Visual Style

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, 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 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 for details.)

Palette
The tile palette comprises 18 colors, which are given in the following table:

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. 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)
Save the following as  in your GIMP palettes folder. This folder's location varies by platform:
 * Windows:
 * Linux:
 * OSX:

GIMP Palette Name: Caves of Qud Columns: 5 0  0   0	True Black 255 255 255	White (Y) 177 201 195	Bright Grey (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	Dark Grey (K) 15 59  58	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	Violet (m)

Trivia

 * 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, 's tiles mode is enabled by default.