ASCII Art
On-deviceTurn a photo into text art you can paste anywhere — on your device.
Turn any photo into ASCII art on your device. Choose the width and character set, preview it live, then copy the text or save it as an SVG. The image never leaves your device.
About this tool
What you provide
- A photo in any format your device can decode — JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF or AVIF.
- Settings: width in characters, character set, invert, and colour.
What you get
- Copyable monospace text.
- An SVG of the rendered art.
- Coloured output can be copied as HTML, keeping each character's colour.
Limits
- Very tall or very wide images at a high character width are refused, because the grid would be large enough to freeze the page; the message names the size it would have needed.
- Fine detail is lost by definition — a character replaces a whole block of pixels.
- Pasting the text somewhere with unusual line spacing can make it look stretched, even though the tool compensates for character shape.
How to use it
-
Choose a photo
Pick any image from your device. It is read on your device and never uploaded.
-
Set the width
Drag the width slider to choose how many characters wide the art should be. More characters means more detail and a larger block of text.
-
Pick a character set
Blocks give solid shading, Classic uses the familiar punctuation ramp, and Minimal uses only a few characters. Invert if your background is dark, and turn on Colour to keep each character's hue.
-
Copy or save it
Copy the text to paste anywhere, save an SVG, or copy coloured output as HTML.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a photo into ASCII art?
Choose a photo, set the width in characters, and pick a character set. The preview redraws as you change either one, and you can copy the text or save it as an SVG.
Does my photo get uploaded?
No. The image is read and converted on your device, and nothing is sent to a server. The tool works offline once the page has loaded.
Why does my ASCII art look stretched?
It should not. A monospace character is about twice as tall as it is wide, so the tool samples fewer rows than columns to compensate. If you paste the text somewhere with unusual line spacing it can still look stretched there.
Why does a very tall image refuse to render?
The character grid grows with both the width you choose and the shape of the image, and a very tall image at a wide setting can reach millions of characters, which would freeze the page. The tool stops and tells you the size it would have needed, so you can lower the width.