ASCII Magic
Open tool

ASCII art wallpapers for desktop and phone

Download ASCII art wallpapers in 4K, 1080p and phone sizes. Pick any scene, choose dark or light, and export a full-resolution PNG in one click.

Loading the builder…

/WHY

Any piece in the library becomes a wallpaper at the exact resolution of your screen: 4K and 1080p desktops, MacBooks, ultrawides, iPhones, Android phones and iPads. Pick the moment in the animation you like best, choose a look such as halftone dots or plain ASCII, and download a sharp PNG.

Because every frame is drawn fresh at full size, the characters and dots stay crisp at 4K, with no blurry upscaling. If you want it to move, the same builder gives you a video loop and a live link for animated wallpaper apps.

/EXAMPLES

Ready-made examples to copy

Each one is complete. Copy it as it is, or change the piece name to any piece in the library.

macOS: set it from Terminal

Sets the picture on every desktop and Space at once.

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell every desktop to set picture to "'"$HOME/Downloads/starry-ridge-3840x2160.png"'"'

Windows: set it from PowerShell

Works on Windows 10 and 11, no admin rights needed.

Add-Type -TypeDefinition 'using System.Runtime.InteropServices; public class W { [DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int a, int b, string c, int d); }'
[W]::SystemParametersInfo(20, 0, "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\starry-ridge-3840x2160.png", 3)

Linux: GNOME and KDE

GNOME keeps separate light and dark wallpapers; set both.

# GNOME
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$HOME/Pictures/ocean-sunset.png"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri-dark "file://$HOME/Pictures/ocean-sunset.png"

# KDE Plasma
plasma-apply-wallpaperimage ~/Pictures/ocean-sunset.png

A new wallpaper every day

A daily job that rotates through a folder of exported wallpapers (macOS, add to crontab -e).

# m h dom mon dow
0 7 * * * f=$(ls ~/Pictures/ascii/*.png | sort -R | head -1); osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to tell every desktop to set picture to \"$f\""

Live wallpaper link

Paste into Plash (macOS), Lively Wallpaper (Windows) or Wallpaper Engine. The page fills the screen and plays the piece.

https://www.ascii-magic.com/ascii/embed?piece=starry-ridge&fit=cover&credit=0

How to do it

  1. Open a scene or any piece you like.
  2. Pause the animation on the frame you want.
  3. Choose Desktop 4K, Desktop 1080p or Phone wallpaper under Export.
  4. Set the PNG as your wallpaper.

Every piece page has an Export panel with these sizes: Desktop 4K, Desktop 1080p, Phone wallpaper, YouTube thumbnail, GitHub social preview, X header, LinkedIn banner, Square post and Story.

/GUIDE

Picking a size

Choose the screen you will use it on and the builder draws at exactly that size: 3840 by 2160 for 4K monitors, 3024 by 1964 for a 14 inch MacBook Pro, 3440 by 1440 for ultrawides, 1179 by 2556 for current iPhones. A larger image than your screen is fine; a smaller one gets stretched and soft.

Fill the screen crops the edges of the piece to cover everything. Whole piece keeps it all in view with a border in the colour you choose, which suits detailed pieces and ultrawide screens.

Phones: leave room for the clock

On a lock screen the clock covers the top third and the widgets the bottom. Pieces with the subject in the middle, or calm skies at the top, work best. The phone preview in the builder shows the clock so you can check.

Looks that suit wallpapers

Halftone dots with smaller dot size read as a fine screen at desktop distance. Plain ASCII and Dense ASCII look best in one colour on black. On a light desktop theme, try a dark border with Whole piece so the art floats.

Battery and animated wallpapers

A live wallpaper keeps drawing in the background. The embed page pauses when the browser reports it is hidden, but wallpaper apps may keep it visible. On laptops, prefer the still PNG, or set your wallpaper app to pause on battery.

Pieces that work well for this

Open any of them to copy the code or export.

Analog Wall ClockThings
Lotus Pond Temple DawnCities of the World
Apollonian GasketAlgorithms
Arctic IcebergsLandscapes
Asteroid BeltCosmos
Aurora Cabin SnowfallLandscapes
Aurora CurtainsDemoscene
Autumn ForestLandscapes

/FAQS

ASCII art wallpapers for desktop and phone: frequently asked questions

Q. Where can I download an ASCII wallpaper in 4K?
Right here: pick any piece in the builder, choose 4K desktop, and press Download wallpaper PNG for a 3840 by 2160 image. Every piece in the library can become an ASCII wallpaper, and each frame is drawn fresh at full size, so the characters and dots stay crisp instead of being upscaled.
Q. How do I make an ASCII art wallpaper for my phone?
Choose iPhone or Android as the screen, slide to the moment you like, and download the PNG. The iPhone size is 1179 by 2556 and Android is 1080 by 2400. The phone preview shows the clock, so you can keep the subject away from it and from the widgets at the bottom.
Q. Which screen sizes can the wallpaper builder export?
It exports seven sizes, from 4K desktops down to phones. Desktops get 4K at 3840 by 2160, 1080p at 1920 by 1080, a 14 inch MacBook Pro at 3024 by 1964 and ultrawide at 3440 by 1440. Phones and tablets get iPhone at 1179 by 2556, Android at 1080 by 2400 and a 12.9 inch iPad Pro at 2048 by 2732.
Q. Can I choose which frame of the animation becomes my wallpaper?
Yes. The Moment in the animation slider moves through the first 12 seconds of the piece in quarter-second steps, and the preview redraws the exact export as you slide. Stop on the frame you like best, then download. The look, dot size and density you set are applied too.
Q. What is the difference between Fill the screen and Whole piece?
Fill the screen scales the piece to cover every pixel and crops the edges. Whole piece keeps the entire piece in view and fills the space around it with a border color you choose. Whole piece suits detailed pieces and ultrawide monitors; Fill suits wide scenes such as Moonlit Sea or Fuji Dawn Lake.
Q. Can I get an animated ASCII wallpaper instead of a still?
Yes, two ways. Download video loop records 8 seconds in your screen's shape for apps that use a video as wallpaper. The Live tab gives a full-screen link to the piece for wallpaper apps that display a web page, where it plays continuously. The still PNG uses the least battery.
Q. How do I set the wallpaper from the command line?
Download the PNG first, then copy the line for your system from the Set it from the command line tab. It has an osascript command for macOS, a PowerShell command for Windows 10 and 11, gsettings commands for GNOME, and plasma-apply-wallpaperimage for KDE Plasma. Each one uses the file name the download saves.
Q. Which looks work best for an ASCII art wallpaper?
Halftone dots with a smaller dot size read as a fine print at desktop distance, while plain ASCII and Dense ASCII look sharp in one color on black. Switch on the one-color option for a calm, minimal desktop. The Density slider adds or removes detail, and the preview updates as you change it.
Q. Why does my ASCII wallpaper look blurry or zoomed in?
Usually the image is smaller than the screen, or the phone is zooming it. Pick your exact screen size or a larger one, since a smaller image gets stretched. On iPhone, turn off perspective zoom when you set the wallpaper, or choose Whole piece so nothing important sits at the edges.
Q. Does a live ASCII wallpaper drain battery?
It uses more than a still image, because the piece keeps drawing in the background. Pieces pause when the browser reports they are off screen, but wallpaper apps may keep them visible all the time. On laptops, use the still PNG, or set your wallpaper app to pause on battery power.
Q. Can I share these wallpapers or use them in commercial work?
Yes. Every piece is MIT licensed, so you can share the wallpapers, use them on work machines and include them in commercial projects. A credit to ascii-magic.com is appreciated but not required. The license travels with each piece's source code, which is shown on its page.
Q. Can I make a wallpaper from my own photo?
Yes, with the ASCII Magic editor at ASCII Magic editor, which turns your own images and videos into ASCII and more than 100 other styles. The library pieces here are hand-built animations, so for a wallpaper of your pet, your city or your logo, start in the editor instead.

Other ways to use it

Each one has its own builder.

YouTube

ASCII art for YouTube thumbnails

Export any animated ASCII piece as a 1280 by 720 YouTube thumbnail background, then add your title on top in any editor.

Social

ASCII art headers for X, LinkedIn and GitHub

Export ASCII art at the exact sizes for an X header, a LinkedIn banner and a GitHub social preview image.

Docs

ASCII art for docs sites and landing pages

Add animated ASCII art to docs and landing pages built with Next.js, Astro, Docusaurus or plain HTML. Diagrams, terminals and heroes that load instantly.

Chat

ASCII art you can paste into Discord and Slack

Copy any ASCII piece as plain text and paste it into Discord, Slack or Teams inside a code block, so it keeps its shape.

Code

ASCII art headers for source code comments

Copy ASCII art and block-letter banners as text for file headers and section comments in your code.

OBS

Animated ASCII overlays for OBS and streams

Use animated ASCII art as a browser source in OBS or Streamlabs for starting soon screens, borders and overlays.