https://qqqlang.com

In QQQLANG, any string of visible uppercase ASCII characters is a valid program.

Each character has three properties:

• An integer (A=1, B=2, [...], }=67, ~=68)
• A color
• A function

Functions can take zero or more arguments. If a function takes arguments, the characters that follow are interpreted as arguments. Otherwise characters are interpreted as functions. The exception is the first character of the program string which sets an initial solid color.

For example, the program ABCD has the following interpretation:

• A sets the initial color to #78A10F
• B is the 'border' function that creates a circular gradient around the edges. It takes one argument, the border color.
• C becomes the argument to 'B', the color of 'C' is #FF6B35
• D is the 'drip' function, which creates a water drop effect. It takes no arguments.

If the program string ends before the last function has had arguments defined, it will use its own number and color as default arguments. For example, the programs AL, ALL, and ALLL are equivalent.

The question mark character ? is also a function that displays help text. ?1 and ?? show the first page of help, and ?A, ?B, etc. show subsequent pages of help text.

Some functions take an image index as an argument, and uses that old image in some way. ?# shows the history of images and the characters to use to retrieve each image.

QQQ is short for QQQEJOTTONO, a word that my three-year old son wrote on a label maker. He then went on to write fifty or so other words, until the label roll ran out. I thought it'd be nice if these labels could be treated like code.

So QQQLANG is really a language designed for three year olds. It's a Turing complete* stack-based language that can accept any string of characters as a valid program, because each character is either a function name or an argument, depending on context.

(* Turing complete because it includes a Rule 110 function)

There are 68 functions, some are normal image editing functions like '1' (colorize), and some are weird, like L (3D Lissajous tubes) or V (overlay another image in the stack in Voronoi patterns).

The output images are completely deterministic given the program string and canvas size. You can share a qqqlang.com URL to replicate and fork the image.

QQQLANG is both an image synthesis and editing language. You can upload an image as the starting image, or as arguments to functions that take image inputs. You can also paste images from the clipboard, or paste image URLs.

This project is now finished and the language won't change (other than bug fixes). But anyone can fork the language and add new functions as a different language. It would be both fun and possible to build languages like QQQ-AUDIO, QQQ-VIDEO, QQQ-3D, etc.

Number: 1 · Color: #78A10F

Function: spheres — Renders image as texture on two 3D spheres with lighting.

Number: 2 · Color: #8B4513

Function: border — Border effect with various shapes.

Arguments:

1. Border shape style (A=circular-solid, B=circular-blur, C=horizontal-solid, D=horizontal-blur, E=vertical-solid, F=vertical-blur, G=rectangular-solid, H=rectangular-blur, I=diamond-solid, J=diamond-blur, K=hexagon-solid, L=hexagon-blur, M=sine-horizontal-solid, N=sine-horizontal-blur, O=sine-vertical-solid, P=sine-vertical-blur, Q=triangle-horizontal-solid, R=triangle-horizontal-blur, S=triangle-vertical-solid, T=triangle-vertical-blur)
2. Border color

Number: 3 · Color: #FF6B35

Function: concentric-hue — Alternating original and hue-shifted concentric circles.

Arguments:

1. Number of concentric circles

Number: 4 · Color: #FF1493

Function: drip — Metaball-based dripping water drops effect.

Number: 5 · Color: #50C878

Function: emerald — Renders reflective 3D emeralds in symmetric pattern.

Number: 6 · Color: #FFD700

Function: fft-overflow — 2D FFT with magnitude overflow and chromatic phase shifts.

Arguments:

1. FFT multiplier strength

Number: 7 · Color: #9370DB

Function: grayscale-colorize — Converts to grayscale then applies rainbow palette.

Arguments:

1. Number of posterize colors

Number: 8 · Color: #DC143C

Function: hourglass — Hourglass gradient with bitwise color blending.

Number: 9 · Color: #00FF7F

Function: invert-edges — Inverts colors then adds Sobel edge detection.

Number: 10 · Color: #FF8C00

Function: julia-fractal — Julia set fractal masking the previous image.

Arguments:

1. Fractal zoom depth

Number: 11 · Color: #9966FF

Function: kaleidoscope — N-way kaleidoscope effect with zoom.

Arguments:

1. Number of kaleidoscope segments

Number: 12 · Color: #20B2AA

Function: lissajous — 3D Lissajous tube with textured surface.

Arguments:

1. Old image for tube texture
2. Rotation angle multiplier

Number: 13 · Color: #FF69B4

Function: moire — Moiré interference pattern with color zones.

Arguments:

1. Pattern complexity seed

Number: 14 · Color: #8A2BE2

Function: neon — Neon glow effect on bright edges.

Number: 15 · Color: #FF6347

Function: oil-slick — Domain warping with iridescent lighting.

Arguments:

1. Warp intensity and depth

Number: 16 · Color: #4682B4

Function: pixelate — Pixelate with diagonal split using average/saturated colors.

Arguments:

1. Pixel cell size

Number: 17 · Color: #32CD32

Function: quad-prism — Negative prism with diagonal inversion and mirroring.

Number: 18 · Color: #DA70D6

Function: room — 3D room with textured walls, ceiling, and floor.

Number: 19 · Color: #87CEEB

Function: sierpinski — Sierpiński triangle fractal with color effects.

Arguments:

1. Old image for triangle interior
2. Fractal detail level (A-~)

Number: 20 · Color: #F0E68C

Function: tiles — Grid of 3D tiles covering entire canvas, heights based on seed with multiplier.

Arguments:

1. Building height multiplier (A=short, ~=tall)

Number: 21 · Color: #DDA0DD

Function: dither — Apply one of 16 dithering algorithms, from subtle to aggressive 2-color modes.

Arguments:

1. Dithering algorithm (A=ordered-5level, B=bayer-bw, C=threshold-bw, D=ordered-2bit, E=floyd-rgb, F=floyd-bw, G=atkinson-4level, H=atkinson-bw, I=stucki-6level, J=burkes, K=sierra, L=random-bw, M=cluster-2bit, N=bluenoise-bw, O=bayer2x2-2bit, P=noise-2bit)

Number: 22 · Color: #40E0D0

Function: voronoi — Voronoi cells alternating between current and old image, with variable pattern shape.

Arguments:

1. Old image to alternate with
2. Pattern shape

Number: 23 · Color: #EE82EE

Function: whirl — Swirl distortion from center with quadratic falloff.

Arguments:

1. Rotation multiplier (×20°)

Number: 24 · Color: #F5DEB3

Function: cppn — Compositional Pattern Producing Network warps and modulates saturation/value using a neural network. Fully deterministic based on input.

Arguments:

1. Effect strength

Number: 25 · Color: #98FB98

Function: yuv-shift — YUV color shift with three gradient directions 120° apart: luminance, blue chrominance, and red chrominance shifts.

Arguments:

1. Controls angle and intensity of color shifts

Number: 26 · Color: #AFEEEE

Function: zoom-blur — Radial motion blur from center with sharp center.

Arguments:

1. Blur strength multiplier (×4px)

Number: 27 · Color: #E6E6FA

Function: bg-remove — Removes background from prev image using ML, composites on specified background.

Arguments:

1. Background image to composite behind

Number: 28 · Color: #FFA07A

Function: colorize — Tints the image with the specified color using gamma-corrected luminance and boosted saturation.

Arguments:

1. Tint color applied based on luminance

Number: 29 · Color: #98D8C8

Function: third-stamp — Replace a vertical third of current image with a third from old image.

Arguments:

1. Old image to extract third from
2. Old image third (1=left, 2=mid, 3=right, cycling)
3. Current image third to replace (1=left, 2=mid, 3=right, cycling)

Number: 30 · Color: #F7DC6F

Function: triple-rotate — Three vertical strips with different rotations.

Number: 31 · Color: #BB8FCE

Function: quad-rotate — Four quadrants each rotated 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°.

Number: 32 · Color: #85C1E9

Function: triangular-split — Triangular grid with hue shifts and lightness variation.

Arguments:

1. Cell size multiplier

Number: 33 · Color: #F1948A

Function: posterize — Posterize to 4 levels per channel.

Number: 34 · Color: #82E0AA

Function: chromatic — Chromatic aberration with RGB channel shifts.

Number: 35 · Color: #F8C471

Function: lemniscate — Infinity-loop lemniscate distortion.

Arguments:

1. Distortion strength

Number: 36 · Color: #D7BDE2

Function: xor-blend — XOR blend creating glitchy digital artifacts.

Arguments:

1. Old image to XOR with

Number: 37 · Color: #E74C3C

Function: horizontal-shift — Horizontal shift with wraparound.

Arguments:

1. Shift amount (A=left, 7=none, ~=right)

Number: 38 · Color: #3498DB

Function: rotate-90 — Rotate 90 degrees clockwise.

Number: 39 · Color: #2ECC71

Function: vertical-shift — Vertical shift with wraparound.

Arguments:

1. Shift amount (A=up, 7=none, ~=down)

Number: 40 · Color: #FF4500

Function: godrays — Volumetric light scattering from center.

Number: 41 · Color: #9932CC

Function: band-transform — Horizontal bands with alternating hue/saturation transforms.

Arguments:

1. Number of horizontal bands

Number: 42 · Color: #228B22

Function: insert — Replaces current image with specified old image.

Arguments:

1. Old image index to insert

Number: 43 · Color: #FFD700

Function: segment-hue-sort — Color-based segmentation, then sorts pixels by hue within each segment.

Number: 44 · Color: #8B0000

Function: flip — Flips image horizontally or vertically based on argument parity.

Arguments:

1. Flip direction (even=horizontal, odd=vertical)

Number: 45 · Color: #4169E1

Function: quadtree-compress — Adaptive quadtree compression - detailed areas keep resolution while uniform areas become large blocks, creating geometric patterns.

Arguments:

1. Compression level (A=minimal/detailed, ~=maximal/geometric blocks)

Number: 46 · Color: #FF1493

Function: variable-checkerboard — Checkerboard blend with increasing square size from corner to corner.

Arguments:

1. Old image to checkerboard with

Number: 47 · Color: #00CED1

Function: shear-radial — Combined shear and radial distortion. Shear amount couples to horizontal offset and radial strength.

Arguments:

1. Center X offset (A=left, M=center, ~=right)
2. Center Y offset (A=bottom, M=center, ~=top)
3. Radial/shear strength (A=barrel, M=none, ~=pincushion)

Number: 48 · Color: #FF69B4

Function: blur — Gaussian blur with adjustable radius using two-pass convolution.

Arguments:

1. Blur radius (A=subtle, ~=heavy)

Number: 49 · Color: #FFD700

Function: fur — Fur/hair strands growing from pixels based on hue and noise.

Number: 50 · Color: #32CD32

Function: zoom — Zoom in 1.2× from center.

Number: 51 · Color: #BA55D3

Function: stipple — Stipple dots at luminance-based positions.

Arguments:

1. Stipple dot color

Number: 52 · Color: #FF7F50

Function: blend — Blend old image with current using specified mode.

Arguments:

1. Old image to blend with
2. Blend mode (A=multiply, B=screen, C=overlay, D=darken, E=lighten, F=dodge, G=burn, H=hardlight, I=softlight, J=difference, K=exclusion, L=add, M=subtract, N=xor, O=and, P=or, Q=nand, R=nor, S=xnor, T=average, U=divide, V=grain-extract, W=grain-merge, X=vivid, Y=linear, Z=pin, 0=hardmix, 1=hue, 2=saturation, 3=color, 4=luminosity, 5=replace-dark-third, 6=replace-mid-third, 7=replace-light-third, 8=opacity-25, 9=opacity-50, <=opacity-75, >=glow, ^=negation, !=phoenix, "=reflect, #=freeze, $=heat, %=stamp, &=geometric, '=hypot, (=modulo, )=modulo-reverse, *=sin-blend, +=cos-blend, ,=bitshift-left, -=bitshift-right, .=threshold-max, /=threshold-min, :=threshold-swap, ;=posterize-blend)

Number: 53 · Color: #20B2AA

Function: pointillism — Pointillism effect with saturated circular dots.

Arguments:

1. Dot radius base (mod 8 + 2)

Number: 54 · Color: #CD853F

Function: circle-stamp — Stamp circular region from old image center onto current.

Arguments:

1. Old image source
2. X position (A=left, 7=center, ~=right)
3. Y position (A=top, 7=center, ~=bottom)
4. Circle size (A=tiny, ~=full)
5. Blend mode (A=normal, B=xor, C=nand, D=and, E=or, F=multiply, G=screen, H=overlay, I=darken, J=lighten, K=difference, L=exclusion, M=add, N=subtract, O=hardlight, P=softlight)

Number: 55 · Color: #6B8E23

Function: porthole — Circular window showing current image with old image as background.

Arguments:

1. Old image for background

Number: 56 · Color: #DB7093

Function: semicircle-reflect — Top semicircle preserved, bottom reflected with wave distortion.

Number: 57 · Color: #5F9EA0

Function: shifted-stripes — Horizontal stripes with alternating shifts.

Arguments:

1. Stripe height in pixels

Number: 58 · Color: #D2691E

Function: help — Display help text or image history table.

Arguments:

1. Page number (A=intro, B+=reference, #=history)

Number: 59 · Color: #7B68EE

Function: cond — Per-pixel conditional: extracts channel from condition image, outputs true-image pixel where value >= threshold, otherwise false-image pixel.

Arguments:

1. Condition image sampled for threshold comparison
2. Source image when condition >= threshold
3. Source image when condition < threshold
4. Color channel to extract from condition image (A=hue, B=saturation, C=lightness, D=red, E=green, F=blue)
5. Threshold (A=0%, ~=100% of channel range)

Number: 60 · Color: #48D1CC

Function: rotate — Rotate around center.

Arguments:

1. Rotation amount (A=left, 7=none, ~=right)

Number: 61 · Color: #C71585

Function: composite — Composite transformed region from old image onto current.

Arguments:

1. Old image source
2. Source X (normalized 0-1)
3. Source Y (normalized 0-1)
4. Source width (normalized 0-1)
5. Source height (normalized 0-1)
6. Dest X (normalized 0-1)
7. Dest Y (normalized 0-1)
8. Dest width (normalized 0-1)
9. Dest height (normalized 0-1)
10. Rotation (normalized 0-1 → 0-360°)
11. Blend mode (mod 16: normal, xor, nand, and, or, multiply, screen, overlay, darken, lighten, diff, excl, add, sub, hard, soft)

Number: 62 · Color: #00FA9A

Function: left-half-offset — Shift left half vertically by 20% with wraparound.

Number: 63 · Color: #708090

Function: scanlines — CRT scanline effect with darkening and displacement.

Number: 64 · Color: #6495ED

Function: rule110 — Rule 110 cellular automaton - a Turing-complete 1D CA applied horizontally to each row.

Arguments:

1. Number of generations (×8)

Number: 65 · Color: #DC143C

Function: skew — Skew horizontal with wraparound.

Arguments:

1. Skew amount (A=left, 7=none, ~=right)

Number: 66 · Color: #00BFFF

Function: vertical-split — Vertical split with wavy blend zone using multiple blend modes.

Arguments:

1. Old image for right half

Number: 67 · Color: #9400D3

Function: gradientify — Turns flat single-color areas into subtle gradients with hue shifts.

Number: 68 · Color: #FF6347

Function: wave-chromatic — Horizontal wave distortion with chromatic aberration.

Arguments:

1. Wave amplitude and chromatic shift

MIT

Andreas Jansson (@andreasjansson)