ChromaDot
CHROMADOTretro dither
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FREE ONLINE CONVERTER

Photo to ASCII Art Converter

Drop in a photo. Get characters. Copy the text, or save the picture.

Every example below is real text, not a picture of text. Select it, copy it, paste it anywhere a monospace font renders. ChromaDot builds it in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is no watermark.

Convert your photo now

Wolf

Classic character set

Moonrise

Blocks character set

Portrait

Minimal character set

The character sets

The familiar ten-step ramp. Reads well at any size.

·.:-=+*#%@

Seventy levels. Keeps the most tonal detail at large sizes.

·.'`^",:;Il!i><~+_-?][}{1)(|\/tfjrxnuvczXYUJCLQ0OZmwqpdbkhao*#MW&8%B@$

Unicode shading blocks. Solid and poster-like.

·░▒▓█

Six levels. Graphic and punchy.

·.:*#@

Ones and zeroes only. Terminal aesthetic.

·01

How it works

ASCII art is the same idea as dithering with a colour palette, with one substitution. Instead of mapping each region of the image to the nearest colour in a small set, it maps each region to the character whose ink coverage best matches that region's brightness. A full stop is mostly empty, an at sign is mostly filled, and the ramp between them does the shading.

Because ChromaDot runs its palette and dithering passes first, you can stack the two: convert to Game Boy green or the NES palette, then render that as coloured characters. That is what the Colour toggle does, and it is a look most ASCII converters cannot produce at all.

One detail matters more than people expect. A monospace character cell is roughly twice as tall as it is wide, so the row count has to be halved or the result comes out vertically stretched. ChromaDot handles that for you.

Questions

How do I convert a photo to ASCII art?

Load your image, switch ASCII mode on in the sidebar, and pick a character set. ChromaDot divides the picture into a grid, measures the brightness of each cell, and picks the character whose visual density matches. The preview updates as you drag the column slider.

Can I copy the result as text?

Yes. ASCII mode gives you a Copy text button and a Save .txt button alongside the usual PNG export, so you can paste the result straight into a terminal, a README, a chat message or a code comment.

Why does my ASCII art look stretched?

Monospace characters are about twice as tall as they are wide, so a naive conversion squashes the image vertically. ChromaDot accounts for that automatically when it works out the row count, which is why the proportions come out right.

What is the best character set?

Classic is the safest at any size. Detailed keeps the most tone in large renders. Blocks uses Unicode shading squares and reads as solid and poster-like. Minimal and Binary are the most graphic and work best on high-contrast subjects.

Is it free, and are my images uploaded?

It is completely free with no account, and nothing is uploaded. The conversion runs in your own browser, so your photo never leaves your device.

Open the converter

Also try the pixel art converter or browse the gallery.