picoknife

Commandline tool for manipulating PICO-8 files

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About

picoknife can perform various actions on PICO-8 files (.p8 source files, .p8.png cartridges, exported .html players).

This is useful for scripting release builds, customizing cartridges or the HTML player, fixing mistakes (such as restoring a label image overwritten by Ctrl+7).

The general syntax is: picoknife {command} {input file} [optional args ...]

Commands

Commands in the latest version:

• map – export a map image from a .p8 file
  • use --half or --cells to export a subsection of the map
  • use --palette or --alternate to change the colors
  • use --transparent to export one palette color as transparent
  • use --scale to upscale the output
• sheet – export a spritesheet image from a .p8 file
  • use --half or --sprites to export a subsection of the spritesheet
  • --palette, --alternate, --transparent, --scale also apply here
• sprites – export individual sprite images from a .p8 file
  • you can specify specific ranges of sprites, such as 1-5,10,20
  • --palette, --alternate, --transparent, --scale also apply here
• label – export label image from a .p8 file
  • --palette, --alternate, --transparent, --scale also apply here
• setlabel – set the label image of a .p8 file, .p8.png cartridge, or .html player
  • use --fitPalette to apply PICO-8 colors (otherwise, preserve full color!)
• settitle – set the graphical title text of a .p8.png cartridge
  • use --subtitle to optionally set a second line of text too
• sethtml – modify an exported PICO-8 .html player page
  • use --title to set the page's title text
  • use --headers to include metadata headers from another file
  • use switches such as --background or --dpad to change page colors
  • use switches such as --noDpad or --noX to hide unused controls
• colorimage – apply 16-color palette to any image file
  • use --palette or --alternate to change the colors (otherwise, PICO-8 defaults)
  • use --fit and --scale to pre-shrink then upscale the image
• copy – modify or duplicate a .p8 file with specified changes
  • use --clear to clear the contents of a section (such as "sfx")
  • use --delete to completely remove a section
• version – show the software version
• help – show help and usage information
  • use help [command name] to see help for a specific command
  • use --all to see full help for all commands

For the full output of picoknife help --all, see HELP.txt