Pictures made of letters
ASCII art draws an image with printable characters: dense ones such as @ and # for dark areas, thin ones such as dots and dashes for light areas. Seen from a distance, the text forms the picture. It is a classic for README files, terminal greetings, code comments, forum signatures and retro posters, and it works anywhere plain text works.
Convert an image in four steps
- Choose an image or drop it on the page. It stays on your device.
- Set the characters per line. Around 80 fits a terminal; 150 or more shows fine detail.
- Pick a character set, or type your own from darkest to lightest.
- Press Copy or download the result as a .txt file.
Settings that change the look
- Characters decide the texture: classic symbols, solid blocks, a few characters for a graphic look, or letters for fine detail.
- Improve contrast stretches dull photos so that the darkest and lightest parts use the full range of characters.
- Light on dark flips the mapping for dark editors and terminals, where bright characters should draw the bright parts.
- Width controls the level of detail. Rows are halved automatically, because a character is about twice as tall as it is wide.
Tips for a readable result
Simple subjects work best: a face with a plain background, a logo, a silhouette. Crop busy photos first and raise the contrast of the original if the subject is pale. View and paste the text in a monospaced font; in a proportional font the lines do not align and the picture looks distorted. Very wide results need a small font size or horizontal scrolling.
Nothing leaves your device
The image is read and averaged into characters in this tab, and the text is created locally. No picture or text is uploaded.