Image to ASCII art. Pixels in, characters out.

How to use the Image to ASCII Art converter

This converter turns a photo into text art. It averages each small block of the image to a brightness value and swaps it for a character, dense ones like @ and # for dark areas and light ones like dots for bright areas. Use it for README banners, terminal splash screens, social posts or plain fun.

Step by step

1. 1
   Add an image

   Drop a JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF on the card that says "Drop an image here", or click the card to pick a file. On a keyboard, focus the card and press Enter. The controls and the preview appear as soon as the image loads.

2. 2
   Set the width

   Drag the Width slider between 20 and 240 columns. The default of 100 suits most photos. Fewer columns give a bold, blocky picture that fits in a chat message; more columns keep fine detail but make long lines.

3. 3
   Pick a character set

   Choose Classic for the familiar @%#*+=-:. look, Blocks for solid shaded squares, or Detailed for a 70-step ramp that renders faces and gradients more smoothly. The preview rebuilds on every change.

4. 4
   Choose color and contrast

   Leave Monochrome on for text you will paste anywhere. Switch to Keep source colors to tint each character with the color of its patch of the photo. Tick Invert (light on dark) when the art will sit on a dark background, such as a terminal.

5. 5
   Copy or download the result

   Press Copy text to put the art on your clipboard, Download .txt for a plain text file, or Download PNG for a picture of the art that keeps the color mode and the background. Press Load another to start again with a new image.

Reading the result

• The line above the art shows its size in characters, for example 100 × 46 chars, and whether it is mono or color.
• The height is set for you. Monospace characters are about twice as tall as they are wide, so the converter uses fewer rows than columns to keep the picture in proportion.
• Copied text and the .txt file are always plain characters. Color only survives in the PNG download, because plain text has nowhere to store it.

Tips and common mistakes

• Start with a photo that has strong contrast and a simple background. Busy, low contrast shots turn into grey noise.
• Paste the text into a place that uses a monospace font, such as a code block, Notepad or a terminal. In a proportional font the lines drift and the picture falls apart.
• For chat apps and social posts keep the width at 60 columns or less, or the lines wrap and break the image.
• If the subject looks like a negative, toggle Invert (light on dark). Art made for a dark screen looks reversed on a white page.

Privacy and limits

The image is read and converted by your own browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is saved, so closing the tab clears it. Very large images still work, but the Detailed set at 240 columns produces long text that some apps truncate.

Back to the tool

Everything the converter can do.

• Convert any JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF into ASCII text art entirely in your browser, drag & drop or click to browse.
• Tune the output width from 20 to 240 columns for coarse thumbnails or fine-detail renders, with a live preview on every change.
• Switch character ramps between Classic (10 levels), Blocks (█▓▒░) and a 70-level Detailed set.
• Keep the source colors inside the ASCII output, or stay monochrome, transparent pixels read as background.
• Invert the brightness ramp for a light-on-dark terminal aesthetic.
• Copy to clipboard, download a .txt or export a crisp PNG, the PNG keeps your color mode and inverted background.

Frequently asked questions.

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