script2svg

script2svg is a simple program allowing to produce SVG animations from script files. It is intended to be used as an alternative to animated GIFs when it comes to screencasting terminal-based applications.

Example

Installation

Dependencies

script2svg uses the following tools, which should be installed on your system before you try building the project:

• a C++14-compliant compiler, such as gcc or clang
• cmake
• libtsm
• boost::program_options

Build

Since script2svg is based on cmake, something along these lines should allow you to simply build the project:

$ git clone http://www.github.com/ffevotte/script2svg.git
$ cd script2svg
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make

Usage

The simplest way of recording a screencast is the one shown in the screencast above:

$ # Start recording
$ script -t scriptfile 2> timingfile
Script started, file is scriptfile.
$ 
$ # do whatever you want
$ # exit to stop recording
$ exit
exit
Script done, file is scriptfile
$
$ # Produce the SVG animation
$ script2svg scriptfile timingfile -o screencast.svg
info: setting verbosity level to 3(info)
info: setting output to file 'screencast.svg'
info: setting terminal size to 80x24
notice: animation duration: 32.27s. 

Step 1: Record the session

This step is performed using the script utility. See its man page for more details.

Don't forget to pass the -t command-line switch in order to generate a timing file (and don't forget to redirect the standard error so that timing data are recorded on disk).

Step 2: Produce the SVG animation

script2svg supports a lot of command-line options allowing to tune the output. Their usage is described by the in-line help message:

Usage: script2svg [options] SCRIPT_FILE TIMING_FILE

Produce an animated SVG representation of a recorded script session.

Generic options:
  --help                             produce help message
  -V [ --version ]                   print version
  -v [ --verbose ] [=LEVEL(=4)] (=3) set verbosity level
  -C [ --config ] FILE               read config file
  -o [ --output ] SVG_FILE (=-)      specify the output file name. The default 
                                     behaviour is to use the standard output.

Terminal:
By default, `script2svg` respectively reads the terminal size from the COLUMNS
and LINES environment variables. These options allow specifying them explicitly:
  -c [ --columns ] NB (=0)           number of columns
  -r [ --rows ]    NB (=0)           number of rows

Fonts:
  --font.family FONT (=monospace)    font family
  --font.size   SIZE (=12)           font size
  --font.dx     PX (=0)              horizontal cell size
  --font.dy     PX (=0)              vertical cell size.
                                     The default behaviour is to try and 
                                     automatically determine the cell size based 
                                     on the font size.

Progress bar:
  --progress.height PX (=5)          progress bar height
  --progress.color  HEX (=0000aa)    progress bar color

Colors:
  --color.fg      HEX_CODE (=000000) foreground color
  --color.bg      HEX_CODE (=ffffff) background color
  --color.black   HEX_CODE (=000000) black / dark gray
  --color.red     HEX_CODE (=aa0000) red
  --color.green   HEX_CODE (=00aa00) green
  --color.yellow  HEX_CODE (=aa5500) green
  --color.blue    HEX_CODE (=0000aa) blue
  --color.magenta HEX_CODE (=aa00aa) magenta
  --color.cyan    HEX_CODE (=00aaaa) cyan
  --color.white   HEX_CODE (=aaaaaa) white / light gray

Advertisement:
A link is inserted at the bottom right corner of the generated SVG animation.
The following options allow customizing it:
  --ad.text TEXT                     advertisement text; if TEXT is blank, 
                                     no advertisement is produced.
  --ad.url URL                       advertisement URL

Bugs / TODO-list

• non-ASCII characters are not yet supported

Contributing

If you make improvements to this code or have suggestions, please do not hesitate to fork the repository or submit bug reports on github. The repository's URL is:

https://github.com/ffevotte/script2svg.git

License

Copyright (C) 2015 François Févotte.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.