---
name: "nordlicht"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "nordlicht"
version: "0.4.5-2"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/nordlicht"
---

# nordlicht(1)

creates colorful barcodes from video files

## NAME

nordlicht - creates colorful barcodes from video files

## SYNOPSIS

**nordlicht** \[*OPTION*\]... *VIDEOFILE*

## OPTIONS

- **-w**, **--width**=*INT*

  set the barcode's width; by default it's "height\*10", or 1920 pixels, if both are undefined

- **-h**, **--height**=*INT*

  set the barcode's height; by default it's "width/10"

- **-o**, **--output**=*FILENAME*

  set output filename, the default is VIDEOFILE.png; when you specify an \*.bgra file, you'll get a raw 32-bit BGRA file that is updated as the barcode is generated

- **-s**, **--style**=*STYLE*

  default is 'horizontal', see "Styles" section below. You can specify more than one style, separated by '+', to get multiple tracks

- **--start**=*FLOAT*

  specify where to start the barcode (ratio between 0 and 1)

- **--end**=*FLOAT*

  specify where to end the barcode (ratio between 0 and 1)

- **-q**, **--quiet**

  don't show progress indicator

- **--help**

  display this help and exit

- **--version**

  output version information and exit

### Styles:

- horizontal

  compress frames to vertical lines and append them

- vertical

  compress frames to horizontal lines and rotate them counterclockwise by 90 degrees

- slitscan

  take single columns while constantly moving to the right (and wrapping back to the left)

- middlecolumn

  take the middlemost column of each frame

- thumbnails

  display small thumbnails at regular intervals

- spectrogram

  spectrogram of the first audio track (not all sample formats are supported yet)

## EXAMPLES

- nordlicht video.mp4

  generate video.mp4.nordlicht.png of default size

- nordlicht video.mp4 -s vertical

  compress individual frames to columns

- nordlicht video.mp4 -w 1000 -h 1000 -o barcode.png

  override size and name of the output file

## AUTHOR

Written by Sebastian Morr and contributors.