v1.12.9

[1.12.9] - 2026-11-12

• Start-XKCD easter egg improvements.

v1.12.8

[1.12.8] - 2026-10-31

• Show-XKCD and Show-XKCDExplanation now cache each comic's rendered terminal image for the rest of the session, so redisplaying one -- e.g. paging back to it with -Previous, or viewing its explanation right after -- skips re-rendering it, which for Sixel in particular can take a while. This cache is shared with Start-XKCD's own (previously separate) session cache, so a comic already rendered by any one of these cmdlets is reused by the others too, in either direction.
• Adds a -Resume switch to Show-XKCD, to display whichever comic you last read, as recorded in the state file (the same record used by -Next/-Previous, Test-XKCD, and Start-XKCD's own -Resume) -- falls back to the latest comic if the state file has no record yet.
• Adds an -AsPlainText switch to Get-XKCDExplanation, to strip the Markdown-style bold/italic, inline code, and link/url formatting it normally includes from the returned Explanation, Transcript, and Discussion properties, down to fully plain text. Defaults to the value saved with Set-XKCDDefault -AsPlainText, if any.

v1.12.7

[1.12.7] - 2026-10-28

• Start-XKCD's random seasonal banner emoji is now picked once per session instead of re-randomizing on every redraw, so it stays the same one as you page through comics (P/N/etc.) instead of changing each time.

v1.12.6

[1.12.6] - 2026-10-28

• Start-XKCD's seasonal banner emoji is now randomly picked from a small set each time, instead of always being the same one: 🎃/👻/🦇/💀 in October, 🎄/🎅/🎁/🔔 in December.
• Adds a -Resume switch to Start-XKCD, to open the viewer on whichever comic you last read, as recorded in the state file (the same record used by Get-XKCD/Show-XKCD's -Next/-Previous and by Test-XKCD) -- falls back to the latest comic if the state file has no record yet.
• Start-XKCD no longer blocks behind a slow Sixel render when paging quickly through comics -- a waiting keypress now abandons an in-progress conversion straight away instead of finishing it first, so P/N/etc. feel immediate even before a comic has finished rendering.
• Start-XKCD's left/right arrow keys now support Shift+Left/Shift+Right to jump 10 comics at a time instead of 1, clamped to the first/latest comic.

v1.12.5

[1.12.5] - 2026-10-28

• Start-XKCD's ASCII art banner is striped with the colours of the original 8-colour pride flag in June (Pride Month), instead of its usual solid yellow.

v1.12.4

[1.12.4] - 2026-10-27

• Start-XKCD now has a secret.

v1.12.3

[1.12.3] - 2026-10-27

• Start-XKCD's ASCII art banner now gets a seasonal flourish: a 🎃 either side of its "X88K" line in October, and a 🎄 in December.
• Start-XKCD now caches each comic's rendered terminal image for the rest of the session, so revisiting one (e.g. via P/N/F/L/G) redisplays it instantly instead of re-rendering it -- which for Sixel in particular can take a while.

v1.12.2

[1.12.2] - 2026-10-27

• Adds a -Random switch to Start-XKCD, to open the viewer on a random comic instead of the latest one, optionally bounded by -Minimum/-Maximum (aliased -Min/-Max), matching Get-XKCD's existing -Random parameters.
• Start-XKCD's -Number now accepts pipeline input (including by property name, e.g. from Get-XKCD), so Get-XKCD -Random | Start-XKCD opens the viewer on that comic.

v1.12.1

[1.12.1] - 2026-10-26

• Start-XKCD's P/N (and the left/right arrow keys), F, and L controls now show an in-place "You're already viewing the first/latest comic" message instead of redrawing the identical frame when you're already at that end of the archive.
• Start-XKCD's G control now validates the comic number you enter: a blank/non-numeric/out-of-range entry, or one that's syntactically valid but doesn't correspond to an actual comic (e.g. a gap in the archive), shows an in-place message instead of silently doing nothing or redrawing. Re-prompting after a failed attempt reuses the same input line -- moving up one line first if a message from the previous attempt is still showing, so it stays visible, then clearing it once you start typing again.
• Start-XKCD now hides the blinking console cursor for the duration of the viewer, restoring it on exit (including on error or Ctrl+C).
• Fixes several warnings in Start-XKCD (image not downloaded yet, high-quality fallback, no inline image protocol detected, image render failure, and Sixel's "large image, may take a while" notice) showing up in an inconsistent spot -- sometimes after the frame had already finished drawing, or interleaved oddly within it -- because they went through PowerShell's separate warning stream rather than being written as part of the frame itself, like everything else in it. All of these now render inline, in a consistent spot; the large-image notice in particular now appears before the slow Sixel conversion it's warning about (rather than only after), and gets cleanly replaced by the comic once it's ready instead of lingering above it.
• Fixes a black bar sometimes appearing under a comic's image:
  • For Sixel (Show-XKCD and Start-XKCD alike): the Sixel escape sequence's background-selection parameter was left at its default, which fills any pixel no colour run ever touches with an opaque background colour (typically black) -- this showed up as a bar under the image whenever its height wasn't an exact multiple of 6 (the size of a Sixel band), which is most of the time. Unset pixels are now explicitly left transparent instead.
  • For Kitty/iTerm2 specifically in Show-XKCD: image rendering now requests an explicit column count (as Start-XKCD already did), rather than leaving sizing to the client's own default -- avoiding a similar bar caused by a partial trailing cell row of background padding, and making Show-XKCD's image sizing consistent with Start-XKCD's.

v1.12.0

[1.12.0] - 2026-10-26

• Adds Start-XKCD, a full-screen terminal interface for browsing the archive without leaving it -- a TUI parody of xkcd.com itself, complete with its own ASCII art banner and tagline:
  • The current comic's title, image (centered -- exactly for Kitty/iTerm2, approximately for Sixel), and alt text are framed by a control bar shown both above and below the image.
  • G prompts for a specific comic number to jump to; F/L jump straight to the first/latest comic; P/N (or the left/right arrow keys) display the previous/next comic; R displays a random comic; Q/Esc exits back to your normal console.
  • By default it opens on the latest comic; use Start-XKCD 2000 to open on a specific one instead.
  • Supports -HighQuality and -Offline (with -DownloadPath), working the same way they do on Show-XKCD, and updates the same state file used by -Next/-Previous and Test-XKCD.
  • Set-XKCDDefault -HighQuality/-Offline/-CachePath/-StatePath also apply to Start-XKCD, since it shares these preferences with Show-XKCD.
• Adds a -Columns parameter to the internal terminal image renderer so Kitty/iTerm2 images can be rendered at an exact column width (used by Start-XKCD to center them precisely); Show-XKCD and Export-XKCDTerminalImage are unaffected.