NAME
makemenu - Create (S)VCD/DVD-compliant text menus
DESCRIPTION
makemenu generates (S)VCD- or DVD-compliant MPEG videos for use as
navigational menus, given a list of text strings to use for title
names. You can customize the menu by providing an optional background
image or audio clip, or by using custom font and font color.
USAGE
makemenu [OPTIONS] TITLES -out OUT_PREFIX
For example:
makemenu "Season One" "Season Two" "Featurettes" -out MainMenu
OPTIONS
-ntsc (default)
Generate an NTSC-format menu
-ntscfilm
Generate an NTSC-format menu (24000/1001fps)
-pal Generate a PAL-format menu
-dvd (default)
Generate a DVD-format menu, with highlighted text included as a
multiplexed subtitle stream.
-vcd
-svcd Generate a VCD/SVCD menu; each menu option will have a number
associated with it. You can have up to nine menu options per
menu.
Menu background/audio options:
-background IMAGE
Use IMAGE (in most any graphic format) as a background. If image
is not the correct aspect ratio (4:3), it will be scaled and/or
cropped, depending on the -crop and -scale options. If no
background is supplied, a default background will be created.
-crop (default)
If provided background image is not 4:3 aspect ratio, crop edges
to make it so. Image will be scaled up if it is too small.
Cropping keeps the center area of image. If you want to do
cropping/scaling yourself in another program, provide an image
of 768x576 pixels.
-scale If provided background image is not 4:3 aspect ratio,
scale/stretch it to make it fit. May cause visible distortion!
-audio AUDIOFILE
Use AUDIOFILE (in most any audio format) for background music.
The menu will play for long enough to hear the whole audio clip.
If one is not provided, 4 seconds of silence will be used.
-length NUM
Make the menu NUM seconds long. Useful for menus with -audio: if
you don't want the entire AUDIOFILE in the menu, then you can
trim the length of the menu with -length.
Menu text options:
-menu-title "MENU TITLE TEXT"
Add MENU TITLE TEXT as a title/header to the menu.
-font FONTNAME (default Helvetica)
Use FONTNAME for the menu text. Run 'convert -list type' to see
a list of the fonts that you can use; choose a font name from
the leftmost column that is displayed. Or you can specify a ttf
font file instead. E.g., '-font /path/to/myfont.ttf'.
-fontsize NUM (default 24)
Sets the size for the font to NUM pixels.
-menu-title-fontsize NUM (default -fontsize + 8)
Sets the size of the menu title.
-fontdeco 'FONTDECORATION'
Sets the font decoration method to FONTDECORATION. It is used by
the 'convert' ImageMagick command to draw the menu text. You can
add colored text outlines, gradient fills, and many others. See
Usage notes.
-align {left|center|middle|right}
Align the text at the top left, top center, very middle, or top
right side of the screen. You may also substitute any "gravity"
keyword allowed by ImageMagick
(north|south|east|west|northeast|southwest|...).
-textcolor {#RRGGBB|#RGB|COLORNAME}
Use specified color for menu text. #RRGGBB and #RGB are
hexadecimal triplets (e.g., #FF8035). COLORNAME may be any of
several hundred named colors; run 'convert -list color' to see
them. White (#FFF) is the default color.
DVD-only options:
-button BUTTON (default '>')
Specify the button used for menu selection. Specify either a
_single_ character or one of the shortcuts:
o play -- Use a button shaped like 'Play' on many A/V
electronics: a triangle pointing to the right. (uses the font
Webdings)
o movie -- Use a button shaped like an old movie projector.
(uses the font Webdings)
o utf8 -- Use your own non-keyboard character as a button.
Provide only the four hex digits: eg '-button utf8 00b7'.
Beware that ImageMagick's utf8 characters aren't the same as
those drawn in character browsers like gucharmap.
-highlightcolor {#RRGGBB|#RGB|COLORNAME}
Use the specified color for button highlighting. Yellow (#FF0)
is the default color.
-selectcolor {#RRGGBB|#RGB|COLORNAME}
Use the specified color for button selections (when a menu item
is played or activated). Red (#F00) is the default color.
-button-outline {#RRGGBB|#RGB|COLORNAME}
Outline buttons with the specified color. 'none' is the default.
-button-font FONTNAME
Specify a differnt font to use for the buttons. By default, the
button font will be inherited from the title font (see -font).
Use this option to use a different font for the buttons. The
button font size is inherited from -fontsize and cannot be
changed.
Other options:
-debug Print extra debugging information to the log file. Useful in
diagnosing problems if they occur. This option also leaves the
log file (with a .log extension) in the directory after encoding
finishes as well as all the temporary files created.
-nosafearea
Do not attempt to put text inside a TV-safe viewing area. Most
television sets cut off about 10% of the image border, so the
script automatically leaves a substantial margin. This option
turns that behavior off, leaving only a tiny margin. Use at your
own risk.
-overwrite
Overwrite any existing output menu.
-noask Don't ask interactive questions, and assume answers that will
continue making the menu until completion.
-quiet Limit output to essential messages.
If the word "back" is given as an episode title, a "back" button for
returning to a higher-level menu will be added at the end of the list
of titles. "Back" must be the last title listed.
EXAMPLES
makemenu -ntsc -vcd -align center -textcolor white -font "Helvetica"
"Episode 1" "Episode 2" "Episode 3" -out "Season-1"
Make an NTSC VCD menu with white Helvetica text containing three
centered selections: Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3. The
finished menu will be called Season-1.mpg.
makemenu -ntsc -dvd -align southwest -textcolor white -highlightcolor
"#5f65ff" -selectcolor "#ffac5f" -font "Kirsty" "Episode 1" "Episode 2"
"Episode 3" -out "Main_menu"
Make an NTSC DVD menu with white Kirsty text containing three
lower-left aligned selections: Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode
3. Items under the cursor will be highlighted a pale blue, and
selected items will be a pale orange (before going to the
selected title). The finished menu will be called Main-menu.mpg.
tovid.org
The wiki has many more screenshots of menus with the commands
that generated them.
USAGE NOTES
The argument given to -font must be one of the fonts listed by the
command 'convert -list type'. Please note that many of your installed
fonts may not be available; if you want to maximize the number of fonts
available to makemenu (#makemenu), download and run Anthony Thyssen's
(http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/anthony.html) imagick_type_gen.pl
(http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/software/imagick_type_gen.pl) script
and run it like this: imagick_type_gen.pl > ~/.magick/type.xml. If
that doesn't work, try imagick_type_gen.pl > ~/.magick/type.mgk.
Or you can specify a ttf font file directly to the -font options if you
don't want to install fonts to ImageMagick.
The -fontdeco option is quite flexible and takes a lot of ImageMagick's
convert options. Please refer to the tovid wiki
(http://tovid.wikia.com/wiki/Making_a_DVD_with_text_menus) and Anthony
Thyssen's guide for further explanation and examples.
SEE ALSO
idvid(1), makedvd(1), makemenu(1), makeslides(1), makevcd(1),
makexml(1), postproc(1), tovid(1), todisc(1)
CONTACT
For further assistance, contact information, forum and IRC links,
please refer to the tovid homepage (http://tovid.org/).
MAKEMENU MANUAL(1)