Every feature, fix, and improvement since launch.
September 16, 2026
New ASCII Magic V2: one studio for every image and video effect
The biggest release yet. ASCII Magic grew from an ASCII converter into a full image and video effects studio, one place for 100+ styles and shaders, 171 AI generative presets, a stackable post-effects layer, up to 4K export, accounts, and a Pro plan. Every core style stays free and watermark-free.
- New More than ASCII now. Load an image or a video and reach every look in one place, on a live canvas with instant previews. The same tool that made ASCII art now runs pixel, mosaic, halftone, dither, glitch, shader and generative effects on stills and video alike.
- New 100+ styles and shaders. 100 render styles and shaders, grouped so they are easy to browse: Text and ASCII, ASCII Studio, Pixel and blocks, LED Matrix, Hex Mosaic, Print and paper, CMYK, Geometric, Glitch and signal, and Light, glass and material. Every one is a single tap from the styles tray.
- New 171 AI generative presets. A Generative tab that reimagines your photo with AI. Each preset carries its own prompt, and you control strength and output resolution, so you can nudge a look or push it all the way.
- New Stackable post-effects. A post-effects layer you stack on top of any style, grouped into Screen and signal, Light, and Print. On-screen guides let you place each effect exactly where you want it on the canvas instead of applying it flat across the whole frame.
- New Flow editor. A node-based board where you wire a source into a style into an output and tune every stage in one view, for people who want to see and control the whole pipeline.
- New Up to 4K export, for image and video. Export stills and clips at up to 4K. Core exports stay watermark-free.
- New Accounts and a Pro plan. Sign in to carry your plan across devices. Pro unlocks all 100+ effects and shaders, 4K image and video export, AI generative renders, a priority render queue, and every future effect free for as long as you stay Pro.
- New Generative credits. Credits power AI generative renders only, one credit per render, and Pro includes 10 every month. Everything else, every style, effect and export, stays unlimited and never touches a credit.
- New Recipes and share links. Save a look as a recipe and share a link that opens the editor with that exact look already applied.
- Improve Still free at the core. Every core style, unlimited watermark-free image and video export, and three starter generative credits stay free. Pro adds the premium effects, 4K, and the monthly credit allowance on top.
July 30, 2026
Fix Post-launch patch drop: dither, color, blur and recipe fixes
A round-up of the small fixes and improvements that landed since the July 6 editor redesign.
- Fix Sepia is actually sepia now. The filter used to desaturate to pure grayscale and wipe the warm tint out at the same time (and the Grayscale slider jumped to 100% for no obvious reason). Sepia now uses a proper luminance-preserving color blend so you get the warm brown wash you expect, and the Grayscale slider stays put.
- Fix Blur panel collapses cleanly when off. The Amount / Angle / Focus sliders stayed visible even when Blur Type was set to Off. They now hide until you pick an actual blur type.
- Fix Recipe deep-links now open the intended recipe. Links like
/app?recipe=Matrix or /app?recipe=Vaporwave used to land on the demo image with the default look because the recipe was silently dropped. Now the recipe applies as intended once the image loads.
- Fix Characters panel stays in sync with recipes. Applying any recipe that changes the character ramp (Matrix, Discord ASCII, etc.) now correctly updates the input and the preset chip. Before, the panel stayed on the boot ramp forever even though the canvas rendered the new one.
- Fix Custom palette Add / edit / remove buttons in the Dither Engine now actually work. The + button adds a swatch, each swatch opens the native colour picker, and a hover-only × removes it (minimum two colours enforced so the engine always has something to reduce to).
- Fix Colour "None" now truly resets. Clicking it snaps Saturation back to 100 and clears any lingering tint or grayscale from a previous filter. Other filter chips still keep your saturation setting.
- New Binary (1-bit black & white) chroma mode in the Dither Engine. Every pixel snaps to pure black or pure white, no soft levels, no palette lookup. Pairs with any dither algorithm (Bayer, blue noise, Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson) for classic Game Boy or newsprint looks.
- New Dither palette swatches in the Dither Engine panel. Every palette in the dropdown now shows its actual colours as a row of swatches, so you can see what Game Boy vs Pico-8 vs Risograph actually looks like before picking. Custom palette shows your own swatches; Original shows a "source colours preserved" note.
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