Turn an image into ASCII art
Copyable text art and a picture of it, in black and white, green or full colour.
Drop an image here, or .
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Image to ASCII Art: how to use it
- Drop in an image.
- Set Characters across, choose the character set and the picture style.
- Copy the text from the box under the result, or download the picture or a .txt file.
Tips
- Paste ASCII art into a code block or a monospaced font, or the columns will not line up.
- Raise Contrast for a flat photo, and tick Invert brightness for text that will sit on a dark background.
Image to ASCII Art: what it does and when to use it
Image to ASCII Art turns a picture into text: rows of characters whose density follows the brightness of the image, so a face or a logo appears when you step back. You get the text itself, ready to copy into a chat, a code comment, a README or a terminal, and a picture of it as a PNG, in black on white, green on black like an old terminal, or with every character in the colour of the photo.
Characters across sets the width; around 80 fits a standard terminal, 100 to 150 suits a picture. The Standard ramp uses ten characters and reads clearly at small sizes, Detailed uses seventy for finer shading, and Blocks uses shaded squares. Contrast helps a flat photo, and Invert brightness swaps light and dark, which you need when the text will sit on a dark background.
ASCII art only lines up in a monospaced font, so paste it into a code block, a plain-text file or a terminal; a chat app with a proportional font will scramble it. Portraits with good contrast and simple logos come out best. The picture version is a normal image, so it can be posted anywhere. For chunky square pixels instead of characters, try Image to Pixel Art.
Image to ASCII Art: frequently asked questions
How do I turn an image into ASCII art?
Drop the image in, set how many characters across you want and copy the text from the box under the result. You can also download it as a picture or as a .txt file. Related tool: Image to Pixel Art.
Why does my ASCII art look scrambled when I paste it?
The app is showing it in a proportional font, where letters have different widths. Paste it into a code block (three backticks in Discord, Slack or GitHub), a plain-text file or a terminal, where every character has the same width. Related tool: Photo to Sketch.
How wide should ASCII art be?
Around 80 characters fits a standard terminal or a code comment. 100 to 150 shows more detail for a picture. Very wide art only works where long lines do not wrap. More help: ImgVX AI help docs.
Can I make colour ASCII art?
Yes. Choose "Text in the photo's colours" and every character is drawn in the colour of that part of the image, on black. The copied text itself has no colour, since plain text cannot store it. Related tool: Image to Pixel Art.