Image to ASCII Art — Free Browser Converter
Turn any photo into monospace text art. Pick a width, choose grayscale or coloured, copy or download. No upload, no signup.
Drop a JPG, PNG, or WebP here
High-contrast portraits and logos work best
About this tool
ASCII art has been around since teleprinters — it represents pictures using only the 95 printable ASCII characters, mapping brightness to density. WRRK's converter uses the classic 10-character ramp .:-=+*#%@, walking through the image one cell at a time and sampling its average grayscale value. The whole pipeline runs in your browser via the Canvas API.
Two output modes: grayscale emits a plain text grid you can paste anywhere — Discord, Slack, email signatures, code comments. Coloured mode emits the same character grid wrapped in HTML, with each character coloured to match its source pixel — great for embedding on a webpage. ASCII characters are about 2× taller than they are wide, so the tool downsamples rows accordingly to keep aspect ratios correct.
How to convert an image to ASCII (5 steps)
- Drop your image. Add a JPG, PNG, or WebP. High-contrast subjects (portraits, logos) work best.
- Pick output width. 40-200 characters per row. 80 for terminals, 120 for code editors, 200 for max detail.
- Pick mode. Grayscale ASCII for plain-text use, or coloured HTML mode for web embedding.
- Convert. Click 'Convert' to render. Each pixel block is mapped to one of 10 brightness characters.
- Copy or download. Copy to clipboard for chat/email, or download as .txt or .html depending on mode.
Use cases
- Logos and avatars in code-comment banners
- README ASCII art for GitHub projects
- Discord and Slack monospace channel art
- Email signature flair (use a code block)
- Terminal welcome banners (cowsay-style)
- Old-school text-mode cover images for blog posts
- ASCII portraits as text-art gifts
Frequently asked questions
+−What width should I pick for ASCII output?
80 characters fits most terminals and old-school monospace text. 120 looks great in code editors. 200 gives a near-photo level of detail but only works in fullscreen monospace contexts. Pick by where you'll paste the result.
+−What's the difference between grayscale and coloured ASCII?
Grayscale outputs plain text — copy-paste anywhere. Coloured ASCII renders as HTML with inline colours pulled from the source image — great for embedding in a page, but doesn't survive a plain-text copy.
+−How does the conversion work?
Each block of pixels is averaged to a single brightness value. That brightness is mapped to one of 10 ASCII characters from light to dark — ' .:-=+*#%@'. Wider images get more characters per row; taller images get more rows.
+−Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The whole conversion runs in your browser using the Canvas API — image decode, pixel sampling, character mapping. Your photos never leave your device.
+−Why is my ASCII art too tall or too wide?
ASCII characters are ~2× taller than they are wide, so the tool compensates by sampling fewer rows. If your output still looks stretched, switch to coloured/HTML mode (which uses correct aspect ratio via CSS).
+−Can I share ASCII art on social media?
Plain ASCII works great in Discord, Slack, and email signatures (use a code block). Twitter and Instagram strip monospace formatting — paste into a screenshot of a code editor instead, or use the coloured mode and screenshot that.
+−What kind of images convert best?
High-contrast images with clear silhouettes — portraits, logos, line art — convert beautifully. Busy photos with lots of similar mid-tones come out muddy. Crop to your subject and bump contrast in any photo editor before converting.
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