Thumbgen - Anime Thumbnail Generator

A Telegram bot that generates beautiful AnimeFlicker-style thumbnails for anime series.

Features

• 🎨 Honeycomb poster design - Unique hexagonal pattern overlay on anime poster
• 📝 Auto-fetches anime info - Gets title, rating, genres, and description from AniList
• 🔤 Robust font handling - Multiple fallback fonts with graceful degradation
• 🖼️ Placeholder support - Generates placeholder image when poster is unavailable
• ✨ Text outlines - Black stroke around text for better readability on any background
• 📐 Smart text handling - Auto-wrapping and truncation with ellipsis for long titles

Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+
• PIL/Pillow

Installation

pip install -r requirements.txt

Environment Variables

Set your Telegram bot token:

export BOT_TOKEN="your_telegram_bot_token_here"

Running the Bot

python thumbnail.py

Usage

1. Start a chat with your bot
2. Send /thumb <anime name> (e.g., /thumb Attack on Titan)
3. The bot will generate and send the thumbnail

Font Configuration

The generator uses a fallback font loading system:

Font Priority (Title)

1. BebasNeue-Regular.ttf (root directory)
2. fonts/BebasNeue-Regular.ttf
3. fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf
4. System default font

Font Priority (Body Text)

1. fonts/Roboto-SemiBold.ttf
2. fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf
3. fonts/Roboto-Medium.ttf
4. BebasNeue-Regular.ttf
5. System default font

Customizing Fonts

To use custom fonts:

1. Place .ttf files in the fonts/ directory
2. Update the font path constants in thumbnail.py

Font Size Configuration

Edit these constants in thumbnail.py to adjust font sizes:

TITLE_FONT_SIZE = 128      # Anime title (reduced from 160)
BOLD_FONT_SIZE = 42        # Buttons
MEDIUM_FONT_SIZE = 36      # Logo text
REG_FONT_SIZE = 30         # Description, rating
GENRE_FONT_SIZE = 38       # Genre tags

FONT_SCALE = 1.0           # Global scaling factor (1.0 = 100%)

Placeholder Images

When a poster image fails to load, the generator creates a placeholder automatically.

Custom Placeholder

To use a custom placeholder image:

1. Create assets/placeholder.jpg
2. The generator will use it instead of the programmatic placeholder

Placeholder Configuration

PLACEHOLDER_BG_COLOR = (30, 40, 70)    # Dark blue background
PLACEHOLDER_TEXT = "NO IMAGE"          # Centered text
PLACEHOLDER_PATH = "assets/placeholder.jpg"  # Custom placeholder path

Text Styling

The generator includes text outlines for better readability:

TEXT_OUTLINE_COLOR = (0, 0, 0)   # Black outline
TEXT_OUTLINE_WIDTH = 2           # Pixels for body text
TITLE_OUTLINE_WIDTH = 3          # Pixels for title text

Title Handling

• Max width: 650 pixels before wrapping
• Max characters: 50 before truncation with "..."
• Max lines: 2 lines displayed

Testing

Run the test script to validate thumbnail generation:

python test_thumbnail.py

This tests:

• Font loading with fallbacks
• Placeholder image generation
• Text outline rendering
• Title truncation for long titles

Test outputs are saved to /tmp/test_*.png for visual inspection.

Project Structure

thumbgen/
├── thumbnail.py          # Main bot and thumbnail generator
├── test_thumbnail.py     # Test script for validation
├── requirements.txt      # Python dependencies
├── BebasNeue-Regular.ttf # Title font
├── fonts/                # Additional fonts
│   ├── Roboto-*.ttf     # Roboto font family
│   └── hex_bg.png       # Pre-generated hex background
├── background.jpg        # Background image (optional)
├── plp.jpg              # Poster layout placeholder (optional)
└── assets/              # Custom assets (optional)
    └── placeholder.jpg  # Custom placeholder image

Deployment

For Heroku or similar platforms, a Procfile is included:

worker: python thumbnail.py

License

This project uses the following open-source fonts:

• Bebas Neue - SIL Open Font License
• Roboto - Apache License 2.0

Troubleshooting

"Could not load font" warnings

This is normal if some font files are missing or empty. The generator will use fallback fonts automatically.

"Using placeholder image for poster"

The poster URL was unreachable. Check your internet connection or the AniList API status.

Font appears too small/large

Adjust FONT_SCALE in thumbnail.py:

• FONT_SCALE = 1.2 for 20% larger
• FONT_SCALE = 0.8 for 20% smaller