Djot to SIXEL Converter
FileFlip converts Djot to SIXEL entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a Djot file to SIXEL?#
- Drop your Djot file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to SIXEL and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the SIXEL file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting Djot to SIXEL lose quality?#
Yes, in the sense that text stops being text. Each Djot page is rendered to pixels and handed to SIXEL, so the result looks right and can no longer be selected, searched, or reflowed.
Is it safe to convert Djot files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts Djot files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What Djot to SIXEL actually does to the file#
Converting Djot to SIXEL runs on Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, renders each page to pixels, keeps page layout, and drops selectable text and transparency.
| Engine | Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: Djot → HTML → PNG → SIXEL |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Text becomes pixels |
| You get back | One image per page, zipped when the source has several |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Page layout | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Transparency | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the target holds at most 256 colours, so a full-colour image is quantised to a palette
- pages render at twice their point size in opaque RGB, roughly 144 DPI, with no transparency
- reflowable input is laid out on a fixed 595x842pt page at 11pt before anything else happens
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is a Djot file?#
A DJ file holds a Djot document, a lightweight markup that reads like Markdown but is built on an unambiguous grammar, so it parses the same way in every implementation.
Write in Djot when Markdown's readability is wanted without its parsing ambiguities, and broad tool support isn't a requirement yet.
Convert Djot to another format when sharing with tools or people that only handle Markdown, HTML, or another mainstream format.
What is a SIXEL file?#
A SIXEL file holds a bitmap encoded entirely as printable ASCII characters, using DEC's six-pixel-tall encoding scheme, so it can be sent to a printer or terminal over a plain 7-bit serial link and displayed without any separate image protocol.
Use Sixel when an image needs to display inline inside a terminal session, such as showing a chart or a thumbnail over SSH without opening a separate viewer.
Convert a Sixel image to PNG once it needs to be viewed anywhere outside a terminal emulator that understands the encoding.
Djot to SIXEL questions people ask#
What is a .dj file?
A .dj file is a Djot document, a lightweight markup language that looks like Markdown but parses under a stricter, unambiguous grammar. It was designed in 2022 by John MacFarlane, who also created Pandoc and co-authored the CommonMark specification.
Who created Djot and why?
Djot was created by John MacFarlane, drawing on his essay 'Beyond Markdown' about the parsing problems built into Markdown and CommonMark. Djot keeps Markdown's familiar look while fixing the ambiguities that make CommonMark hard to parse efficiently, and adds features like footnotes and definition lists.
Is Djot the same as Markdown?
No, Djot only looks similar to Markdown. It derives most of its syntax from CommonMark but changes several rules to remove parsing ambiguities, so a document written for one won't reliably render correctly in the other.
What is a SIXEL file?
A SIXEL file is a bitmap image encoded as printable ASCII text using DEC's six-pixel-tall scheme, originally built in the early 1980s so DEC printers and terminals could receive graphics over the same serial link used for plain text.