Sharing ASCII Settings via URL

Copy a shareable URL that encodes all your current ASCII settings in the link hash, so anyone who opens it gets the exact same configuration applied.

The share link feature encodes your entire current settings snapshot as a base64 JSON string and appends it to the page URL as a hash fragment. Anyone who opens that URL will have your settings applied automatically — no account, no server, and no file to transfer.

Sharing your settings

1. Configure your settings

   Load an image and adjust all the controls until the output looks exactly how you want it. Every control — character set, color mode, post effects, animation parameters, and export options — is included in the link.

2. Click Copy share link

   Click the Copy share link button in the sidebar. The tool encodes all current settings and copies the full URL to your clipboard. The URL takes the form:

   https://rdsciv.github.io/ascii/#s=<base64-encoded-settings>
   
3. Share the URL

   Paste the URL wherever you want to share it — a message, a document, a bookmark, or a browser tab. When the recipient opens it, the tool reads the #s= hash on load and applies your settings immediately.

The source image is not included in the share link. Recipients need to load their own image after the settings are applied. The URL only encodes control state.

Combine sharing with a built-in preset as a baseline: apply a preset, tweak a few controls to taste, then copy the share link. This makes it easy to communicate a specific variation of a named style without listing every individual setting.

What the share link includes

The link encodes the same complete control state as a custom preset save:

Category	Settings included
Character set	Character set selection, custom character string
Layout	Cell size, character aspect ratio
Color	Color mode, saturation, hue shift, background color, palette selection
Adjustments	Contrast, gamma, edge threshold, dithering, invert, edge-aware chars
Post effects	Bloom (on/off + amount), scanlines (on/off + amount), vignette (on/off + amount), chromatic aberration, film grain
Typography	Font family, font weight
Animation	Source, parameter, from/to values, frame count, FPS, direction, easing, quality, loop
Export	PNG scale, transparent background

The source image is not part of the encoding.