I built an open-source alternative to carbon.now.sh

Railly Hugo — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 03:49:39 +0000

carbon.now.sh hasn't had a commit since December 2024. 35.9K stars, zero activity. If you depend on it for code screenshots, that's not great.

I built Ray as a replacement.

What Ray does

Free, open-source code screenshots. Paste code, pick a theme, export. Same idea as Carbon, different execution:

500+ themes (Carbon has ~29)
Free API: 60 req/min, no auth
PNG, SVG, or straight to clipboard
Works with Claude Code and Cursor: npx skills add Railly/tinte

The API

Carbon doesn't have one. Ray does.

curl -X POST https://ray.tinte.dev/api/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "code": "const hello = \"world\";",
    "language": "javascript",
    "theme": "one-dark-pro",
    "format": "png"
  }'

Returns base64 or binary depending on your Accept header. No API key needed.

const response = await fetch('https://ray.tinte.dev/api/v1/screenshot', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    code: 'function add(a, b) { return a + b; }',
    language: 'javascript',
    theme: 'github-dark',
    format: 'svg'
  })
});

const data = await response.json();
// data.screenshot contains base64 or URL

I use it for automated docs screenshots and social media previews. You could plug it into CI/CD or blog tooling too.

AI skill

If you use Claude Code or Cursor:

npx skills add Railly/tinte

Your AI generates code screenshots without you leaving the editor.

Comparison

Feature	Ray	Carbon	ray.so	Snappify
Themes	500+	~29	~30	~40
Languages	16	75+	12	20+
API	Free	No	No	Paid
Export	PNG, SVG, clipboard	PNG, SVG	PNG	PNG, SVG
AI tools	Yes	No	No	No
Open source	Yes	Yes	No	No

Where Ray falls short: 16 languages vs Carbon's 75+. Smaller community. Less background/padding customization (shipping soon).

Where Ray wins: 17x more themes. API. Active development. AI integration.

Backstory

I maintain Tinte, a theme generator for VSCode and shadcn/ui. People kept asking to preview themes before installing them. Carbon's theme selection was too small for that. So I built something that could show all 500+ themes, and since I was building it anyway, I made it API-first.

Coming up

More languages (targeting Carbon's 75+)
Better customization (padding, shadows, window controls)
CLI for local generation
Bulk export

DEV Community: Railly Hugo