sips-js-api

An unofficial documentation of sips's JavaScript API.

This documentation is written based on the specification of macOS Monterey.

What's sips?

If you are using macOS, you already have it in /usr/bin/sips.

sips is a command-line image processing tool bundled in macOS.

What's JavaScript interface of sips?

Since Big Sur, sips has been shipped with the new feature JavaScript interface, that makes sips the most powerful ever. Like ImageMagick, sips can compose an arbitrary images as you like, with JavaScript.

However, as far as I know, there's no announcement from Apple about this upgrade and no detailed documentation is provided. So I investigate the binary of sips and expose the hidden APIs I could find.

Basic usage

Hello world

Save the following script as hello.js.

console.log('Hello, world!')
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Then run:

$ sips -j hello.js
Hello, world!
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Drawing with path

Save the following script as smile.js.

const canvas = new Canvas(150, 150)
canvas.beginPath()
canvas.arc(75, 75, 50, 0, Math.PI * 2, true)
canvas.moveTo(110, 75)
canvas.arc(75, 75, 35, 0, Math.PI, false)
canvas.moveTo(65, 65)
canvas.arc(60, 65, 5, 0, Math.PI * 2, true)
canvas.moveTo(95, 65)
canvas.arc(90, 65, 5, 0, Math.PI * 2, true)
canvas.stroke()
const output = new Output(canvas, sips.outputPath)
output.addToQueue()
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Then run:

$ sips -j smile.js -o smile.png
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Output smile.png will be:

License

This document is licensed under CC0 license. See LICENSE for detailed information.