Durdraw

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          \_____________________________________________\|  v 0.21.0

OVERVIEW

Durdraw is an ASCII, ANSI and Unicode art editor for UNIX-like systems (Linux, macOS, etc). It runs in the terminal and supports frame-based animation, custom themes, 256 and 16 color modes, terminal mouse input, IRC color export, Unicode and Code Page 437 block characters, HTML output, and other interesting features.

Durdraw is heavily inspired by classic ANSI editing software for MS-DOS and Windows, such as TheDraw, Aciddraw and Pablodraw, but with a modern Unix twist.

Files can be saved in DUR animation format, or exported in ASCII (.asc, .txt), ANSI (.ans), JSON, GIF, mIRC color, HTML, and PNG formats.

REQUIREMENTS

Python 3
Linux, macOS, or other Unix-like System

INSTALLATION

1: Download and extract, or use git to download:

   git clone https://github.com/cmang/durdraw.git  
   cd durdraw

2: Install or upgrade using pip:

    pip install --upgrade .

Or run the installer:

   python3 setup.py install

3: Optionally, install some themes and a sample configuration file for your local user into ~/.durdraw/:

    ./installconf.sh

You should now be able to run durdraw

RUNNING WITHOUT INSTALLING

You may need to install the "PIL" or "pillow" python module first:

    pip3 install pillow

Then you can run Durdraw with:

    ./start-durdraw

To look at some included example animations:

    ./start-durdraw -p examples/*.dur

SCREENSHOTS AND EXAMPLES

CONFIGURATION

You can create a custom startup file where you can set a theme.

If you did not already do so during installation, you can install a sample configuration and some themes into ~/.durdraw/ with the command:

    ./installconf.sh

This will place durdraw.ini into ~/.durdraw/ and the themes into ~/.durdraw/themes/.

Here is an example durdraw.ini file:

; Durdraw 0.20 Configuration File
[Theme]
theme-16: ~/.durdraw/themes/purpledrank-16.dtheme.ini
theme-256: ~/.durdraw/themes/mutedform-256.dtheme.ini

The option 'theme-16' sets the path to the theme file used in 16-color mode, and 'theme-256' sets the theme file used for 256-color mode.

Note that you can also load a custom theme file using the --theme command-line argument and passing it the path to a theme file, or disable themes entirely with the --notheme command line option.

Here is an example 16-color theme:

[Theme-16]
name: 'Purple Drank'
mainColor: 6
clickColor: 3
borderColor: 6
clickHighlightColor: 5
notificationColor: 4
promptColor: 4

and a 256-color theme:

[Theme-256]
name: 'Muted Form'
mainColor: 104
clickColor: 37
borderColor: 236
clickHighlightColor: 15
notificationColor: 87
promptColor: 189
menuItemColor: 189
menuTitleColor: 159
menuBorderColor: 24

The colors and theme options are as follows:

colors for 16-color mode: 1 black 2 blue 3 green 4 cyan 5 red 6 magenta 7 yellow 8 white

color codes numbers for 256-color mode can be found in Durdraw's 256-color selector.

mainColor: the color of most text
clickColor: the color of buttons (clickable items)
clickHighlightColor: the color the button changes to for a moment when clicked
borderColor: the color of the border around a drawing
notificationColor: the color of notification messages
promptColor: the color of user prompt messages
menuItemColor: the color of menu items
menuTitleColor: the color of menu titles
menuBorderColor: the color of the border around menus

COMMAND LINE USAGE

You can play a .dur file or series of .dur files with:

    $ durdraw -p filename.dur
    $ durdraw -p file1.dur file2.dur file3.dur ...

Other command-line options:

usage: start-durdraw [-h] [-p PLAY [PLAY ...]] [-q | -w | -x TIMES] [--256color | --16color] [-b]
                     [-W WIDTH] [-H HEIGHT] [-m] [--nomouse] [-A] [-u UNDOSIZE] [-V] [--debug]
                     [filename]

positional arguments:
  filename              .dur or ascii file to load

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PLAY [PLAY ...], --play PLAY [PLAY ...]
                        Just play .dur file or files, then exit
  -q, --quick           Skip startup screen
  -w, --wait            Pause at startup screen
  -x TIMES, --times TIMES
                        Play X number of times (requires -p)
  --256color            Try 256 color mode
  --16color             Try 16 color mode
  -b, --blackbg         Use a black background color instead of terminal default
  -W WIDTH, --width WIDTH
                        Set canvas width
  -H HEIGHT, --height HEIGHT
                        Set canvas height
  -m, --max             Maximum canvas size for terminal (overrides -W and -H)
  --nomouse             Disable mouse support
  --notheme             Disable theme support
  --theme THEME         Load a custom theme file
  -A, --ibmpc           IBM-PC ANSI Art Mode - Use F1-F10 keys for Code Page 437 extended ASCII (IBM-
                        PC) block characters
  -u UNDOSIZE, --undosize UNDOSIZE
                        Set the number of undo history states - default is 100. More requires more
                        RAM, less saves RAM.
  -V, --version         Show version number and exit

INTERACTIVE USAGE/EDITING

Use the arrow keys (or mouse) and other keys to edit, much like a text editor. You can use the "Esc" (or "Meta") key to access commands:

   .. Art Editing ....................  .. Animation .......................    
   : F1-F10 - insert character       :  : esc-k - next frame               :    
   : esc-up - next fg color          :  : esc-j - previous frame           :    
   : esc-dow1 - prev fg color        :  : esc-p - start/stop payback       :    
   : esc-right - next bg color       :  : esc-n - clone frame              :    
   : esc-left - prev bg color        :  : esc-N - append empty frame       :    
   : esc-/ - insert line             :  : esc-d - delete frame             :    
   : esc-' - delete line             :  : esc-D - set frame delay          :    
   : esc-. - insert column           :  : esc-+/esc-- - faster/slower      :    
   : esc-, - delete column           :  : esc-R - set playback/edit range  :    
   : esc-] - next character set      :  : esc-g - go to frame #            :    
   : esc-[ - previous character set  :  : esc-M - move frame               :    
   : esc-y - eyedrop (pick up color) :  :..................................:    
   : esc-c - color picker (256 mode) :                                         
   : shift-arrows - select for copy  :
   : esc-v - paste                   :
   :.................................:                                          
   .. File Operations ................  .. Canvas Size .....................    
   : esc-C - new/clear canvas        :  : esc-" - insert line              :    
   : esc-o - open                    :  : esc-: - delete line              :    
   : esc-s - save                    :  : esc-> - insert column            :    
   :.................................:  : esc-< - delete column            :    
   .. UI/Misc ........................  :..................................:    
   : esc-m - main menu               :
   : esc-t - mouse tools             :
   : esc-z - undo                    :
   : esc-r - redo                    :
   : esc-h - help                    : 
   : esc-q - quit                    :                      Prev   Next         
   :.................................:                      Frame  Frame        
                                                            |      |            
Main   Frame     Speed     Frame   Play/Edit  Mouse   First | Play |  Last      
Menu   Number      |       Delay   Range      Tools   Frame | Pause|  Frame     
 |     |           |        |       |          |         |  |  |   |  |         
[Menu] F: 1/8    <FPS>: 8   D: 0.00 R: 1/8   [Move]      |< << |> >> >|

OTHER TIPS

* To use themes, copy durdraw.ini to ~/.durdraw/ and edit it. Durdraw
  will also check in the current directory for durdraw.ini.

* The mouse can be used for moving the cursor (even over SSH) and
  clicking buttons, if your terminal supports Xterm mouse reporting.
  In iTerm2 this is under Profiles, Terminal and Terminal Emulation.

* If IBM-PC characters (-A) are not working in gnu screen, try running the
  following screen command (by pressing ctrl-a and typing):
    :utf8 off off
  then type "ctrl-a l" to redraw the window.
  Also see "OPTIONAL INSTALLATION" notes below

OPTIONAL INSTALLATION

For PNG and animated GIF export, install Ansilove (https://ansilove.org/) and make sure it is is in your path. PNG and GIF export only work in 16-color mode for now.

If you want to try making animated IBM-PC/MS-DOS ANSI art with durdraw, you need a terminal and font that supports ASCII encoding and IBM's Code Page 437. You can find fonts in the "extras" directory for this purpose. Once this is done, start Durdraw with the -A or --ibmpc command-line argument.

Note that ANSI art character support is experimental (see FAQ).

In Linux/X11, here is one possible way to set up a terminal for IBM-PC ANSI art:

Install mrxvt
Install vga.pcf by copying it to /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc and then running these commands. This may be different on your OS: $ mkfontdir /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/ $ xset fp rehash
Give mrxvt IBM-PC colors by copying the contents of Xdefaults into your own ~/.Xdefaults file. You can create ~/.Xdefaults if it does not exist.
Launch mrxvt with: mrxvt -fn vga -bg black -fg grey

If you are using macOS or MacOS X and want IBM-PC ANSI art support in Terminal.app:

Install dos437.ttf font (included) by double-clicking it.
Create a profile in Terminal Preferences/Settings with the following settings (similar settings can be applied in iTerm):
- In Text tab, Font set to dos437 (I like 9pt) and "Display ANSI colors"
  and "Use bright colors for bold text" are checked
- In Keyboard tab, "Use option as meta key" selected
- In "Advanced" tab, Character encoding set to "Western (ISO Latin 1)"
- Set background color to black (low or no transprency) and foreground color to white

Once this is setup, pass "-A" to durdraw's command-line to allow you to use F1-F12 to input ANSI block characters.

FAQ

Q: Don't TheDraw and some other programs already do ANSI animation?

A: Yes, but traditional ANSI animation does not provide any control over timing, instead relying on terminal baud rate to control the speed. This does not work well on modern systems without baud rate emulation. Durdraw gives the artist fine control over frame rate, and delays per frame. Traditional ANSI animation also updates the animation one character at a time, while Durdraw updates the animation a full frame at a time. This makes it less vulnerable to visual corruption from things like errant terminal characters, resized windows, line noise, etc. Finally, unlike TheDraw, which requires MS-DOS, Durdraw runs in modern Unicode terminals.

Q: Can I run Durdraw in Windows?

A: Short answer: It's not supported, but it seems to work fine in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Long answer: Some versions run fine in Windows Command Prompt, Windows Terminal, etc, without WSL, but it's not tested or supported. If you want to help make Durdraw work better in Windows, please help by testing, submitting bug reports and submitting patches.

Q: Can I run Durdraw on Amiga, MS-DOS, Classic MacOS, iOS, Android, etc?

A: Probably not easily. Durdraw requires Python 3 and Ncurses. If your platform can support these, it will probably run. However, the file format for Durdraw movies is a plain text JSON format. It should be possible to support this format in different operating systems and in different applications.

Q: Does Durdraw support IBM-PC ANSI art?

A: Yes - Kind of. Durdraw can support IBM-PC (Code Page 437) extended ASCII characters using the -A command-line option, and can export ANSI files. However, ANSI importing is not currently supported. Please see the "OPTIONAL INSTALLATION" section above for more details. If you do not pass the -A command-line option, then Unicode block characters similar to IBM-PC block characters are enabled by default.

CREDITS

Developer: Sam Foster

Home page: http://durdraw.org

Development: https://github.com/cmang/durdraw

LEGAL

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

The vga.pcf font was taken from the Dosemu project and appears to be in the public domain. Further discussion on its copyright status can be found at http://www.dosemu.org/docs/misc/COPYING.html

cmang/durdraw

cmang

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