This repo contains an example implementation of using headless Chrome as an automated screenshot tool on linux, which is a common use case for PhantomJS. Contributions are welcome.
Headless Chrome is still new and unstable, and the API changes with each new major Chrome version. Our master branch is currently targeting Chrome 60–the current stable Chrome version. You may need to modify the script if you wish to target another version.
The setup below was used on a Vagrant running Ubuntu 14 Trusty Tahr. It assumes you've already cloned the repo and run npm install.
# Install Google Chrome
# https://askubuntu.com/questions/79280/how-to-install-chrome-browser-properly-via-command-line
sudo apt-get install libxss1 libappindicator1 libindicator7
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome*.deb # Might show "errors", fixed by next line
sudo apt-get install -f
# Install Node Stable (v8)
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
# Run Chrome as background process
# https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/headless/README.md
# --disable-gpu currently required, see link above
google-chrome --headless --hide-scrollbars --remote-debugging-port=9222 --disable-gpu &
# Take the screenshot
node index.js --url="http://www.eff.org"The screenshot will then be available as output.png
Headless Chrome is still highly unstable on OSX (see issue #1). At this point in time I recommend just running chrome & node in docker or vagrant (Dokerfile/Vagrantfile pull requests welcome).
If you must run it natively, use the following commands:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --headless --remote-debugging-port=9222 --disable-gpu
node index.js --url="http://www.eff.org"
If screenshots on Mac do not appear to be working, please report an issue on ChromeDevTools/devtools-protocol, cyrus-and/chrome-remote-interface, or chromium itself.