git cd ansi-saver xcodebuild -project AnsiSaver.xcodeproj -target AnsiSaver -configuration Release build cp -R build/Release/AnsiSaver.saver ~/Library/Screen\ Savers/
Note: Builds link statically against Homebrew's libgd. Requires macOS Sequoia (15.0) or later.
Open System Settings > Screen Saver, select AnsiSaver, and click Options... to configure:
16colo.rs Pack URLs — Add pack URLs to pull art from the archive. Browse packs at 16colo.rs and paste the URL:
https://16colo.rs/pack/acid-100/
https://16colo.rs/pack/mist0222/
https://16colo.rs/pack/blocktronics-space/
Local Folder — Point to a directory on disk containing .ANS files. Great for your personal collection or artpacks you've downloaded.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Transition | Scroll Up, Scroll Down, or Crossfade between pieces |
| Scroll Speed | 10–200 px/s — how fast art scrolls across the screen |
| Render Scale | 1x–4x — higher values produce sharper output on Retina displays |
| Continuous Scroll | Stack all art into one endless vertical stream |
| Show Separator | Display a decorative divider with the filename between pieces (continuous mode) |
Art files are cached in ~/Library/Caches/AnsiSaver/. Hit Refetch Packs in the config panel to clear the cache and re-download everything.
16colo.rs packs ──→ Download & cache ──→ libansilove ──→ Core Animation ──→ Screen
Local .ANS files ─────────────────────↗ (CP437 render) (60fps scroll)
A few packs to get you started:
| Pack | Era | Style |
|---|---|---|
| ACiD 100 | 1995 | The legendary ACiD Productions centennial pack |
| Mist 0222 | 2022 | Mistigris — still going strong after 28 years |
| Blocktronics: Space | 2014 | Cosmic ANSI art from the modern scene |
| iCE 9601 | 1996 | iCE Advertisements — peak 90s ANSI |
| Fire 01 | 1996 | Fire artpack from the golden era |
Browse the full archive at 16colo.rs — there are thousands of packs spanning from 1990 to the present day.
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