Memegen

An API to programatically generate memes based solely on requested URLs.

⚠️ This project is now archived. See jacebrowning/memegen for active development.

Generating Images

The API is stateless so URLs contain all the information necessary to generate meme images. For example, http://localhost:5000/buzz/memes/memes_everywhere.jpg produces:

But, the site can also produce masked URLs to conceal the joke:

http://localhost:5000/_YnV6egltZW1lcy9tZW1lcy1ldmVyeXdoZXJl.jpg

For any image, lose the extension to see a list of all format options:

http://localhost:5000/buzz/memes/memes_everywhere

Special Characters

In URLs, spaces can be inserted using underscores, dashes, or mixed case:

• underscore (_) space ( )
• dash (-) space ( )
• 2 underscores (__) underscore (_)
• 2 dashes (--) dash (-)
• "weLoveMemes" "we love memes"

Reserved URL characters can be escaped:

• tilde + Q (~q) question mark (?)
• tilde + P (~p) percentage (%)
• tilde + H (~h) hashtag/pound (#)
• tilde + S (~s) slash (/)
• 2 single qutoes ('') double quote (")

For example, http://localhost:5000/doge/~hspecial_characters~q/underscore__-dash--.jpg produces:

Alternate Styles

Some memes come in multiple forms, which can be selected via ?alt=<style>:

For example: http://localhost:5000/sad-biden/sad_joe_biden/doesn't_think_you'll_vote.jpg?alt=scowl

Or, you can use your own image URL as the style. For example, http://localhost:5000/custom/my_pretty/background.jpg?alt=http://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.jpg produces:

Alternate Fonts

Additional fonts are available (see: http://localhost:5000/api/fonts) and can be selected via ?font=<name>.

For example, http://localhost:5000/joker/pick_a_different_font/people_lose_their_minds.jpg?font=typoline-demo produces:

Custom sizes

Images can be scaled to a specific width via ?width=<int> or a specific height via ?height=<int>. If both parameters are provided (?width=<int>&height=<int>), the image will be padded to the exact dimensions.

For example, http://localhost:5000/both/width_or_height/why_not_both~q.jpg?height=350&width=600 produces:

Preview Images

API clients that want to show a preview of an image while the user is still typing should disable caching and analytics via ?preview=true.

Social Media

Add ?share=true to get HTML with images optimized for sharing on social media.

Adding Templates

To add a new template, please follow the contributor instructions.

Thanks go to danieldiekmeier/memegenerator for the inspiration!

Sample Clients

Additional clients can be found by searching for code examples on GitHub.