Image to ASCII
Turn any photo into ASCII text art in your browser.
How to use
- 1 Drop an image onto the box, or click to choose a file.
- 2 Set the width in characters for more or less detail.
- 3 Choose a character set and toggle invert for your background.
- 4 Copy the ASCII to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file.
About Image to ASCII
The Image to ASCII tool rebuilds a picture out of plain text characters, mapping each sampled pixel to a glyph whose visual weight matches the pixel's brightness.
Dense characters like @ and # stand in for dark areas while spaces and dots represent the highlights, so when you zoom out the rows of text resolve into a recognisable image.
Drop in a JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF and it is decoded, downscaled to a character grid and converted entirely inside your browser.
You control the result with three simple settings.
Width sets how many characters wide the art is — more columns mean finer detail but bigger output.
The character set switches between a classic 10-step ramp, solid Unicode block shades for a chunkier poster look, and a long detailed ramp for the smoothest gradients.
Invert flips the brightness mapping so the art reads correctly on a dark terminal or a light page, whichever you need.
Because characters are taller than they are wide, the tool automatically squashes the row count so your image keeps its proportions instead of stretching vertically.
Everything runs on your own device with the Canvas API, so private screenshots, avatars or client photos never leave the browser and the tool keeps working offline.
When the preview looks right, copy the text to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file ready to paste into a README, a code comment, a chat message or a retro banner.
FAQ
Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No. The picture is decoded and converted with the Canvas API inside your browser, so it never leaves your device.
Why does my art look stretched or squashed?
Monospaced characters are taller than they are wide, so the tool scales the number of rows to keep proportions. Increasing the width usually sharpens the result.
When should I use invert?
Use invert when viewing the art on a dark background (light text on dark), and leave it off for dark text on a light page.