1 min readFree

Carbon

Carbon is a free online tool that turns your source code into clean, shareable images with custom themes, fonts and backgrounds.

// at a glance

Is Carbon free?
Free. Yes. Carbon is free to use, with no paid plan.
Category
#Web Development
Website
carbon.now.sh ↗
Carbon logo

What is Carbon?

Carbon is a small open-source web app that makes pretty pictures of code. You paste a snippet, drop in a file or point it at a GitHub gist, and it renders the code inside a styled window that is ready to share in a tweet, slide deck, blog post or documentation.

You can change the syntax theme, font, background colour or image, window style and padding until the snippet looks right, then export it as a PNG or SVG or copy it straight to your clipboard. Carbon runs in the browser with no sign-up, and its code is public on GitHub for anyone who wants to contribute or self-host it.

Main Features

  • Paste code, drop a file or load a GitHub gist
  • Dozens of syntax themes and code fonts
  • Custom backgrounds, window styles and padding
  • Export as PNG or SVG or copy to clipboard
  • Keyboard shortcuts for quick saving
  • Open source on GitHub

How to Get Started with Carbon

  1. Open carbon.now.sh in your browser
  2. Paste your code or drop a file into the editor
  3. Pick a theme, font and background from the toolbar
  4. Click Export to download a PNG or SVG, or copy the image

Carbon Pricing

Carbon is completely free and open source. There is no account and no paid plan.

Who Should Use It?

  • Developers sharing snippets on social media
  • Technical writers and bloggers
  • Teachers making slides for programming lessons
  • Conference speakers preparing talks
  • Developer advocates creating content

Carbon Alternatives

  • Regex101: A free tool for building and testing regular expressions
  • Can I Use: Check browser support for web features before you ship
  • Squoosh: A free image compressor for shrinking exported screenshots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Carbon free?

Yes. Carbon is free to use with no account, and its source code is open on GitHub.

What formats can Carbon export?

You can save images as PNG or SVG, or copy the image to your clipboard.

Can screen readers read code images made with Carbon?

No. Carbon itself notes that code inside an image is invisible to assistive technology, so it is good practice to include the code as text alongside the image.

Try Carbon