TL;DR — Quick Summary

silicon generates beautiful code images from the terminal. Like Carbon.now.sh but offline, scriptable, and in your CLI — paste code, get a PNG with syntax highlighting.

silicon creates beautiful code images from the terminal. Carbon.now.sh without the browser — pipe code, get PNG.

Installation

# macOS
brew install silicon

# Cargo
cargo install silicon

# Requires: a font with good code rendering

Usage

# From a file
silicon main.rs -o code.png
silicon app.py -o code.png

# From clipboard
silicon --from-clipboard -l python -o code.png

# From stdin
cat main.rs | silicon -l rust -o code.png
echo 'console.log("hello")' | silicon -l javascript -o code.png

# Themes
silicon --theme Dracula main.rs -o code.png
silicon --theme "One Dark" main.rs -o code.png
silicon --theme Monokai main.rs -o code.png
silicon --list-themes                        # List all

# Fonts
silicon --font "JetBrains Mono" main.rs -o code.png
silicon --font "Fira Code" main.rs -o code.png
silicon --list-fonts                         # List available

# Customization
silicon main.rs -o code.png \
  --pad-horiz 40 \
  --pad-vert 30 \
  --shadow-blur-radius 10 \
  --shadow-color '#555555' \
  --background '#aaaaff' \
  --line-number \
  --no-window-controls

# To clipboard (no file)
silicon main.rs --to-clipboard

# Specific lines
silicon main.rs -o code.png --highlight-lines '1-5'

Summary

  • silicon generates beautiful code images from CLI (like Carbon offline)
  • Syntax highlighting for 100+ languages with Sublime Text themes
  • Custom fonts, padding, shadows, backgrounds, line numbers
  • Read from files, stdin, or clipboard — output to file or clipboard
  • Written in Rust — batch process, automate in scripts