CodeTint

Introduction

CodeTint is a lightweight, powerful command-line utility for fast and accurate syntax highlighting of source code. Built in C with Tree-sitter parsing, it transforms plain text into beautifully highlighted output with support for:

• Terminal display (ANSI colors)
• HTML output (for web/browser viewing)
• PNG image generation (for sharing code snippets)
• Interactive pager mode (for long files)

Key Features

• 🚀 Blazing fast parsing and highlighting
• 🌈 Multiple color themes included
• 📜 Interactive pager for large files (like less)
• 📊 Line number support
• 🖼️ Code-to-image conversion
• 💻 Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, WSL)

Installation

Prerequisites

• C Compiler: You'll need a C compiler like GCC or Clang.
• Git: To clone the repository and its submodules.
• Installing other important dependencies, for debian using apt package manager:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libfontconfig1-dev libharfbuzz-dev libpng-dev libfreetype-dev

Building from Source

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Harshit-Dhanwalkar/CodeTint.git
   cd CodeTint
   git submodule update --init --recursive

   This will download the necessary Tree-sitter core library, language grammars, and the stb headers into their respective subdirectories.

2. Prepare Fonts: For the image generation feature, you need to place your desired TrueType Font (.ttf) files inside the modules/Fonts/ directory. CodeTint will discover these fonts when generating images.

   • JetBrains Mono: Available from https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/
   • Fira Code: Available from https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
   • Hack: Available from https://sourcefoundry.org/hack/
   • Monoid: Available from https://larsenwork.com/monoid/
   • Input Mono: Available from https://input.djr.com/download/
   • Space Mono: Available from https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Space+Mono

   For example, if you downloaded JetBrainsMono-2.304.zip, Fira_Code_v6.2.zip, Hack-v3.003-ttf.zip, Monoid.zip, Input-Font.zip, and Space_Mono.zip, extract the .ttf files into subdirectories like:

   CodeTint/
   └── modules/
       └── Fonts/
           ├── JetBrainsMono-2.304/
           │   └── JetBrainsMono-Regular.ttf
           ├── Fira_Code_v6.2/
           │   └── FiraCode-Regular.ttf
           ├── Hack/
           │   └── Hack-Regular.ttf
           ├── Monoid/
           │   └── Monoid-Regular.ttf
           ├── Input-Font/
           │   └── InputMono-Regular.ttf
           ├── Space_Mono/
           │   └── SpaceMono-Regular.ttf
           └── ... (other .ttf files)
   

3. Compile bash make Note: For more see Makefile

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Supported Languages

Currently CodeTint supports limited languages:

1. Python (.py)
2. C/C++ (.c, .cpp, .h)
3. JavaScript (.js)
4. HTML (.html)
5. CSS (.css)
6. Rust (.rs)
7. Bash (.sh)

Themes

Available themes: default, nord, dracula, gruvbox, one-dark, monokai, solarized-dark, solarized-light

Usage

CodeTint is a command-line tool designed to display syntax-highlighted code.

Basic Usage

To highlight a file and display it directly in your terminal:

./codetint <your__file>

Options

Option	Description
-i FILE	Input code file for image generation (mandatory for image generation).
-f FONT_NAME	Selects a specific font for image output (e.g., JetBrainsMono-Regular).
-fs SIZE	Sets the font size in pixels for image output (e.g., 24).
-w WIDTH	Sets the image width in pixels (default: calculated).
-h HEIGHT	Sets the image height in pixels (default: calculated).
-p, --pager	Uses an interactive pager for long files.
-c THEME	Selects a color theme (default: default).
-l LANG	Explicitly sets the language, overriding file extension.
-o FILE	Outputs to a file instead of stdout.
--html	Outputs HTML format.
-n, --line-numbers	Shows line numbers.
--image-out FILE	Generates image output (PNG) to a specified file.
--image-font FONT_NAME	Specifies the font for image output.
--image-fs SIZE	Sets the font size for image output.
--image-w WIDTH	Sets image width (0 for auto-calculation).
--image-h HEIGHT	Sets image height (0 for auto-calculation).
--help or -u	Displays usage information.

Pager Mode Navigation

When using -p flag:

Key	Action
Space	Next page
b	Previous page
j	Down one line
k	Up one line
q	Quit

Examples

1. Printing into terminal from script/code file with syntax-highlighting:

This example shows how to print syntax-highlighted code for bash script file (examples/test.sh).

./codetint examples/test.sh -c nord

Bash-script Example:

2. Generate HTML output code:

This example shows how to generate syntax-highlighted HTML for rust file (examples/test.rc).

./codetint examples/test.rs --html -o assets/output-rust.html

Below is a screenshot showcasing how the generated assets/output-rust.html might look when viewed in a web browser.

Rust Code Example:

3. Generate an image from a script with JetBrains Mono font:

This example assumes you have a sample Python file located at examples/test1.py within your project:

./codetint examples/test1.py --image-out assets/output-python.png --image-font "JetBrainsMono-Regular" --image-fs 18

This command will read examples/test1.py, render its content using the JetBrainsMono-Regular font at 18px size, and save the syntax-highlighted output directly to assets/output-python.png. The image dimensions will be automatically calculated to fit the code content unless overridden by -w and -h.

Example Output Images:

These .png files are directly generated by CodeTint and stored in your assets/ directory.

Python Code Example:

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See available fonts:

Due to how libcodeimage discovers fonts, you can trigger its font discovery and list them by running:

./codetint --image-out /dev/null --help

(The --image-out /dev/null part prevents it from trying to write an actual image, just triggering the font discovery path.)

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Adding More Fonts

Simply place your .ttf font files into the modules/Fonts/ directory or any of its subdirectories. The utility will automatically discover them and list them when you run ./codetint --image-out /dev/null --help.

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TODO

Here are some features and improvements planned for CodeTint:

• Add highlighting for other languages: Extend support beyond Python to highlight a variety of programming and scripting languages.
  • python
  • Rust
  • C
  • C++
  • Javascript
  • html
  • css
  • bash
  • lua
• Add line numbers: Implement an option to display line numbers alongside the highlighted code.
• Optimize code by separating themes: Move theme definitions from main.c into separate files or a more modular structure for easier management and extensibility.
• Allow piping output into a code block image: Integrate image generation directly into the tool via libcodeimage.so.
• Support for incremental parsing (Live Update): Extend this tool to watch files for changes and update highlighting live. This would involve using ts_parser_parse and re-parsing only changed parts for efficiency.
• Support for piping input: Allow CodeTint to read code directly from standard input (stdin), enabling use in pipelines (e.g., cat file.py | ./codetint).
• External theme configuration: Implement a mechanism to load themes from external configuration files (e.g., JSON, YAML) without recompilation.
• Configuration file support: Add a configuration file (e.g., .codetintrc) for default settings, such as preferred theme or default language.
• More robust error handling: Improve error messages and handling for file operations, parsing, and invalid arguments.
• Support for different line ending styles: Ensure correct rendering across various operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS).
• Packaging and Distribution: Explore options for easier installation via package managers.

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FIXES

• Output HTML is not showing color when applied colorscheme using dropdown menu.
• Dark background
• Fix copy to clipboard button in HTML
• Code-to-Image output does not show syntax highlighting.

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License