Why does the output look squashed?

Monospace characters are not square — they are typically about twice as tall as they are wide. Increase the character aspect ratio slider until the proportions look correct for your font.

What is the Braille character set?

Braille uses Unicode Braille Pattern characters (⣿⣾⣼…) which create a finer grid than standard ASCII because each character can represent multiple pixel states. It produces more detailed output at the same column count.

ANSI mode outputs terminal-compatible escape codes that render colors in most modern terminal emulators. Download the TXT file in ANSI mode and cat it in your terminal to see colored ASCII art.

What does Floyd-Steinberg dithering do?

Dithering distributes quantization errors to neighboring pixels, preserving fine details that would otherwise be lost when converting to a limited character set. It's especially useful at lower widths.

What are the Matrix and Binary character sets?

Matrix uses only 0 and 1 characters to create a digital rain effect, while Binary uses 0, 1, and space. Both are perfect for tech-themed projects and hacker-style aesthetics.

How does the Emoji character set work?

The Emoji set uses colored circle emojis (🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣⚫⚪) to represent different brightness levels. It creates a unique visual style that works best with colored HTML mode.

What are the brightness formulas?

Luma (default) uses perceptual brightness weights (0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B). Average treats all channels equally. Lightness uses HSL lightness (max+min)/2. Desaturation is similar to lightness but emphasizes contrast differently. Try each to see which works best for your image.

What keyboard shortcuts are available?

Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the ASCII text to clipboard. Ctrl/Cmd+S downloads the PNG. Ctrl/Cmd+Z resets to upload a new image. +/- zooms in/out, and 0 resets zoom to 100%.

Creative

Convert Images to ASCII Art

ASCII art converts images into text characters where the density of each character corresponds to the brightness of the underlying pixel. The result is a recognizable representation of the image made entirely from keyboard characters. This tool supports eight character sets including detailed, simple, blocks, braille, matrix, binary, emoji, and custom options. Features monochrome, colored HTML, and ANSI terminal output modes, brightness and contrast adjustment, multiple brightness formulas (luma, average, lightness, desaturation), Floyd-Steinberg dithering, adjustable font size and line height, preview zoom, keyboard shortcuts, and quick presets for common use cases. Download as TXT, HTML, or rendered PNG.