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a tool to create keybinds for ascii art images

getting socktool

there are three main methods of obtaining socktool.

prebuilt releases

prebuilt binaries for linux, macOS, and windows are available on the releases page.

note that at the time of writing, the macOS and arm64 binaries are untested because i do not have a machine that can run them.

installing from source

make sure that you have go (>=1.26) installed, then run:

go install github.com/cocoelacanth/socktool@latest

this will build the latest release of socktool and install it to your GOPATH.

building from source

make sure that you have go (>=1.26) installed.

enter the source folder, then run:

mkdir -p bin
go build -o ./bin .

this will build socktool and place it in the bin/ folder.

usage

1. create a folder with all your images
2. create a json file with entries for each image/animation
3. run socktool
4. press a keybind to display an image!

command line

Usage: socktool [flags] <json> <imgs>
Required arguments:
json
the JSON file to parse
imgs
the location to search for image files
Optional flags:
-chars string
a custom set of characters use in the ASCII art
-color
enable colored ASCII art

you can run socktool -h to see this information in your terminal.

supported image formats

• .jpeg, .jpg
• .png
• .bmp
• .webp
• .tiff, .tif

looping image sequences are supported, but animated gifs are not.

json format

example

{
"q": {
"frames": ["foo.png"]
},
"w": {
"frames": [
"bar_1.png",
"bar_2.png",
"bar_3.png"
],
"delay": 100,
"loop": 1000
}
}

• "q" / "w" - the desired key as a string
  • some key combinations, like "ctrl+w", "ctrl+y", etc. are also supported
• "frames" - chronological array of frames to display, separated with commas
• "delay" - millisecond gap between frames (100 = 0.1s = 10 FPS)
  • omit to disable animation
• "loop" - millisecond pause between loops
  • omit to use "delay" value

licenses

this project is licensed under the GNU GPLv3. see LICENSE for details.

third-party

this project includes software from:

• https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea
  • licensed under the MIT License
• https://github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss
  • licensed under the MIT License
• https://github.com/TheZoraiz/ascii-image-converter
  • licensed under the Apache License 2.0

see LICENSES/ for details.