ASCII Art Generator
Turn any image into text-character art, right in your browser.
Click to choose an image or drag and drop
Convert a photo or image into ASCII art by mapping each area's brightness to a character — adjustable width, character set, and an optional colored render you can download as a PNG. Runs entirely in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No — the image is read and converted entirely inside your browser using a canvas element. It's never sent to a server.
How does it decide which character to use?
Each block of the image is averaged down to a single brightness value, the brightness range of the whole photo is stretched to use the full range of the ramp (so flat, evenly-lit photos still come out crisp instead of muddy), then each value is mapped onto a ramp of characters from "sparse" (spaces, dots) to "dense" (@, #, %) — darker areas get denser characters.
Why does my art look squashed or stretched?
Text characters are taller than they are wide, so a straight pixel-to-character mapping would distort the image. This tool corrects for that automatically based on the width you choose.
Can I get a colored version?
Yes — turn on "Colored output" to render every cell as a solid colored block sampled from that part of the image (so highlights and shadows both stay visible), then download it as a PNG. Color can't be preserved in plain copyable text, so text mode uses characters instead.