image2ascii

This tool converts images inside a directory to ASCII characters. It can be used to transform images into text. Output is colored in most terminals, including Windows command-line and Linux terminal.

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Examples

Example 1

Original Image

$ python3 run.py -f windows.png -W 200

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Example 2

Original Image

$ python3 run.py -f painting.png -W 200

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Example 3

Original Image

$ python3 run.py -f google.png -W 60

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Example 4

Original Image

$ python3 run.py -f image2.png -W 20 -greysave

Contents of output.txt after running -greysave command

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;PlPl
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9
 . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j
 . . . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i
 . . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$
 . . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@
 . . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@
 . . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@
 . . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@
 . . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@
 . . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@
 . . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 . . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 . ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 ,.,.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
.,.;q;T;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
.;q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
q;3;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
T;PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
PlP9$j$i#$@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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Install

Installing image2ascii is relatively simple.

Start by downloading the GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/FFFFFF-base16/image2ascii

Install Python 3.6+, Pillow, and Colorama. To install Pillow and Colorama (required modules):

pip install pillow colorama

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Run

Now that the required packages have been installed, you can run image2ascii with the following command:

python3 run.py -f filename.png -W 40 -H 40

The command above will open "filename.png" (from the same directory), and display a 40x40 command line output. A full breakdown of all the possible setting flags in the above command is given below.

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Settings

When launching image2ascii through the command-line, there are different flags you can attach to the command. The table below shows all possible settings.

Argument	Function	Syntax Example
-h	Show help.	-h
-f	The filename of the image inside the directory. *Required	-f dog.png
-W	The width of the command line output. Optional	-W 100
-H	The height of the command line output. Optional Note that if a width flag -W is passed but not a height flag -H, the height will be automatically calculated to match the aspect ratio of the given width.	-H 100
-greysave	Save a file output.txt in the directory of the text output.	-greysave
-colorsave	Save a file output.txt in the directory of the text output with ANSI colors flags included (characters will be distorted).	-colorsave

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Compatibility

As of September 2021, image2ascii has not been tested completely in all operating systems and terminals. So far, it is expected to work in most Linux and Windows terminals. Python 3.6+ is recommended.

The color accuracy in the script may be off for certain images, and may require tweaking of the image contrast or the RGB dominant color detection algorithm. Both of these can be adjusted by modifying lib.py. Vibrant, small images will work best with image2ascii, such as in Example 4 above.