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7 interesting applications which you may find cool to use while in command-line.
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aaxine - watch movies in the shell
aaxine is included in the xine-console package and can be used to watch video files in a shell, without the need of the X Window System, with the help of ASCII characters. See the screenshot below:
ttv
ttv is a command-line application for watching TV when in command line. All you need is a TV-Tunner card, and ttv will show the output as ASCII characters.
aview
aview is both an image viewer and video player, with support for PNM, PGM, PBM and PPM image formats, together with FLIC video formats. You can use the netpbm package installed to convert formats like PNG or JPG to PNM with tools like pngtopnm.
ffmpeg2theora
This is a tool which will convert any video formats supported by ffmpeg into Theora video, the free video format. The easiest way to run it is as ffmpeg2theora video_file, which will use default settings to convert video_file into Theora.
cmus
ncurses-based audio player with using TUI (text user interface), cmus proves very efficient when listening to music while in command-line, with no need to start an X Server. It uses keyboard shortcuts similar to Vim, which means you can control it by typing : then enter the desired command, and it supports a multitude of audio formats, including MP3, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. What I like about cmus is the fact that it's pretty easy to use, intuitive, and the interface is simple but efficient.
convert
convert is a tool included in the imagemagick package, which allows not only to convert between various image formats, but also to create and apply numerous effects to them. For example, to create a logo with some text on the command-line you can issue something like:
convert -size 1024x768 xc:black -font Times-Roman -pointsize 80 -fill green -annotate +20+80 'sudo apt-get girlfriend' -fill lightgreen -annotate +23+83 'sudo apt-get girlfriend' -trim +repage logo.png
pdftotext
pdftotext comes in the package xpdf-utils and allows you to convert PDF files into text files (obviously leaving images behind), so you will be able to read them with tools like less or a text editor.
Do you have some other cool tools for CLI which you would like to share? Please feel free to discuss in the comments below. Full Story |
