Create a Waveform Image with ffmpeg

By  on  

Waveform images have a variety of uses and I've started seeing waveform images overlaying at the bottom of videos.  That type of feature seems useful if you want to see identify music in a video or specific spaces in a video which feature action.  If you're creating an audio-centric app, you may have a dozen uses for the waveform image.

You can easily create a waveform image using the amazing ffmpeg utility with a very short command:

ffmpeg -i input -filter_complex "showwavespic=s=640x120" -frames:v 1 output.png

The image you'll get back will look similar to:

There are a variety of customizations you can create for waveform image as detailed in the ffmpeg waveform documentation.  Take some time to experiment with all of the features provided by ffmpeg -- you can do amazing things with media!

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

  • By
    LightFace:  Facebook Lightbox for MooTools

    One of the web components I've always loved has been Facebook's modal dialog.  This "lightbox" isn't like others:  no dark overlay, no obnoxious animating to size, and it doesn't try to do "too much."  With Facebook's dialog in mind, I've created LightFace:  a Facebook lightbox...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Create a Clearable TextBox with the Dojo Toolkit

    Usability is a key feature when creating user interfaces;  it's all in the details.  I was recently using my iPhone and it dawned on my how awesome the "x" icon is in its input elements.  No holding the delete key down.  No pressing it a...

  • By
    Simple Image Lazy Load and Fade

    One of the quickest and easiest website performance optimizations is decreasing image loading.  That means a variety of things, including minifying images with tools like ImageOptim and TinyPNG, using data URIs and sprites, and lazy loading images.  It's a bit jarring when you're lazy loading images and they just...

Discussion

  1. Martijn Frazer

    How do you get a transparent background?

  2. Juribiyan

    Is it possible to build waveform image using offlineAudioContext? Seems like the exact tool for the job.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!