Effects — Retro
ASCII art effect
Rebuild your photo from text characters. Choose dense, simple or block character sets, cell size, and ink and paper colours.
- Status
- Live
- Category
- Retro
- Settings
- 5
What is the ASCII art effect?
ASCII art draws images using the characters of a text set. Darker areas use heavier characters and lighter areas use lighter ones, so the picture appears when you view the text from a distance. It dates back to the days of text-only terminals and printers.
This effect maps each cell of your photo to a character. Dense sets use many different characters for fine tonal steps, simple sets use just a few for a cleaner look, and block sets use block shapes for a chunky, graphic style.
ASCII art settings
- Cell size
- Characters
- Colour
- Ink
- Paper
Best photos for it
- Portraits with clear outlines
- High-contrast photos
- Terminal, hacker and cyberpunk looks
Tips for better results
- Tip 01
Smaller cells show more detail but make the characters tiny; larger cells read more clearly as text.
- Tip 02
Light ink on a dark paper colour resembles a green-screen terminal.
- Tip 03
Start from a high-contrast photo for a clear result.
Common questions
Which character set should I choose?
Dense gives the finest shading, simple gives a cleaner look with fewer symbols, and blocks use block shapes for a pixelated graphic style.
Similar effects
- PixelateTurn your photo into chunky pixel blocks. Adjust the pixel size and reduce the colour levels for a retro mosaic look.Available
- Dither + paletteConvert photos into retro pixel art with Bayer, Floyd–Steinberg, Atkinson or noise dithering and classic palettes like Game Boy, C64 and NES.Available
- MosaicRebuild photos as brick-style blocks, beads, cross-stitch, an LED matrix or tiles with adjustable cell size and gap.Available
Also searched as: Text art filter, ASCII converter, Text mode effect.