The images in this gallery were produced with the DOS version of Fractint, a wonderful freeware fractal image generator. To view them, you will need to set your monitor to 800x600 or higher resolution, and with high (16-bit) or true (24- or 32-bit) colour. (If using 800x600 you will also need to switch off your browser's toolbars by setting it to full screen view.)

The images represent virtual landscapes and other shapes that are produced by a set of simple mathematical formulae (well, they're simple enough to those who understand such concepts as iteration and imaginary numbers; I don't - I just love to play with the program). Fractint provides a bird's-eye view in which the 'Z' axis is represented by colours, like a contour map.

Some of these landscapes are fantastically complex: you can zoom into an area of fine detail to discover whole new landscapes; perhaps with haunting echoes of the original shapes, perhaps with complete surprises lurking in their depths.

Fractint allows you to choose the colours used to represent different distances on the 'Z' axis. Different colour palettes can produce spectacularly different results when applied to the same image, and choosing suitable colours is part of the art of using this program.

Fractint also allows you to use several alternative colouring formulae (I have used one of these to produce the metallic sheen effects) and to convert your images to 3D representations, a few of which are also included in this gallery.

Among the new features in the latest DOS version (v.20) are facilities that allow you to listen to your fractal images and to create fractal music. Click here to listen to some examples.

This site does not do justice to Fractint. I have tried to ensure that the images download reasonably quickly - by reducing their size from 1024x768 (or in some cases 1280x1024) to 480x360, and by converting them from GIF89a format to JPG format - but inevitably some of their beauty and detail has been lost...

It is not, in any case, possible to show Fractint in colour-cycling mode - in which the colours in the palette are continually rotated or renewed to give an illusion of movement that can be as simple and gentle as a barber's pole or as shockingly psychedelic as the finale of 2001.

Nor does this site show many of the fractal types, tricks and techniques available with this program.

If you click on any of the Fractint links included on this page you will be able both to view some amazing examples of fractal art and to download this wonderful freeware program.

Warning: Fractint is addictive and can cause serious sleep loss: "I'll just zoom in on that interesting detail over there before I go to bed..."