Image to ASCII Art Converter - Turn Photos into Text Art

Convert images to ASCII art in your browser. Adjust character density, invert colors, set width. Download as text file or copy to clipboard. Completely private.

Upload Image

Click or drag image here

PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, SVG supported

Options

Width (characters)

40 80 200

Character Set

Simple (10) Detailed (70)

Simple: clean output. Detailed: photorealistic.

Invert brightness

Use for dark backgrounds or terminal themes

ASCII Output

Upload an image and click "Convert to ASCII" to generate text art...

Tips for Best Results

High contrast images work best - portraits with good lighting, logos, simple graphics
Start with 80 characters width - increase for more detail, decrease for compact output
Use Simple charset for logos and text, Detailed for photos and complex images
Enable Invert when pasting into dark-themed terminals or code editors
Crop images to focus on the main subject before uploading for cleaner results
Monochrome images convert more clearly than busy multi-colored photos

Character Set Reference

Simple (10 chars):

.:-=+*#%@

Light to dark: space, dot, colon, dash, equals, plus, asterisk, hash, percent, at

Detailed (70 chars):

`^",:;Il!i~+_-?][}{1)(|\\/tfjrxnuvczXYUJCLQ0OZmwqpdbkhao*#MW&8%B@$

Fine gradations from lightest to darkest for photorealistic rendering

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Frequently Asked Questions

ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses printable ASCII characters to create images. Invented in the 1960s for text-only displays, it remains popular for text-based communication, terminal applications, code comments, and retro aesthetics. Characters are arranged based on their visual density to represent light and shadow.

The converter resizes your image to the target width, then processes each pixel. It calculates the brightness value (0-255) from the RGB color, then maps that brightness to a character from the selected character set. Brighter pixels get lighter characters (like spaces or dots), darker pixels get denser characters (like # or @).

Simple uses 10 characters (' .:-=+*#%@') for faster processing and cleaner output, good for logos and high-contrast images. Detailed uses 70 characters with more gradations for photorealistic results, better for portraits and complex images with subtle shading.

Use Invert for images with dark backgrounds or when outputting to dark terminal/editor themes. By default, the converter assumes light background (dark=dense characters). Inverting swaps the mapping so dense characters represent bright areas instead.

For social media posts, use 80-100 characters. For terminal display, use 80 (standard) or 120 (wide). For detailed artwork, use 150-200. Remember: larger widths create taller images (characters are taller than wide) and larger file sizes. Start with 80 and adjust.

Yes, but high-contrast images work best. Portraits with good lighting, logos, simple graphics, and line art produce clearer results than busy photographs. For photos, use the Detailed character set and higher width (150+) for better detail preservation.

All standard web image formats: PNG, JPG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, BMP, and SVG. The tool uses the browser's Canvas API to process images, which supports all formats modern browsers can display.

The converter automatically maintains aspect ratio. However, since characters are taller than they are wide (roughly 2:1), the output may appear vertically stretched when viewed in editors. The preview compensates for this with line-height adjustments.

The ASCII conversion itself is yours to use freely. However, you must have rights to the source image. Converting copyrighted images to ASCII doesn't grant you copyright - the underlying artistic content is still protected. Use only images you own or have permission to modify.

No. Everything runs locally in your browser using the Canvas API. Your images never leave your device. No uploads, no server processing, no storage. Completely private and secure. The file picker only reads files into browser memory.

Upload Image

Options

ASCII Output

Tips for Best Results

Character Set Reference

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