_ __ _ _
(_)_ _ ___ _ \ \ ___ ____ ____(_|_)
/ / ' \/ _ `/ > > / _ `(_-</ __/ / /
/_/_/_/_/\_, / /_/ \_,_/___/\__/_/_/
/___/Image to ASCII Art Converter
Drop in a photo, logo or screenshot and get ASCII art you can copy. It all happens on your device – the image is never uploaded.
Your ASCII art appears here.
How brightness becomes a character
Each character in the output stands for one small patch of the picture. The converter measures the patch's brightness using the Rec. 709 luma formula – 0.2126·R + 0.7152·G + 0.0722·B, because our eyes are far more sensitive to green than to blue – then picks a character whose "ink coverage" matches.
A ramp with more steps (try Detailed) shows finer shading but needs a wider output to read. Block characters give the smoothest greys because ░ ▒ ▓ █ were designed as 25/50/75/100% fills on the IBM PC. That same drag-to-understand feeling powers ahaboo, where you can move the Moon to work out why it has phases.
Tips for a clean result
- Crop tight. The subject should fill the frame; background detail becomes noise.
- 60–100 characters is right for chats and code comments; go 150+ for a print or a wallpaper.
- Paste into monospace. In Discord or GitHub, wrap it in
```fences. - Want finer detail in less space? The braille dot art generator packs 8 dots into each character – four times the resolution.
Questions people ask
How does an image to ASCII converter work?
The picture is shrunk to one pixel per character, each pixel is turned into a brightness value, and that value picks a character from a ramp that runs from light-looking (a space or a dot) to dark-looking (# or @). Denser characters cover more of their cell with ink, so from a distance they read as darker.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs on a canvas element inside your browser. The image never leaves your device, and nothing is stored after you close the tab.
Why does my ASCII picture look stretched?
Text characters are about twice as tall as they are wide. The converter compensates by sampling fewer rows than columns (the character aspect setting, 0.5 by default). If your font is unusually narrow or wide, nudge that slider until circles look round.
Which pictures convert best?
High-contrast images with a simple background: portraits against a plain wall, logos, silhouettes and pets. Busy photos turn into noise at low widths. Raise the contrast slider or crop the photo first for a cleaner result.
Should I use light or dark background mode?
Match where you will paste it. Dark text on a light page (documents, most websites) needs the default mode; light text on a dark background (terminals, Discord dark theme) needs Invert, otherwise the picture looks like a negative.
Can I keep the colours?
Yes. Colour mode wraps every character in the original pixel colour. Copy or download it as an HTML file; plain-text places like chats will only keep the characters.