LONGCAT_
What is this?
The lore
Keyboard shortcuts
Related searches
Guide — the infinitely long cat, swaying fullscreen
A hand-drawn Longcat with an adjustable stretch and sway, an Impact caption, your own background colour and keyboard shortcuts. Drawn on an HTML5 canvas, nothing to install.Drag Stretch length from 1 (Stub) to 10 (∞ INFINITE), or press ↑ and ↓. At the higher settings the cat runs off the bottom of the screen.
Drag Sway from 0 (Still) to 10 (PENDULUM). The cat swings gently around the hands that hold it, one full swing roughly every 7 seconds, and blinks every 5 seconds.
Leave Auto-cycle on to rotate “LONGCAT IS LOOOONG”, “LOOOOOONG”, “oooooooooo” and “so long.” every 2.4 seconds, pick one of them, or choose no caption. C steps to the next one.
Choose a Background colour (light grey-blue by default) and toggle the Impact caption, the Holding hands and the Scanlines.
Press Enter Fullscreen, click the cat or press F. Space pauses, R resets, and Esc or the Exit Fullscreen button (move the mouse to show it) leaves.
Settings and shortcuts
- 1 Stub
- A short, almost normal cat
- 6 Loooong
- The default
- 7–9
- Hind paws and tail slip off the bottom
- 10 ∞ INFINITE
- The body runs far off screen
- F
- Fullscreen on/off
- Space
- Pause / resume
- ↑ / ↓
- Stretch longer / shorter
- C
- Next caption
- R
- Reset to defaults
- Esc
- Leave fullscreen
- TV / monitor
- Open the page, press F, leave it running
- screen sleep
- The page does not keep the display awake: set your sleep timer to Never while it runs
- OS screensaver
- A web page can’t register as one; use fullscreen instead
Longcat, explained
What is Longcat?
Longcat is a mid-2000s internet meme built on a photo of a white cat named Shiroi, held up under its front legs so its body looks impossibly long. Around 2006 the picture spread across imageboards such as 4chan with the caption “Longcat is loooooong”, and endless edits stretched the cat further and further. This page recreates the idea as an animated browser screensaver.
Is this the original photo?
No. The meme used a real photograph. This is a hand-drawn cartoon tribute made with JavaScript on an HTML5 canvas, so the cat can sway, blink and stretch to any length, with nothing to download or install.
Who is Tacgnol?
Tacgnol is “Longcat” spelled backwards: a black long cat that fans cast as Longcat’s evil rival in a tongue-in-cheek battle of good versus evil. It became a running joke alongside the original. This screensaver only draws the white Longcat.
How do I make it fullscreen?
Click the cat, press Enter Fullscreen or press F. Move the mouse to show the Exit Fullscreen button, which hides again 2.5 seconds after the mouse stops, or press Esc or F to leave. Where a browser blocks the fullscreen API, the cat fills the browser window instead. The page does not keep the display awake, so set your screen’s sleep timer to Never if it should keep running.
What can I customise?
Set the stretch from 1 to 10 (the top settings run off the bottom of the screen) and the sway from 0 to 10, pick one of four captions, auto-cycle them or hide the caption, choose any background colour, and toggle the Impact caption, the holding hands and the scanlines. Reset Defaults (or R) returns to stretch 6, sway 4 and auto-cycling captions.