Publication Export with ggterm

Export terminal plots to publication-quality formats using Vega-Lite.

Prerequisites

The Vega-Lite CLI tools must be installed:

npm install -g vega-lite vega-cli canvas

How It Works

When a plot is created with the CLI, ggterm saves:

.ggterm/last-plot.json - The PlotSpec (ggterm format)
.ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json - The Vega-Lite spec

Export Commands

To PNG (Raster)

npx vl2png .ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json > plot.png

To SVG (Vector)

npx vl2svg .ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json > plot.svg

To PDF

npx vl2pdf .ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json > plot.pdf

To HTML (Interactive)

cat > plot.html << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vega@5"></script>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vega-lite@5"></script>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vega-embed@6"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <div id="vis"></div>
  <script>
    const spec = SPEC_PLACEHOLDER;
    vegaEmbed('#vis', spec);
  </script>
</body>
</html>
EOF

# Replace placeholder with actual spec
bun -e "
const spec = require('./.ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json');
const html = require('fs').readFileSync('plot.html', 'utf-8');
const result = html.replace('SPEC_PLACEHOLDER', JSON.stringify(spec, null, 2));
require('fs').writeFileSync('plot.html', result);
"

Custom Dimensions

To export with different dimensions, modify the Vega-Lite spec first:

bun -e "
const spec = require('./.ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json');
spec.width = 800;
spec.height = 600;
require('fs').writeFileSync('.ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json', JSON.stringify(spec, null, 2));
"
npx vl2png .ggterm/last-plot-vegalite.json > plot-large.png

Workflow

User creates a terminal plot using /ggterm-plot
User asks to export it for publication
This skill exports to the requested format

Troubleshooting

If vl2png/vl2svg fail, ensure dependencies are installed:

npm install -g vega-lite vega-cli canvas

On macOS, canvas may require additional setup:

brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib librsvg
npm install -g canvas --build-from-source

$ARGUMENTS