terminal-shot 📸

Beautiful terminal screenshots from text, commands, and ANSI output.

terminal-shot turns terminal output into polished PNG, SVG, or HTML images for READMEs, docs, Discord, changelogs, and social posts. It is local-first: no uploads, no telemetry, no desktop screen capture.

✨ Features

• Render pasted text, piped ANSI output, files, commands, or a built-in demo.
• Export png, svg, or html.
• Preserve ANSI colors and terminal formatting.
• Built-in themes: dark, catppuccin, tokyo-night, dracula, nord, github-dark, github-light, glass, mono, and matrix.
• Window chrome, title, subtitle, prompt, watermark, sizing, padding, radius, transparency, and typography controls.
• Interactive wizard when you run terminal-shot with no arguments.
• Works locally and in CI/headless environments.

📦 Installation

npm install -g terminal-shot

PNG export uses Playwright Chromium. Install the browser once:

npx playwright install chromium

🚀 Quick Start

Run the guided wizard:

terminal-shot

Render the built-in demo:

terminal-shot demo -o demo.png

Pipe command output:

npm test --color=always | terminal-shot --title "npm test" -o tests.png
git status --short | terminal-shot --theme dracula -o status.png
fastfetch | terminal-shot --theme glass -o system.png

Render a command directly:

terminal-shot run "git log --oneline -5" --title "Recent commits" -o commits.png

Render a file:

terminal-shot file output.txt --format svg -o output.svg

🎨 Themes

List available themes:

terminal-shot themes

Use a theme:

terminal-shot demo --theme tokyo-night -o tokyo-night.png
terminal-shot demo --theme github-light --format svg -o github-light.svg

🛠 Options

terminal-shot demo \
  --theme tokyo-night \
  --title "npm test" \
  --subtitle "~/repo" \
  --width 900 \
  --padding 32 \
  --radius 18 \
  --font-size 15 \
  --scale 2 \
  -o demo.png

| Flag | Description | | --- | --- | | -o, --output <file> | Output path | | --format png\|svg\|html | Output format | | --theme <name> | Built-in theme | | --title <text> / --subtitle <text> | Window header text | | --no-header | Hide the title/subtitle | | --window / --no-window | Show or hide window chrome | | --shadow / --no-shadow | Drop shadow | | --font <family> / --font-size <n> / --line-height <n> | Typography | | --padding <n> / --radius <n> | Spacing | | --width <n> / --max-height <n> / --scale <n> | Sizing and DPR | | --background <css> / --transparent | Background | | --prompt <text> / --cwd <text> | Faux shell prompt | | --watermark <text> | Small watermark | | --config <file> | Custom config path | | --json | Print render metadata as JSON |

⚙️ Config

Create a config file:

terminal-shot init

Example terminal-shot.config.json:

{
  "theme": "tokyo-night",
  "fontSize": 15,
  "padding": 32,
  "radius": 18,
  "window": true,
  "shadow": true,
  "width": 900
}

Use a custom path:

terminal-shot demo --config ./shot.config.json -o demo.png

🔐 Privacy

• No telemetry.
• No cloud rendering.
• No uploads.
• No desktop screen recording.
• Command mode runs locally through your system shell.
• PNG output uses a local headless Chromium instance.

🧪 Development

git clone https://github.com/david-x3d/terminal-shot.git
cd terminal-shot
npm install
npm run build
npx playwright install chromium
node dist/index.js demo -o examples/demo.png

Smoke checks:

printf '\033[32mPASS\033[0m hello\n' | node dist/index.js --format html -o examples/stdin.html
node dist/index.js file examples/demo.txt --format svg -o examples/demo.svg
node dist/index.js demo -o examples/demo.png

📄 License

MIT