katharostech / cast2gif

Tool to render Asciinema cast files to GIFs, *without* using Electron or a web browser. Written in Rust.

Cast2Gif

A tool to convert Asciinema cast files to Gifs without using Electron or a web browser.

Installing

We have yet to get CI setup for automated builds, but there is a musl Linux build that should run on any distro in our pre-release.

Example Recording

Here is an example of a GIF created with cast2gif:

Full Example

Here is a recording showing how to record a clip with Asciinema and render it with cast2gif:

Features to Add

Here are some features to get in as time permits, ordered by importance:

• Support for changing the output resolution/font-size
• Add a slight bit of padding around the terminal window.
• Automated builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux so users don't have to build it themselves
• Support for custom SVG templates to allow you to style the output
• Support for rendering animated PNGs
• Support for rendering animated SVGs

Building and Running

To build you must have at least Rust 1.42+ installed. You can install it with Rustup. Then Run

cargo build --release

After that the cast2gif program will be in the target/release folder.

Run cast2gif --help to get the usage instructions:

cast2gif 0.1.0
Zicklag <[email protected]>
Renders Asciinema .cast files as gif, svg, or animated png.

USAGE:
    cast2gif [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] <cast_file> <out_file>

FLAGS:
    -f, --force      Overwrite existing output file
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -V, --version    Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -c, --crop <crop>    crop the recording while rendering. Specify crop in terminal cells as
                        `top=[int],left=[int],width=[int],height=[int]`.

ARGS:
    <cast_file>    The asciinema .cast file to render
    <out_file>     The file to render to

History

This project started after a discussion on the Rust forum.

Alternatives

• cast2gif by @foubian
  • A more polished alternative that runs in a web browser and has options for font-size and theme