My final project is command line wallpaper generator that is based on Roy Tanck’s wallpaper generation algorithm [1]. With this tool, users can specify various parameters such as image resolution, if they would like to embed another image within the generated image, and the position of said image. I have previously done a project similar to this, as an exercise for learning JavaScript, however it was terribly inefficient and would take upwards of 10 seconds to generate one wallpaper. But by leveraging the power of C++, this tool provides an efficient and user-friendly way to personalize their wallpaper without requiring extensive design knowledge or specialized software. Surprisingly with the right compiler optimizations, this program can generate a wallpaper in 0.05 seconds, all while being a fraction of the size of the JS implementation (1.8MB vs 211MB with dependencies)! This tool likewise enables users to create new wallpapers programmatically, which opens up a world of opportunities. A potential programmatic use case of this program would be generating a new wallpaper every time you log into your computer!
 |
 |
 |
|---|
To install wallpaper-generator-cli simply clone the repo, run make and then move the wallpaper-generator-cli binary to ~/.local/bin/!
Usage: ./wallpaper-generator-cli [OPTIONS]
Options:
-h,--help Print this help message and exit
-o,--output TEXT REQUIRED Path of output file as a png (Ex: ./my-epic-wallpaper.png) -r,--resolution TEXT The resolution of the image in the format WIDTHxHEIGHT (Default: 1920x1080) -e,--embed TEXT Path of embed PNG image (Ex: ./my-embed-image.png)
-p,--embedPosition TEXT Position of the embedded image in wallpaper in the format WIDTHxHEIGHT|lowerright|upperleft (Default: lowerright)
Examples:
# Generates a 1920x1080 PNG wallpaper in ~/Pictures
$ wallpaper-generator-cli -o ~/Pictures/my-epic-wallpaper.png
# Generates a 1920x1080 wallpaper with a placeholder kitten embedded in the upper left
$ wallpaper-generator-cli -e kitten.png -p upperleft -o ./my-epic-embedded-wallpaper.png
# Generates a 4K wallpaper in the current directory
$ wallpaper-generator-cli -r 3840x2160 -o ./my-epic-wallpaper.png
Simply copy/paste the following script to new-wallpaper and add it as a login item in System Settings > General > Login Items. Be sure to also set the default terminal application to close when the script is complete (Terminal > Settings > Profiles > Shell > When the shell exits > Close if the shell exited cleanly).
#!/bin/sh
wallpaper-generator-cli -r 3840x2160 -o ~/Pictures/wallpaper.pngFirst install and setup the Termux Boot and Termux API apps. Then install the appropriate packages in Termux with the command pkg install -y termux-api and finally paste the following script into ~/.termux/boot/01-wallpaper-gen.sh and adjust the resolution to your liking!
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
~/.local/bin/wallpaper-generator-cli -r 3200x5120 -o homescreen.png
~/.local/bin/wallpaper-generator-cli -r 3200x5120 -o lockscreen.png
termux-wallpaper -f homescreen.png
termux-wallpaper -l -f lockscreen.pngYou can generate a 1920x1080 wallpaper by simply running make and wallpaper-generator-cli -o ./my-epic-wallpaper.png and then opening the my-epic-wallpaper.png file! This program uses two external libraries: LodePNG [2] and CLI11 [3] both of which are bundled with the program and are fully portable. The program also has the capability to embed another PNG image within a generated wallpaper, and an example file (kitten.png [7]) is included for this purpose. Simply run wallpaper-generator-cli -e kitten.png -p upperleft -o ./my-epic-embedded-wallpaper.png to generate a 1920x1080 wallpaper with a placeholder kitten embedded in the upper left. Finally, it's possible to generate a different resolution wallpaper by using the -r flag. For example, to generate a 4K wallpaper in the current directory, run wallpaper-generator-cli -r 3840x2160 -o ./my-epic-wallpaper.png. For more options and examples, run wallpaper-generator-cli -h. It's also worth noting that the program is expected to not output anything when running successfully.
However, it must be noted that the CLI11 library has a few warnings and due to being designed for C++ 11 instead of C++ 17, however the program compiles and is fully functional regardless. It also must be noted that the program functions differently on Windows and UNIX systems, and the same random values will generate different wallpapers. As for extending the functionality of the program, each class and it's methods are well documented in the Wallpaper.h file and in code comments themselves. If I had more time I would have implemented a SFML GUI for faster iterations and more accessible user experience. Although this would necessitate that each private variable would have it's own getters/setters.
[1] R. Tanck, “Roy Tanck’s Wallpaper Generator Algorithm,” Github. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/roytanck/wallpaper-generator
[2] “LodePNG.” Accessed: Dec. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://lodev.org/lodepng/
[3] CLIUtils, “CLI11: Command line parser for C++11,” Github. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/CLIUtils/CLI11
[4] “Bresenham’s line algorithm,” Wikipedia. Nov. 23, 2023. Accessed: Dec. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bresenham%27s_line_algorithm&oldid=1186441766
[5] “HSL and HSV,” Wikipedia. Nov. 18, 2023. Accessed: Dec. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HSL_and_HSV&oldid=1185698752
[6] “LodePNG Example,” LodePNG. [Online]. Available: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lvandeve/lodepng/master/examples/example_4bit_palette.cpp
[7] M. James, “placekitten,” placekitten. Accessed: Dec. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: http://placekitten.com