The [badgen](https://github.com/amio/badgen) library was born as an exploration of "is it possible to generate badge svg markup directly with JavaScript (without using pdfkit/canvas/puppeteer to measure text length)?". Result is better than I expected, Verdana (the de-facto font for badges) text width can be calculated precisely with a prebuilt [char-width-table](https://github.com/amio/badgen/blob/master/lib/widths-verdana-11.json), even no need to worry about kerning 🤯
Then, logically, [Badgen Service](https://badgen.net) was born. I had a good time with [shields.io](https://shields.io), but as time goes by Shields gets slower, leaves more and more broken badges in READMEs. Badgen is trying to be a fast alternative with simplicity and flexibility. Its codebase is simple (<btitle="cloc . --exclude-dir node_modules --match-f '.js$'">2K LoCs</b> vs Shields' 22K LoCs), well structured and fun to develop - it is pretty easy to add badge(s) for new service(s).
At the beginning I was considering between [Now](https://zeit.co/now) and [Google Cloud Functions](https://cloud.google.com/functions/). Then Zeit announced [Now CDN](https://zeit.co/blog/now-cdn) on the same day as badgen.now.sh (the PoC of Badgen Service)'s reveal, what a fate! Cloudflare powered Now CDN is a perfect choice for such service, caching and scalability in simplicity. Badgen is the fastest possible badge generating service out there. It's fast, it's reliable, it's globally distributed and cached, thanks to Now.
At the time of badgen.now.sh's reveal, it had only four live badges as demonstration. Since then, thanks to [awesome people](https://github.com/amio/badgen-service/graphs/contributors)'s help, Badgen keeps getting better at a fast pace. Welcome to join us, let's build the best badge service in the universe 🔥
If a service you wish to have is still missing here, we welcome new contirbutions. Basically, you need to add a file in `libs/live-fns/[name-of-service].js` and that's it. Take [crates](https://badgen.net/#crates) as an example:
Badgen Server will auto load all svg files in [libs/icons](libs/icons/). Please make sure new icon is optimized using [svgomg](https://jakearchibald.github.io/svgomg/).
Badgen use Google Analytics on doc pages ([home](https://badgen.net), [/docs/packagephobia](https://badgen.net/packagephobia), etc.), log request time to 3rd party service for live badges, like:
