Extensions

Extensions add functionality to a Program. Extensions can be used to control how a program draws, setup keyboard and mouse bindings and much more.

Basic extension use

Here we demonstrate how to use an OPENRNDR extension. In the following example we use the Screenshots extension to capture the content of the application window and saves it to a timestamped file whenever the space bar key is pressed.

fun main() = application {
    program {
        // -- one time setup code goes here
        extend(Screenshots())
        extend {
        // -- drawing code goes here
        }
    }
}

Extension configuration

Some extensions have configurable options. They can be set using the configuring extend function as follows:

fun main() = application {
    program {
        extend(Screenshots()) {
            contentScale = 4.0
        }
    }
}

Built-in and contributed extensions

OPENRNDR provides a few built-in extensions to simplify common tasks. One is Screenshots, which is used to create screenshots of your programs. Another is ScreenRecorder which is used to write videos to files.

Next to the built-in extensions there is ORX, an extensive repository of provided and contributed OPENRNDR extensions and add-ons. If you work from openrndr-template you can easily add and remove extensions from your project by editing the orxFeatures property in build.gradle.kts.

Extension order

The order of extend(...) calls in the code matters. In the following code, the Screenshots extension is placed after the GUI extension, and for that reason screenshots will not include the GUI.

extend(GUI())
extend(Screenshots())

If we change the order placing GUI after Screenshots, the GUI side bar will be visible in saved screenshots.

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