ASCII Art Generator

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What this tool does

ASCII Art Generator turns typed text or an uploaded image into text-based art made entirely of ordinary characters. Type a word for a big stylized banner (handy for README files, terminal startup messages, or forum signatures), or upload a photo to get a classic character-based rendering of it, with a choice of font styles, character sets, and optional color.

How It Works

Text and images are converted by the same engine: the source (rendered text or a photo) is read pixel by pixel from an HTML canvas, then split into a grid of cells -- the number of columns is whatever you set with the Width slider, and the number of rows is calculated as rows = round((sourceHeight / sourceWidth) * columns * 0.55), where 0.55 corrects for monospace characters being taller than they are wide, so the final art keeps the right proportions.

Every pixel inside a cell is converted to a brightness value using luminance = 0.299 × red + 0.587 × green + 0.114 × blue (the standard formula for how bright a color appears to the human eye), then averaged across the whole cell. That average brightness, from 0 (black) to 255 (white), picks one character from the selected ramp: index = round((brightness ÷ 255) × (ramp length − 1)), so black cells get the densest character and white cells get the lightest one (or the reverse, with Invert turned on).

Problems it solves

• Adding an eye-catching text banner to a README, CLI tool, commit message, or code comment header.
• Turning a logo or photo into a retro, terminal-style character picture for a forum signature, Discord message, or plain-text email.
• Generating ASCII art without installing command-line tools like figlet or jp2a.
• Keeping a colorful preview of the art while still being able to export a clean, single-color plain-text version.

Frequently asked questions