PNGSource

A tool that makes it easy to embed source code in a PNG file. It can also read source code previously embedded, of course!

Benefits

I detest losing source code, and I like creating diagrams using a descriptive language (be it YAML, UML, Python...) -- Diagrams.com (formerly Draw.io) lets users save their code alongside the generated PNG files. So, that's our prior art! (I tried to remain compatible with their encoding)

What it does

If you provide PNGSource with the path to an existing PNG file (or drag/drop) it will display that file's decoded text chunk, if it exists.

You can also provide a PNG file and a text file (or enter text manually) and embed the text in the file, in a text chunk.

What it does not do

There is no stenography involved here. Although I am planning on performing a few tests to see if this would let me embed a reasonable amount of code in any image format.

Using

Simply download a CLI tool for your platform, or the GUI application (installer on Windows, disk image on MacOs, standalone on Linux)

Run the cli command with --help to see what you can do. The GUI app should be self explanatory (I hope!)

If you are running the application on MacOS and are getting an error message, please check the FAQ section.

Building

Only if you plan on contributing or need a different platform:

make platforms VERSION=<semantic version>

or

make platforms BRANCH=<git branch> VERSION=<semantic version>

or

make platforms GO=<go version> BRANCH=<git branch> VERSION=<semantic version>

Full-on release:

make release instead of make platforms

Build dependencies

• hfsplus (OS package)
• hfsplus support in your kernel... you may have to rebuild a new kernel with CONFIG_HFS_FS=y
• pkg-config (OS package)
• libgtk-3-dev (OS package)
• libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev (OS package)
• zip (OS package)
• nsis nsis-doc nsis-pluginapi (OS packages, Windows packager)
• yarn: yarn install

FAQ

Is this an Electron app?

No. It is significantly smaller and less greedy than an Electron-based application. It does, however, rely on a combination of go, webview, tailwindcss and native dialogs.

Why isn't it working for me?

Please create an issue. If possible, include the files you were working with (image and code) so that I can reproduce the issue.

Why am I getting an error message on MacOS?

You may be getting a message about the application being damaged. It is not, but the gatekeeper is blocking it. You can work around this from the shell:

sudo xattr -cr /Applications/pngsource.app