Can I generate ASCII art from text, names or letters?

Choose Text and type a word, name or number. The five-row font supports A-Z, 0-9, spaces and . , ! ? - + = : / _ ' ( ). Lowercase becomes uppercase; other characters show an error. Newlines make separate banners. Copy banner and Download banner TXT use the characters shown in the preview.

How does an image become character art?

Each image cell is reduced to its average brightness, then mapped to one character from your ramp. With Dense, black becomes @ and white becomes a space. Columns sets the output width from 8 to 400 characters; rows follow the image shape.

Why are there fewer rows than columns?

Monospace character cells are roughly twice as tall as they are wide. Image rows are columns multiplied by image height divided by image width, then halved and rounded. For example, a 4:3 image at 100 columns makes 38 rows. The Text font instead has five rows per input line, plus a blank row between lines.

Can I make block or dot art from an image?

Blocks uses Unicode shading blocks, so its output is UTF-8 text rather than only ASCII characters. For simple period-dot shading, enter a period followed by a space as the Ramp. This maps dark cells to dots and light cells to spaces. It is not Braille dot-cell encoding.

What should I use on a dark background?

In Image mode, turn Invert on to put heavier characters in the bright parts of the image. Keep the ramp ordered darkest first. Text mode draws its fixed letter shapes with # characters and spaces.

Can I copy the art into a terminal, README or web page?

Yes. Preserve the spaces and line breaks, use a monospace font and turn off line wrapping. In Markdown, put the output inside a fenced code block. For HTML, paste it as text inside a pre element and escape and & if they occur in a custom ramp. This page produces the text, not a command-line package or source-code library.

Does the output preserve colour or animation?

No. Image output keeps brightness as characters, without colour or animation. A GIF produces one static frame. The tool does not export ANSI colour codes, video or coloured HTML.

What happens to transparent PNG areas?

The image converter uses RGB values and ignores alpha. Fully transparent canvas pixels read as black and usually map to the darkest ramp character. Flatten the image onto your chosen background before loading it if you want that background represented.

How large can an image be?

The current image converter reads up to 40 million pixels in one pass. File byte size is not capped. Larger pixel dimensions show an error asking for a smaller image; the converter does not silently shrink it.

Which image formats can I use?

Use a format your browser can decode, such as JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF or AVIF. A damaged or unsupported image shows a message naming the file and what to try.

Can I use this on iPhone, Mac or Linux?

Use a current browser on any of those devices. Choose a local image or enter text; there is no generator software to install. If clipboard access is blocked, select the output and copy it with your device's own copy command.

Is anything uploaded or remembered?

Image and text conversion happen in this tab. Pictures and banner text are not saved between visits. Only image Columns, Ramp and Invert settings are remembered when you change them. Opening the text-banner page does not replace those image preferences.

How do I make ASCII art for Discord?

Choose Text, enter a short word and use Copy for Discord. The copied banner includes triple-backtick code fences to preserve its spaces in a monospace block. HELLO produces 29 columns and five rows, using 157 message characters including the fences. The button is unavailable if the fenced output exceeds the standard 2,000-character message limit. Wide banners may wrap or overflow on narrow screens, so use shorter words or separate input lines. This prepares message text locally; it does not connect to Discord or send a message.

ASCII Art Generator

Turn a picture into character art, or choose Text to make a five-row banner from letters and numbers. In Image mode, adjust Columns and the character Ramp, then use Invert for light text on a dark background. Copy the output or save a TXT file; your input stays in this browser.

Sourceno picture yet

The picture appears here.

Characterswaiting

The characters appear here.

· or drop one anywhere on the stage

Never uploadedNo accountConverted in this tabPlain text out

Columns

Ramp

Invert

Ten steps of ink, from a solid @ down to a space.

No picture chosen yet. The characters appear here once you add one.

Drop a picture on the stage or choose one. Each block of pixels is averaged to a single brightness and mapped onto the ramp, so the first character of the ramp is the darkest and the last is the lightest; Invert swaps the two ends for light text on a dark background. The preview is scaled to fit the panel, which changes nothing in the text: copy it or download it and every character is the one shown.

Pure white pixellast character with Invert off
a space
Pure black pixelfirst character with Invert off
“@”
Columns and rowscorrected for glyph aspect
add a picture to see the grid

Brightness in, characters out, and nothing is guessed. Each block of pixels is averaged to one brightness value and mapped onto the ramp you choose, so the output is exact arithmetic on what the image contains. Row count is corrected by the height-to-width ratio of a monospace character, an approximation that keeps the picture from stretching; the result is plain text and carries no colour. The picture is opened and read inside this tab, and the only thing kept between visits is the column count, the ramp and the invert setting you last used.

Common questions

Can I generate ASCII art from text, names or letters?: Choose Text and type a word, name or number. The five-row font supports A-Z, 0-9, spaces and . , ! ? - + = : / _ ' ( ). Lowercase becomes uppercase; other characters show an error. Newlines make separate banners. Copy banner and Download banner TXT use the characters shown in the preview.
How does an image become character art?: Each image cell is reduced to its average brightness, then mapped to one character from your ramp. With Dense, black becomes @ and white becomes a space. Columns sets the output width from 8 to 400 characters; rows follow the image shape.
Why are there fewer rows than columns?: Monospace character cells are roughly twice as tall as they are wide. Image rows are columns multiplied by image height divided by image width, then halved and rounded. For example, a 4:3 image at 100 columns makes 38 rows. The Text font instead has five rows per input line, plus a blank row between lines.
Can I make block or dot art from an image?: Blocks uses Unicode shading blocks, so its output is UTF-8 text rather than only ASCII characters. For simple period-dot shading, enter a period followed by a space as the Ramp. This maps dark cells to dots and light cells to spaces. It is not Braille dot-cell encoding.
What should I use on a dark background?: In Image mode, turn Invert on to put heavier characters in the bright parts of the image. Keep the ramp ordered darkest first. Text mode draws its fixed letter shapes with # characters and spaces.
Can I copy the art into a terminal, README or web page?: Yes. Preserve the spaces and line breaks, use a monospace font and turn off line wrapping. In Markdown, put the output inside a fenced code block. For HTML, paste it as text inside a pre element and escape <, > and & if they occur in a custom ramp. This page produces the text, not a command-line package or source-code library.
Does the output preserve colour or animation?: No. Image output keeps brightness as characters, without colour or animation. A GIF produces one static frame. The tool does not export ANSI colour codes, video or coloured HTML.
What happens to transparent PNG areas?: The image converter uses RGB values and ignores alpha. Fully transparent canvas pixels read as black and usually map to the darkest ramp character. Flatten the image onto your chosen background before loading it if you want that background represented.
How large can an image be?: The current image converter reads up to 40 million pixels in one pass. File byte size is not capped. Larger pixel dimensions show an error asking for a smaller image; the converter does not silently shrink it.
Which image formats can I use?: Use a format your browser can decode, such as JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF or AVIF. A damaged or unsupported image shows a message naming the file and what to try.
Can I use this on iPhone, Mac or Linux?: Use a current browser on any of those devices. Choose a local image or enter text; there is no generator software to install. If clipboard access is blocked, select the output and copy it with your device's own copy command.
Is anything uploaded or remembered?: Image and text conversion happen in this tab. Pictures and banner text are not saved between visits. Only image Columns, Ramp and Invert settings are remembered when you change them. Opening the text-banner page does not replace those image preferences.
How do I make ASCII art for Discord?: Choose Text, enter a short word and use Copy for Discord. The copied banner includes triple-backtick code fences to preserve its spaces in a monospace block. HELLO produces 29 columns and five rows, using 157 message characters including the fences. The button is unavailable if the fenced output exceeds the standard 2,000-character message limit. Wide banners may wrap or overflow on narrow screens, so use shorter words or separate input lines. This prepares message text locally; it does not connect to Discord or send a message.

For images, each block is averaged to one brightness value and mapped onto the ramp you choose, with exact arithmetic on the pixels. Row count uses the height-to-width ratio of a monospace character, an approximation. Text banners use a fixed five-row uppercase font for A-Z, 0-9 and basic punctuation. Both outputs are plain text without colour.