📚 Toon Format Documentation

Complete guide to the Toon format - a human-readable text format for cartoons and animation data. Learn syntax, examples, and best practices.

❓ What is Toon?

Toon is a text format for cartoons - a human-readable data serialization format designed specifically for representing cartoon and animation data. It provides a more compact and readable alternative to JSON while maintaining full data fidelity.

The format was created to address the limitations of existing data formats when working with creative content, offering improved readability for teams working with animated characters, scenes, and metadata.

🔤 Basic Syntax

Key-Value Pairs

The most basic Toon syntax uses key-value pairs separated by colons: 

name: John Doe
age: 30
city: New York

Nested Objects

Objects are represented by indentation (4 spaces or 1 tab): 

character: 
    name: Bugs Bunny
    species: Rabbit
    personality: 
        traits: clever, witty, mischievous
        catchphrase: "What's up, doc?"

Arrays

Arrays use comma-separated values: 

episodes: 
    titles: "Rabbit Season", "Duck Season", "What's Up Doc?"
    directors: 
        names: Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng
        years: 1949, 1950, 1951

📊 Data Types

🔤 Strings

Text values, optionally quoted 

name: Bugs Bunny
quote: "What's up, doc?"
description: "A clever rabbit"

🔢 Numbers

Integers and decimals 

age: 30
height: 5.11
weight: 150.5

✅ Booleans

True or false values 

isRabbit: true
isDuck: false
hasCarrot: true

📋 Arrays

Comma-separated values 

aliases: Bugs, Bunny, Hare
episodes: 167, 219, 342
voices: Mel Blanc, Jeff Bergman

📖 Examples

Simple Character

character:
    name: Bugs Bunny
    species: Rabbit
    color: Grey
    personality: 
        traits: clever, witty, mischievous
        catchphrase: "What's up, doc?"
    debut: 
        year: 1940
        short: "A Wild Hare"
        director: Tex Avery

Animation Studio

studio:
    name: Warner Bros. Animation
    founded: 1944
    location: Burbank, California
    characters:
        main: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig
        supporting: Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tweety
    productions:
        type: Animated shorts and features
        totalEpisodes: 1000+
        awards: 
            Oscars: 5
            Emmys: 12
            Annie Awards: 23

🤔 Rationale

Human Readability

Toon prioritizes human readability over machine optimization. The format is designed to be easily readable by creative teams, writers, and developers alike. Unlike JSON, which can become difficult to read with nested structures, Toon uses indentation and clear syntax to maintain readability.

Compact Size

Toon files are typically 30-50% smaller than equivalent JSON representations. This reduces file sizes, improves load times, and decreases bandwidth usage for applications that need to transfer animation data.

Creative Workflow Integration

The format was designed with creative workflows in mind. Writers, artists, and animators can easily read and modify Toon files without needing specialized tools or JSON knowledge. This fosters better collaboration between technical and creative teams.

Data Integrity

Despite its simplified syntax, Toon maintains full data fidelity. All data types supported by JSON are also supported by Toon, ensuring no information is lost during conversion between formats.

🔄 Comparison with JSON

Feature JSON Toon
Readability ❌ Verbose with brackets ✅ Clean, minimal syntax
File Size ❌ Larger due to syntax ✅ 30-50% smaller
Learning Curve ⚠️ Requires syntax knowledge ✅ Intuitive for non-developers
Tool Support ✅ Extensive ⚠️ Growing ecosystem
Standardization ✅ RFC 8259 ⚠️ Emerging standard

🚀 Getting Started

Ready to start using Toon format? You can begin by converting your existing JSON files using our free online converter above, or download the Toon format specification from our GitHub repository.

Try the Converter View on GitHub