# Terminalizer — Record Terminal Sessions to Animated GIF

> A Node.js tool that records terminal sessions and renders them as animated GIF images or shareable web recordings for documentation and demos.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# Terminalizer — Record Terminal Sessions to Animated GIF

## Quick Use
```bash
npm install -g terminalizer
terminalizer record demo
# Perform your terminal actions, then press Ctrl+D to stop
terminalizer render demo
# Output: demo.gif
```

## Introduction
Terminalizer captures everything happening in your terminal session and replays it as an animated GIF or web-based recording. It is designed for creating documentation, tutorials, and README demos that show terminal workflows in action without requiring viewers to watch a video.

## What Terminalizer Does
- Records terminal input and output with precise timing information
- Renders recordings into animated GIF files with customizable quality
- Supports custom frame delays, cursor styles, and terminal themes
- Generates shareable YAML recording files that can be edited before rendering
- Allows sharing recordings via terminalizer.com web player

## Architecture Overview
Terminalizer uses node-pty to create a pseudo-terminal that captures all output bytes and timing. The recording is stored as a YAML file containing frame data (content + delay pairs). The render step processes each frame through a headless terminal emulator, captures screenshots as PNG, then assembles them into a GIF using gifencoder with optimized palette quantization.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Install globally via npm: npm install -g terminalizer
- Initialize config with terminalizer init to create ~/.terminalizer/config.yml
- Configure output dimensions (cols, rows), GIF quality, and repeat count
- Set custom fonts and themes in the YAML configuration
- Edit recording YAML files to adjust timing or remove frames before rendering

## Key Features
- Editable recordings: modify YAML to fix typos or adjust timing post-capture
- Configurable frame delay, quality, and maximum frame count
- Built-in themes and custom color scheme support
- GIF optimization with lossy compression for smaller file sizes
- Web sharing platform for interactive playback without GIF limitations

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **asciinema** — text-based recording format; lighter but no native GIF export
- **VHS (Charm)** — script-driven approach; writes commands in a file rather than recording live
- **ttyrec/ttygif** — older Unix tools; less portable and fewer export options
- **Peek** — screen recorder for Linux; captures pixels not terminal state

## FAQ
**Q: How do I reduce the GIF file size?**
A: Lower the quality setting in config, reduce cols/rows, or use the -q flag during render. Editing the YAML to remove idle frames also helps.

**Q: Can I edit the recording after capturing?**
A: Yes, the recording is a plain YAML file. You can change delays, remove frames, or even modify the displayed text.

**Q: What terminal features are supported?**
A: Full ANSI escape sequences, 256 colors, and Unicode. TrueColor support depends on the renderer.

**Q: Can I use custom fonts in the GIF output?**
A: Yes, specify the font family in the config file. The font must be installed on the rendering machine.

## Sources
- https://github.com/faressoft/terminalizer
- https://terminalizer.com

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-924d758d
Author: Script Depot