Visual Style
Caves of Qud employs a restricted “low-res” visual aesthetic that complements its history-focused themes by referencing and paying homage to hardware and software of the past.
Graphics
In-game screens display vignetting and visual scan lines, which give the impression that the game is being viewed through an older style of computer terminal. (Either or both of these effects can be disabled from the options menu.)
Each game zone (or console screen) is 80 tiles (or characters) wide by 25 tall. Each tile is 16 pixels wide by 24 pixels tall and may contain up to three of the game's 18 fixed colors, referred to as the primary, detail, and background colors. Usually the background is left black (the color referred to in the game code as k, and fanonically called “Qud viridian”; see the Palette section). The tiles may be scaled to fit the actual size of the game window.
Exceptions
Some tiles use colors outside of the fixed palette. These colors are always some mixture of the primary and detail colors of the tile. (See Modding:Tiles#4th Color for details.)
Game mods are allowed to specify that their tiles are of sizes other than 16 by 24, however the base game itself doesn't use this function. (See Modding:Tiles#Tile_Size for details.)
Achievements and some modern ui main menu elements can have arbitary sizes and amounts of colors. (See the Achievements section for more information of achievements)
Palette
The tile palette comprises 18 colors, which are given in the following table:
| Code | Name | Hex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| r | dark red / crimson | #a64a2e | █ |
| R | red / scarlet | #d74200 | █ |
| o | dark orange | #f15f22 | █ |
| O | orange | #e99f10 | █ |
| w | brown | #98875f | █ |
| W | gold / yellow | #cfc041 | █ |
| g | dark green | #009403 | █ |
| G | green | #00c420 | █ |
| b | dark blue | #0048bd | █ |
| B | blue / azure | #0096ff | █ |
| c | dark cyan / teal | #40a4b9 | █ |
| C | cyan | #77bfcf | █ |
| m | dark magenta / purple | #b154cf | █ |
| M | magenta | #da5bd6 | █ |
| k | #0f3b3a | █ | |
| K | dark grey / black | #155352 | █ |
| y | grey | #b1c9c3 | █ |
| Y | white | #ffffff | █ |
Palette Files for Pixel Art
PNG palette format
Some programs including Aseprite can import palettes in PNG format. You can download and import the following .png file: 
JASC palette format (.pal)
The JASC palette format is useable by a variety of pixel art programs, including Piskel and Aseprite. (It isn't useable by GIMP; see the GIMP palette format section.)
Copy the following text block into Notepad or another plain text editor and save the file as Caves of Qud.pal. Then you can import it into a pixel art program. (See your program's documentation for details on how.)
JASC-PAL 0100 18 166 74 46 215 66 0 241 95 34 233 159 16 152 135 95 207 192 65 0 148 3 0 196 32 0 72 189 0 150 255 64 164 185 119 191 207 177 84 207 218 91 214 15 59 58 21 83 82 177 201 195 255 255 255
GIMP palette format (.gpl)
To import the gpl file, open GIMP, select Windows -> Dockable Dialogs -> Palettes.
Right-click anywhere within the docked Palettes dialog, click Import Palette..., and choose the Palette file radial option.
You can also place the file directly in your GIMP palettes folder. This folder's location varies by platform:
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\GIMP\2.X\palettes\ - Linux:
~/.config/GIMP/2.X/palettes/ - OSX:
~/Library/Application Support/GIMP/2.X/palettes/
Below are the contents of the palette file.
GIMP Palette Name: Caves of Qud Columns: 5 # 0 0 0 True Black 255 255 255 White (Y) 177 201 195 Gray (y) 215 66 0 Bright Red (R) 166 74 46 Dark Red (r) 233 159 16 Bright Orange (O) 241 95 34 Dark Orange (o) 207 192 65 Yellow (W) 152 135 95 Brown (w) 0 196 32 Bright Green (G) 0 148 3 Dark Green (g) 21 83 82 Black (K) 15 59 58 Dark Black (k) 119 191 207 Bright Cyan (C) 64 164 185 Dark Cyan (c) 0 150 255 Bright Blue (B) 0 72 189 Dark Blue (b) 218 91 214 Magenta (M) 177 84 207 Dark Magenta (m)
Achievements
Caves of Qud's Achievement icons use low resolution images with somewhat small color pallets. With their resolution being 64 pixels tall by 64 pixels wide, which is larger than in-game tiles. As previously mentioned their colors can be theoretically arbitrary. However there is a trend of using small groupings of colors separated by background colors, or dithered gradients of a handful of colors. With most icons using 2 -12 colors including the background.
Achievement Palette
 |
Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers regarding hidden achievements and progression through the main storyline . Proceed at your own discretion. |
Here are all of the unique colors used in the game's achievement icons, as well as what achievements most colors are used in. Some colors are are only used in one icon or are very slight variations of each other.
| How it's used | Hex | |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Red / Main Red | #ae4035 | █ |
| Brighter Red: "Open your mind" Eyes | #d43b26 | █ |
| Bright Redorange: "Aaaaaaaaargh!" Eyes | #f8430b | █ |
| Pink: lighter red in "Rainbow Reading" | #ef8572 | █ |
| Dim Klanq Orange "Pax Klanq, I Presume?" | #e98913 | █ |
| Orange: "The Recitation of the Drowning of Eudoxia by the Witches of Moonhearth" | #e75f00 | █ |
| Orange of "Swollen Bulb" | #ff7600 | █ |
| Main Orange: "Non-Locally Sourced" | #e55616 | █ |
| Gold/Yellow | #ffba00 | █ |
| Dark Brown | #724b31 | █ |
| Light Brown | #a66526 | █ |
| Dark Tan: "On Second Thought" | #ba9e5b | █ |
| Light Tan: "Jawsnapper" | #d4c2a0 | █ |
| Dark Green: "Rainbow Reading" | #207239 | █ |
| Main Green/ Light Green | #489f4e | █ |
| Lime: "Total Makeover" | #98c013 | █ |
| Prism Blue: "Go on. Do it." | #314bec | █ |
| Hilt Blue: "Gemini" | #0f69be | █ |
| Water Blue: "The Woe of Joppa" | #1f68b9 | █ |
| Holographic Blue: "Tomb of the Eaters" | #2c6bf3 | █ |
| Light Holographic Blue: "Tomb of the Eaters" | #337deb | █ |
| Cyan | #47afca | █ |
| Bright Cyan: "Psst" | #3ddccb | █ |
| Purple: "The Recitation of the Drowning of Eudoxia by the Witches of Moonhearth" | #6252fa | █ |
| Dark Purple | #5e4ec4 | █ |
| Light Purple | #9c4ec8 | █ |
| Steam Achievement Background | #0e413c | █ |
| Dark Green Grey | #2b6263 | █ |
| Green Grey: "What Are Directions on a Space That Cannot Be Ordered?" | #148579 | █ |
| Light Grey | #81aaab | █ |
| Off White | #cee4e5 | █ |
| White: "Seraphic Heresy" | #ffffff | █ |
The following are colors in stray pixels not visible ingame, or part of the server icons made for the Caves of Qud discord server by the same artist.
| How it's used | Hex | |
|---|---|---|
| Stray pixel on "That Was Nice" k | #0d2f2e | █ |
| Stray pixel on "The Tillage of the Noosphere" or game R | #d74200 | █ |
| Old version of Otherpearl Lilac | #ba85c9 | █ |
| Pride Background R | #4d1d1d | █ |
| Pride Background O | #522d13 | █ |
| Pride Background Y | #393417 | █ |
| Pride Background G | #133d19 | █ |
| Pride Background B | #21386f | █ |
| Pride Background V | #392e5a | █ |
| Blue BG | #306aa1 | █ |
| Pride Red | #e74737 | █ |
| Pride Yellow | #c4861a | █ |
| Pride Green | #089712 | █ |
| Pride Blue | #0f69be | █ |
| Pride Magenta Goggles | #f45fd4 | █ |
| Halloween Red Eye | #ff0000 | █ |
| Halloween Desaturated Grey | #426263 | █ |
| Santa Variant | #a19881 | █ |
Trivia
 |
Caution: This article or section contains unverified speculation and should not be considered canonical. |
- The game code's tendency to refer to object sprites as “tiles” may be an allusion to the phrase “tileset“ as it is used in roguelike circles to refer to optional graphics for a game that can be used in place of the usual text terminal. Unlike some such games, Caves of Qud's tiles mode is enabled by default.