Re: [screen-devel] screendump to png

[Eric Wald]

Folkert van Heusden wrote:
> It would be nice if something got added to screen so that it can write
> screendumps to a .png-file. As far as i know it can currently only write
> ascii black&white dumps to a textfile.

A full .png feature would be major bloat in screen, particularly since
someone would end up complaining about the font or colors selected, and
request a feature to change them.  Screen really doesn't do anything
with graphics; instead, it dumps all of that work to the terminal.

However, a new command to write a screen dump with ansi color escape
sequences shouldn't be too hard, and could end up being useful for much
more than the .png-dump feature.

Similarly, someone could write a program that would read such a
color-enabled screen dump and produce a .png pseudo-screenshot.  That
program could easily have options to set the font and colors without
appearing bloated, because they're directly related to its main purpose.
Such a program could also be useful for more than a .png-dump feature.
I wouldn't even be surprised if it already exists.

However, nobody will write either portion of the solution without some
incentive.  If you're lucky, that incentive could be as simple as
thinking that they might want such a feature for their own benefit.
Otherwise, you might be able to hire a teenager down the street.

- Eric