Get Started with ASCII Art Conversion

Learn how to load an image or video, customize your ASCII style with presets and controls, and export your artwork as PNG, SVG, or GIF in a few steps.

ASCII turns any image, video, or webcam feed into ASCII art directly in your browser. This guide walks you through loading a source, adjusting the key settings, and saving the result — from start to finish in a few minutes.

No account or installation is needed. Open the tool in any modern browser and start converting immediately.

1. Open the tool

   Navigate to https://rdsciv.github.io/ascii/ in your browser. The tool loads instantly — there is nothing to install or sign up for.

2. Load an image or video

   You have three ways to load a source:

   • Drag and drop — drag a file anywhere onto the browser window
   • Paste from clipboard — copy an image elsewhere and press Ctrl+V / Cmd+V
   • File picker — click the drop zone in the left panel to open a file browser

   Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, MP4, MOV

   To use your webcam instead, click Start webcam below the drop zone. The ASCII output will update in real time from the live camera feed.

3. Adjust cell size

   The Cell size slider controls how large each character cell is, which directly determines the level of detail in the output.

   • The slider ranges from 1 to 500 in steps of 0.5
   • The numeric field accepts values up to 2000 for extremely large characters
   • Smaller values produce finer detail (more characters, smaller cells)
   • Larger values produce a bolder, more abstract look

   You can also press [ to decrease cell size by 1 and ] to increase it by 1 at any time.

4. Pick a color mode

   Open the Color dropdown to choose how colors are applied to the ASCII characters. The default is Source — full color, which maps the original image colors directly onto each character.

   Other options include:

   Mode	Description
   Source boosted	Saturated version of the source colors
   White on black	Classic monochrome terminal style
   Black on white	Inverted monochrome
   Green terminal	Green phosphor monitor look
   Amber terminal	Amber phosphor monitor look
   Cyber blue	Blue-tinted output
   Gradient ramp	Color shifts from dark to light across the image
   Palette	Restricts colors to a retro palette (CGA, EGA, C64, Game Boy, PICO-8)

5. Apply a preset for a quick look

   Presets apply a curated combination of settings in one click. Open the Preset dropdown, select one, and click Apply.

   Available presets:

   • Classic — white-on-black, light character set, clean look
   • Matrix — green terminal with Katakana characters, bloom, and scanlines
   • Newspaper — high-contrast inverse output with Atkinson dithering
   • CRT Terminal — amber terminal with bloom, heavy scanlines, and chromatic aberration
   • Neon — oversaturated source colors with bloom on a dark background
   • Game Boy — four-color Game Boy palette with Bayer dithering
   • Blueprint — hatching characters in cyber blue on dark navy
   • Xerox — binary characters (0 and 1) with Floyd-Steinberg dithering, high contrast

   You can save your own presets by typing a name into the preset name field and clicking Save.

6. Export your artwork

   When you are satisfied with the result, save it using one of the export options in the left panel:

   • Save PNG — exports the canvas at 1×, 2×, or 4× scale; check Transparent to remove the background color
   • Save SVG — exports a vector SVG with individual <text> elements
   • Export GIF — generates an animated GIF by sweeping a parameter (cell size, contrast, hue, etc.) across a range of frames
   • Copy as text — copies plain ASCII characters to your clipboard
   • Save ANSI (.ans) — exports with ANSI escape codes for terminal use
   • Download TXT — saves the plain character grid as a .txt file

Keyboard shortcuts speed up your workflow:

• F — toggle fullscreen
• S — save PNG
• G — export GIF
• [ / ] — decrease / increase cell size by 1
• Space — preview or stop the animation

Your settings are auto-saved in your browser and restored the next time you open the tool. To reset everything, click Reset to defaults in the preset section.