How to create beautiful images of code snippets | carbon-now-cli cheat-sheet

What is carbon-now-cli ? 🔗

carbon-now-cli is a tool written mostly in Typescript. Its job is to create beautiful images of code.

Why ? 🔗

We need a tool to convert code into a beautiful image of that written code with highlighted code with aethetically pleasing colors; to share on social media such as Twitter/X, Facebook, and Reddit. This is a need if you are “building in public”.

Common command usage 🔗

Create an image from a file using default settings:

npx carbon-now-cli path/to/file

Create an image from a text in clipboard using default settings:

npx carbon-now-cli --from-clipboard

Create an image from stdin using default settings and copy to the clipboard:

cat path/to/code/file | npx carbon-now-cli --to-clipboard

Create images interactively for custom settings and optionally save a preset:

npx carbon-now-cli -i path/to/file
# or
npx carbon-now-cli --interactive path/to/file

Create images from a previously saved preset:

npx carbon-now-cli -p preset path/to/file
# or
npx carbon-now-cli --preset preset path/to/file

Start at a specified line of text:

npx carbon-now-cli -s line path/to/file
# or
npx carbon-now-cli --start line path/to/file

End at a specific line of text:

npx carbon-now-cli -e line path/to/file
# or
npx carbon-now-cli --end line path/to/file

Open image in a browser instead of saving:

npx carbon-now-cli --open path/to/file

Convert Go code snippet into image 🔗

I run this carbon-now-cli command:

npx carbon-now-cli -i -s 413 -e 419 ~/projects/i-pkgman/main.go

Here is all the interactive steps:

And that’s the result image of the code:

For more information, checkout its GitHub repository: https://github.com/mixn/carbon-now-cli .

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