kpp-tool

kpp-tool is a utility for interacting with Krita brush presets (i.e. KPP files) from the command line. The program can inspect/change preset metadata or extract embedded resources such as brush tips and patterns.

Usage

The most common pattern for invoking kpp-tool is:

kpp-tool [FLAGS] [KPP_FILE]

where KPP_FILE is the path to a preset file. If no path is provided, the program will attempt to read a file from stdin.

There are generally two kinds of command line flags:

1. Operation flags correspond to specific actions the program can take with a preset, such as looking up properties or changing the preset's name. These flags are executed in the order they are provided.
2. Global flags configure global program settings that affect all operations, like enabling overwrite mode. The position and order of these flags does not matter - they can appear anywhere on the command line.

By default, the program doesn't save any modifications made to the preset. Use the global -O/--overwrite flag to modify a preset file in-place, or the -o/--output operation to save a preset to another file. When input is taken from stdin, the -O/--overwrite option will write the final output to stdout.

Note that -o/--output is an operation flag, so it should appear after any changes you want to save on the command line. For example, you probably don't want to run kpp-tool --output=output.kpp --set-name=foobar input.kpp, which would write the output before changing the name to "foobar". Instead, kpp-tool --set-name=foobar --output=output.kpp input.kpp would change the name, then save the result.

Examples

# Print detailed information about a preset.
$ kpp-tool --info preset.kpp

# Change the name of a preset to "foobar".
$ kpp-tool -O --set-name=foobar preset.kpp

# Set the 'EraserMode' parameter to "true".
$ kpp-tool -O --set-param "EraserMode=string:true" preset.kpp

# Query the values of the 'FlowSensor' and 'FlowValue' parameters.
$ kpp-tool --get-param FlowSensor --get-param FlowValue preset.kpp

# Extract a preset's current icon image, then set a new one.
$ kpp-tool -O --get-icon=old-icon.png \
              --set-icon=new-icon.png \
              preset.kpp

# Create three variations of a preset with different blending modes.
$ kpp-tool --set-param CompositeOp=string:multiply \
           --output preset_multiply.kpp \
           --set-param CompositeOp=string:dodge \
           --output preset_dodge.kpp \
           --set-param CompositeOp=string:soft_light_svg \
           --output preset_softlight.kpp \
           preset.kpp

Options

The full list of supported command line flags is as follows:

-h                  --help                      Display help and usage information.
-v                  --version                   Display version information.

Global Options

-O                  --overwrite                 Modify a preset file in-place.
-q                  --quiet                     Supress unnecessary output.

Operations

-o PATH             --output=PATH               Write preset data to PATH.
                                                If PATH is "-", data will be written to stdout.
-i                  --info                      Print a description of a preset.
-n                  --get-name                  Print a preset's metadata name.
-N STRING           --set-name=STRING           Change a preset's metadata name.
-S                  --sync-name                 Change a preset's metadata name to match it's filename.
                                                For example, 'kpp-tool --sync-name foobar.kpp' will change
                                                the preset's name to "foobar".
-p KEY              --get-param=KEY             Print the value of a single parameter.
-P KEY=TYPE:VALUE   --set-param=KEY=TYPE:VALUE  Set the value of a parameter.
                                                TYPE can be 'string', 'internal', or 'binary'.
                                                For binary parameters, VALUE should be encoded in base-64.
-x KEY=VALUE[,...]  --extract=KEY=VALUE[,...]   Extract an embedded resource.
-X                  --extract-all               Extract all embedded resources.
-e KEY=VALUE[,...]  --embed=KEY=VALUE[,...]     Insert or update a resource file.
-c PATH             --get-icon=PATH             Extract a preset's PNG icon image.
-C PATH             --set-icon=PATH             Change a preset's icon image.
                                                FILE must be a PNG file.

Building

kpp-tool can be built using stack or cabal. Build dependencies include zlib, as well as common build tools like pkg-config and g++. Depending on your platform, you may need to install development packages for some dependencies like libc and zlib (e.g. zlib-dev on Alpine).

Stack

You should be able to build the program by running stack build in the root directory of the repository. stack install will copy the executable to the local bin directory (usually $HOME/.local/bin), which may need to be added to PATH.

Cabal

Building with Cabal is fairly similar. After obtaining the source code and required dependencies, running cabal build in the root directory of the repository should build the software. Alternatively, to produce a fully static binary, build with the --enable-executable-static option and make sure statically linked zlib is available.

For example, here is the full build process on Alpine Linux.

# (as root)
# For static linking, also install the zlib-static package.
apk update
apk add git cabal g++ zlib-dev

# (as regular user)
git clone https://github.com/quytelda/kpp-tool.git
cd kpp-tool

cabal update
cabal build

# Alternatively, to produce a fully static binary:
cabal build --enable-executable-static