# A slate to write and draw on, then export to html
[](https://0dependencies.dev)
Write or draw as much as you like, but only to a single scratch space.
Designed for a tablet device, but usable anywhere.
Screenshot:
When you're done, export to html and clear the slate.
Feel free to quit any time. The scratch space is preserved across restarts.
etch.love is a compatible fork of [lines.love](http://akkartik.name/lines.html),
an editor for plain text where you can also seamlessly insert line drawings.
Designed above all to be easy to modify and give you early warning if your
modifications break something.
## Getting started
Install [LÖVE](https://love2d.org). It's just a 5MB download, open-source and
extremely well-behaved.
To run from the terminal, [pass this directory to LÖVE](https://love2d.org/wiki/Getting_Started#Running_Games).
Alternatively, turn it into a .love file you can double-click on:
```
$ zip -r /tmp/lines.love *.lua
```
Html files are saved in [the directory containing this app](https://love2d.org/wiki/love.filesystem.getSourceBaseDirectory).
## Keyboard shortcuts
While editing text:
* `ctrl+f` to find patterns within a file
* `ctrl+c` to copy, `ctrl+x` to cut, `ctrl+v` to paste
* `ctrl+z` to undo, `ctrl+y` to redo
* `ctrl+=` to zoom in, `ctrl+-` to zoom out, `ctrl+0` to reset zoom
* `alt+right`/`alt+left` to jump to the next/previous word, respectively
* mouse drag or `shift` + movement to select text, `ctrl+a` to select all
* `ctrl+e` to modify the sources
For shortcuts while editing drawings, consult the online help. Either:
* hover on a drawing and hit `ctrl+h`, or
* click on a drawing to start a stroke and then press and hold `h` to see your
options at any point during a stroke.
etch.love has been exclusively tested so far with a US keyboard layout. If
you use a different layout, please let me know if things worked, or if you
found anything amiss: http://akkartik.name/contact
## Known issues
* Drawing doesn't work yet on some (anecdotally Android) mobile devices.
* No support yet for Unicode graphemes spanning multiple codepoints.
* No support yet for right-to-left languages.
* The text cursor will always stay on the screen. This can have some strange
implications:
* A long series of drawings will get silently skipped when you hit
page-down, until a line of text can be showed on screen.
* If there's no line of text at the top of the file, you may not be able
to scroll back up to the top with page-up.
So far this app isn't really designed for drawing-heavy files. For now I'm
targeting mostly-text files with a few drawings mixed in.
* No clipping yet for drawings. In particular, circles/squares/rectangles and
point labels can overflow a drawing.
* If you ever see a crash when clicking on the mouse, it might be because a
mouse press and release need to happen in separate frames. Try pressing and
releasing more slowly and let me know if that helps or not. This is klunky,
sorry.
* Can't scroll while selecting text with mouse.
## Mirrors and Forks
This repo is a fork of [lines.love](http://akkartik.name/lines.html), an
editor for plain text where you can also seamlessly insert line drawings.
Its immediate upstream is [lines-mobile.love](https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/lines-mobile.love),
a version for Android and iOS devices.
Updates to it can be downloaded from:
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/etch.love
* https://tildegit.org/akkartik/etch.love
* https://git.merveilles.town/akkartik/etch.love
* https://nest.pijul.com/akkartik/etch.love (using the Pijul version control system)
Further forks are encouraged. If you show me your fork, I'll link to it here.
## Feedback
[Most appreciated.](http://akkartik.name/contact) Messages, PRs, patches,
forks, it's all good.