You may have seen images created using black and white dots or characters. This is called ASCII art. ASCII art is an image made using ASCII characters. ASCII characters include printable letters, numbers, and symbols available. You can also print ASCII art that looks like the original image. ASCII art was invented in the past when printers didn’t have graphics ability. It was the 1970s and early 1980s when ASCII arts were used at their peak. So, ASCII arts were used to print photos and large banners. ASCII art uses 95 printable ASCII characters defined by ASCII Standard.
Here’s an example of what ASCII art looks like. This is Matrix movie poster made using ASCII characters.
There is a website called ASCII Art Archive that has a collection of ASCII art drawings and other ASCII art pictures. You should check this website.
I hope now you understand what ASCII art is. Now I will tell you how you can still make ASCII arts using several online tools and software.
Different tools to convert an image to ASCII art
1. Ascii-art-generator.org
Ascii-art-generator.org is one of the best websites to convert an image to color or monochrome Ascii art. You can convert any of your photos into beautiful ASCII art. The tool supports several output formats. This image to Ascii art convert tool lets you convert images to monochrome Ascii Art or Color Ascii Art. It also supports text to Ascii Art Banner. Either upload your image or enter the image URL. For Text to Ascii Art, you can enter the text and then create an ASCII Banner.
Have a look at this sample. I have converted my own photo into beautiful ASCII art.
See the ASCII art of my photo made using color ASCII characters.
2. Ascii Generator 2
If you want dedicated software to convert a photo to Ascii art, you can download Ascii Generator 2. Although the software was last updated back in 2015, it still works well. It can convert images into high-quality ASCII art looking like the original image. It supports conversions using variable width fonts and offers real-time output adjustment. The tool also supports batch conversion.
Wrap Up
There are also several software and online tools for converting a photo to ASCII art. But this is just a fun game with no actual value. So, I didn’t make a long list of tools. These are some good options to turn a photo into ASCII art.
