ANSI graphics parser for node.js. Output to plain text, HTML, binary, animated GIF, PNG, video, or whatever you want.
####Installation
npm install ansi-graphicsGIF, PNG, and video output functionality uses gifencoder and node-canvas, which in turn rely on Cairo. Ensure that Cairo and its dependencies are installed before proceeding. On Ubuntu I've also needed to install libjpeg-dev and libgif-dev in order to install these modules.
ffmpeg is not required for installation, however you'll need a recent build of ffmpeg in your PATH in order to use the output-to-video functionality.
####Usage
var ANSI = require('ansi-graphics'),
fs = require('fs');
// Create a new ANSI object
var a = new ANSI();
// Load an ANSI graphic from a file
a.fromFile("./gnome.ans");
// Write the plain-text version of the graphic to a file
fs.writeFileSync("gnome.txt", a.plainText, { 'encoding' : 'binary' });
// Write the HTML version of the graphic to a file
fs.writeFileSync(
"gnome.html",
"<html><body>" + a.HTML + "</body></html>",
{ 'encoding' : 'binary' }
);
// Write the binary version of the graphic to a file
fs.writeFileSync("gnome.bin", a.binary);
// Save the looping, animated GIF version of the graphic to a file
fs.writeFileSync("gnome.gif", a.toGIF({ 'loop' : true }));
// Save the PNG version of the graphic to a file
fs.writeFileSync("gnome.png", a.toPNG());
// Save an MP4 video of the scrolling graphic to a file
a.toVideo(
{ speed : .13 },
function(video) {
fs.writeFileSync("gnome.mp4", video);
}
);#####Methods
- fromFile("/path/to/file.ans")
- Loads and parses an ANSI graphic from a file
- fromString(ansiString)
- Loads and parses an ANSI graphic from a string
- toGIF(options) (Buffer)
- Converts the loaded ANSI graphic to an animated GIF
- options is an optional object with the following properties:
- loop (boolean) (default: false)
- Whether or not the GIF should loop infinitely
- delay (number) (default: 40)
- Time between frames, in milliseconds
- charactersPerFrame (number) (default: 20)
- How many new characters appear in each frame of the GIF
- If you set this to 1, the GIF will show the ANSI being drawn one character at a time, which is nice, however ...
- If you set this to 1, it will take a long time to generate the GIF
- Adjusting this number has a noticeable impact on filesize
- You'll probably want to adjust delay along with this value
- How many new characters appear in each frame of the GIF
- quality (number) (default: 20)
- The image quality, on a scale of 1 to 20, where 1 is best and 20 is worst
- I haven't noticed a visible difference between 1 and 20
- GIFs generate a lot faster when the quality is set to the lowest (yet highest-numbered) value
- The image quality, on a scale of 1 to 20, where 1 is best and 20 is worst
- scale (number) (default: 1)
- Scale the image to this many times its actual size (.25 would be 25%, 2 would be 200%, etc.)
- loop (boolean) (default: false)
- Returns a Buffer object
- toPNG(options) (Buffer)
- Converts the loaded ANSI graphic to a PNG
- options is an optional object with the following properties:
- quality (number) (default: 5)
- The image quality, on a scale of 1 - 5, where 1 is best and 5 is worst
- scale (number) (default: 1)
- Scale the image to this many times its actual size (.25 would be 25%, 2 would be 200%, etc.)
- quality (number) (default: 5)
- Returns a Buffer object
- toVideo(options, callback)
- Converts the loaded ANSI graphic to a video
- options is an optional object with the following properties:
- format (string) (default: matroska)
- See ffmpeg's documentation re: output formats for possibilities
- speed (number) (default: 1)
- Adjust the playback speed of the video
- 0.25 would cause the video to play back four times faster
- 2.5 would cause the video to play back two and a half times more slowly
- Adjust the playback speed of the video
- charactersPerFrame (number) (default: 20)
- As in toGIF() above, how many new characters appear in each frame of the video
- Ultimately this is another way to adjust the "speed" of the video
- Adjusting this value instead of 'speed' usually results in videos being generated more quickly
- scale (number) (default: 1)
- Scale the video to this many times the size of the original image (.25 would be 25%, 2 would be 200%, etc.)
- format (string) (default: matroska)
- callback is a required function that will be called with one argument, a Buffer object containing the video
#####Properties
-
width (Number)
- The width of the graphic, in characters
-
height (Number)
- The height of the graphic, in characters
-
pixelWidth (Number)
- The width of the graphic, in pixels, when output as PNG/GIF/Video
-
pixelHeight (Number)
- The height of the graphic, in pixels, when output as PNG/GIF/Video
-
data (Array)
- An array of objects representing each explicitly drawn character in the graphic
- Elements in this array appear in the sequence that they were parsed from the file
- The parser handles cursor-positioning sequences
- The parser handles clear-screen and clear-to-EOL sequences
- Characters will not necessarily be in left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence
- This is useful for handling animated ANSIs
- The elements in this array are objects of the following format:
{ cursor : {
x : *number*, // X-coordinate of character
y : *number* // Y-coordinate of character
},
graphics : {
bright : *boolean*, // Bold/bright foreground colour
blink : *boolean*, // Blinking
foreground : *number*, // Foreground colour (30 - 47)
background : *number* // Background colour (40 - 47)
},
chr : *string* // The character itself
}- matrix (Object)
- An object representing every character-cell in the graphic, from top to bottom, left to right
- The object takes the following format:
{ 0 : { // Line 0 of the graphic
0 : { // Column 1 of line 0
graphics : {
bright : *boolean*,
blink : *boolean*,
foreground : *number*,
background : *number*
},
chr : *string*
}
...
}
...
}-
plainText (String)
- A string representation of the graphic with all colour/bright/blink attributes removed, with line-endings in place
- (ie. the ANSI graphic converted to boring text.)
- A string representation of the graphic with all colour/bright/blink attributes removed, with line-endings in place
-
binary (Buffer)
- A buffer of [ chr, attr, chr, attr, ... ] uint8s
-
HTML (String)
- An HTML <pre> block containing the graphic, with colorized regions in styled <span> elements, and characters encoded as HTML entities as required
- Opening and closing <html> <head> and <body> tags are not included in this string
- An HTML <pre> block containing the graphic, with colorized regions in styled <span> elements, and characters encoded as HTML entities as required