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chartjs2img

Quick start ​

Install the chartjs2img binary and render your first chart in under a minute. If you'd rather not pipe a remote script into a shell, see Install for manual alternatives.

Install ​

Pick the command for your operating system. Both scripts place chartjs2img on your PATH automatically.

macOS / Linux ​

sh
curl -fsSL https://bin.ideamans.com/install/chartjs2img.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell) ​

powershell
irm https://bin.ideamans.com/install/chartjs2img.ps1 | iex

Verify ​

sh
chartjs2img --help

You should see the usage banner. If chartjs2img: command not found, open a new shell (so the updated PATH is picked up) or consult Install.

On the first render, Chromium is auto-downloaded to your user cache (~250 MB). On linux-arm64 the auto-download is not available — install Chromium from your distro and set CHROMIUM_PATH. Details in Install.

Render your first chart ​

Pipe a one-line Chart.js config straight into chartjs2img — the render command reads from stdin by default and writes the PNG to -o.

macOS / Linux ​

sh
echo '{"type":"bar","data":{"labels":["Jan","Feb","Mar"],"datasets":[{"label":"Sales","data":[12,19,3],"backgroundColor":"rgba(54,162,235,0.7)"}]}}' \
  | chartjs2img render -o hello.png

Windows (PowerShell) ​

powershell
'{"type":"bar","data":{"labels":["Jan","Feb","Mar"],"datasets":[{"label":"Sales","data":[12,19,3],"backgroundColor":"rgba(54,162,235,0.7)"}]}}' `
  | chartjs2img render -o hello.png

Open hello.png in your image viewer — you should see a three-bar chart. It should come out like this:

The output of the command above.
bar-chart

Want JPEG, a wider canvas, or a transparent background? The render command takes flags for all of that — see CLI rendering for the full surface.

Where to next ​

The rest of the User Guide is split into two tracks:

  • CLI rendering — the primary workflow. One chart in, one image out. Read this first.
  • HTTP server — for long-running services where many clients hit the same renderer. Includes cache, auth, and Docker.

Or first learn what's available:

  • Bundled plugins — Chart.js plus 12 ecosystem plugins and which type values they unlock (treemap, sankey, wordcloud, choropleth, …). Bundled into every render without extra setup.
  • Install — GitHub Releases, build from source, and other ways to get the binary.
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