ASCII Art Generator
Free image-to-ASCII converter. Upload any photo, screenshot, or graphic and instantly turn it into text art made from keyboard characters. Fine-tune width, contrast, brightness, and choose from five character sets — then copy the result or download it as a .txt file.
Upload image
PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP
How this image-to-ASCII converter works
This ASCII art generator converts any image — photos, screenshots, logos, or illustrations — into text art made entirely from keyboard characters. Each pixel is converted to grayscale and mapped to a character based on its brightness. Darker areas receive visually dense characters like @, #, and %, while lighter areas use dots, dashes, or spaces. The result is a text-only representation of your image that you can paste anywhere plain text is supported.
Choose from five character sets to control the style: Standard for classic ASCII art, Detailed for smoother gradients and more tonal depth, Block elements for a chunky, retro terminal look using Unicode block characters, Simple for clean, minimal output, or Binary for a Matrix-inspired effect using only 0 and 1.
Adjust the output width slider to control how many characters wide your art is — higher values produce more detail but need a wider display. Use the contrast and brightness sliders to bring out features in dark or washed-out photos. Toggle invert if you plan to paste the result on a light background (white terminal, light-mode editor, or a printed page).
What is ASCII art used for?
ASCII art has been a staple of internet culture since the early days of email, Usenet, and bulletin board systems. Today it's commonly used to add flair to GitHub README files, decorate terminal banners and MOTD screens, create unique email signatures, share art in Discord or Slack code blocks, add retro-styled headers to code comments, or just for fun. Because ASCII art is pure text, it works everywhere — no images to host, no compatibility issues, and it renders in any monospaced font.
Everything runs entirely in your browser using the HTML5 Canvas API. Your image is never uploaded to a server — the conversion happens locally on your device. Copy the finished text art to your clipboard with one click, or download it as a .txt file to use wherever you like. No account needed, no watermark, completely free.