Turn a photo into ASCII art you can copy as text or save as a PNG, in mono or colour
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Drop a picture and it is drawn in text characters at once, 20 to 300 characters wide. Choose standard, detailed, block or simple characters and a light or dark background, then copy the text, save a .txt, or save a PNG in black and white or colour. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a picture on the page or press Select an image; it opens on your device and nothing is uploaded.
The ASCII art appears at once; drag Width to set how many characters wide it is.
Pick a character set, light or dark background, and adjust contrast if the picture looks flat.
Press Copy text, Download .txt, or Download PNG for a picture of the art in black and white or colour.
Image to ASCII Art draws a picture with text characters. Dark parts of the picture become dense characters such as @ and #, light parts become dots and spaces, so the picture shows through when you step back. The result is plain text: it can go into a chat, a README, a code comment, a terminal banner or an email signature where a picture cannot.
How it works. The picture is shrunk to one pixel per character, which averages each cell, and the brightness of each pixel is measured the way the eye sees it: green counts most, blue least, using the Rec. 709 weights. That brightness picks a character from the chosen set. Characters are about twice as tall as they are wide, so a square picture 100 characters wide gets 50 rows and keeps its shape.
Character sets. Standard uses ten characters and suits most pictures. Detailed uses Paul Bourke's seventy-step ramp for the finest tones at large widths. Blocks uses shaded squares for the smoothest gradients. Simple uses four characters for a bold look. Light on dark flips the mapping for terminals and dark chat themes, and the contrast and brightness sliders rescue a flat or dark photo.
Saving. Copy text puts the art on your clipboard. Download .txt saves it with Windows line endings so Notepad shows it correctly too. Download PNG draws it in a monospace font, either in one colour or with each character in the colour of its part of the picture, and keeps the file within 4,000 pixels.
Tips. Pictures with a clear subject and a plain background work best: a portrait, a logo, a pet against a wall. Crop close first and raise the contrast. Paste the text into a code block or a monospace font, or the rows will not line up.
Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Drop the image on this page. The art appears straight away and changes as you move the Width slider or pick another character set. Press Copy text to paste it anywhere, Download .txt for a text file, or Download PNG for a picture of it.
Characters are about twice as tall as they are wide, so the page uses half as many rows as columns for a square picture. The text looks right in a monospace font such as Consolas, Courier or Menlo. In a proportional font the rows drift apart, so paste it into a code block.
Standard uses ten characters and reads well at any size. Detailed uses seventy and shows the most tone at widths of 120 or more. Blocks uses shaded squares for the smoothest look but needs a font with those symbols. Simple uses four characters for a bold poster style.
Yes. Choose Colour under PNG and each character in the saved PNG takes the colour of the part of the picture it stands for. Plain text has no colour, so the copied text and the .txt file are always one colour; the PNG keeps the colours.
From 20 to 300 characters. Around 80 fits a terminal or a chat message, 120 to 160 shows faces and details well, and 300 is for printing. The PNG keeps within 4,000 pixels on its longest side by choosing a font size between 6 and 16 pixels.
No. The picture is shrunk and turned into characters by your own browser on your device, so it never reaches a server. Camera details such as location are not part of the text or the PNG, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.
Still stuck? Ask about Image to ASCII Art and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
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