FractalNow provides users with tools to generate pictures of various types of fractals quickly and easily.
It provides a command line tool, FractalNow, and a graphical tool, QFractalNow.
The graphical tool, based on Qt library, allows users to explore fractals intuitively and generate pictures.
Both tools are entirely multi-threaded and implement advanced algorithms and heuristics that make computation very fast compared to most existing free fractal generators.
Key Features
- Intuitive graphical user-interface (QFractalNow) to explore fractal space easily.
- A command-line tool (FractalNow) that works on machines without a desktop environment, and can be used by scripts to produce animations.
- Several formulas available (Mandelbrot, Julia, Multibrot, Mandelbar, Burning ship, Rudy, and more…).
- Various types of coloring available (Iteration counts, Average coloring methods).
- Multiple anti-aliasing methods (Gaussian blur, Oversampling, Adaptive (intelligent)) to produce high quality images.
- Advanced algorithms and heuristics to speed up computation (Solid guessing, Adaptive anti-aliasing, and Caching).
- Entirely multi-threaded to work faster on multi-core processors.
- Ability to save/load configuration and gradient files.
- Supports arbitrary precision floating point numbers.

The image displayed above shows QFractalNow in operation.
Website: fractalnow.sourceforge.io
Support: SourceForge Project Page
Developer: Marc Pegon
License: GNU Lesser General Public License
FractalNow is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Fractal Tools | |
|---|---|
| Mandelbulber v2 | Creatively generate three-dimensional fractals |
| JWildfire | Very powerful and flexible flame fractal generator |
| Gnofract 4D | Four-dimensional, inter-relational Mandelbrot and Julia set generator |
| XaoS | Real-time interactive fractal zoomer |
| NextFractal | Create amazing fractal images and other algorithmically generated images |
| Rsfrac | Terminal-based fractal explorer written in Rust |
| Fraqtive | Draws Mandelbrot and Julia fractals |
| Electric Sheep | Screensaver showing collective dream of sleeping computers |
| Qosmic | Cosmic recursive flame fractal editor |
| Fractals Explorer | Render and explore fractals in real time |
| Par Fractal | GPU-accelerated renderer for exploring 2D and 3D fractals |
| Fractorium | Qt-based fractal flame edito |
| FractGen | Extensible tool for generating and exploring fractal images |
| Fractalshades | Create static and interactive fractal visualizations |
| fractal-generator | Mandelbrot and Julia fractal generator |
| FLAM3 | Cosmic recursive fractal flames |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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