ASCII MagicDocs

Free and Pro

Counted from the code rather than from the pricing page, because the two have drifted before.

What free includes

  • 15 render modes: Characters, Mixed, Block, Dots, Braille, Dither, Pixel Art, Mosaic, LEGO, Voxel, Cross, Diamond, Lines, Diagonal and Disco.
  • 16 of the 28 post effects, including vignette, bloom, film grain, glitch, pixelate, halftone, sharpen and the whole blur family.
  • Every dither palette and algorithm. 15 palettes plus a custom one, and 15 algorithms.
  • Unlimited exports at every scale. There is no export limit and no watermark anywhere in the codebase.
  • Recipes, projects and sharing.
  • 3 generative credits on signup.
Note

"No watermark" is true, but it is not a Pro feature. No watermark exists in the product at all, so free output is unmarked because there is nothing to mark it with.

What Pro adds

  • The other 76 render modes, including the whole glass, material, print and glitch families.
  • 12 more post effects, plus Levels and Curves.
  • 10 generative credits on each billing period.
  • Pro video backgrounds in the library.

How the gate works

Free is an allowlist, not a blocklist. Anything not explicitly listed as free is Pro from the moment it exists. Practically that means a style added next week is Pro by default.

The entitlement is read from your account on every check, so upgrading takes effect immediately with no sign out. Locked styles are visible and previewable; picking one opens the upgrade sheet rather than silently rendering something else.

Warning

Every one of these checks runs in the browser. They are a product surface, not a security boundary. Real enforcement sits on the server for generative renders and for the Pro renderer code itself.

The free render modes, in full

StyleMode idCategory
Blockblock-charsASCII and Text
BraillebrailleASCII and Text
CharacterscharactersASCII and Text
DotsdotsASCII and Text
MixedmixedASCII and Text
CrosscrossGeometric
DiagonaldiagonalGeometric
DiamonddiamondGeometric
LineslinesGeometric
DiscodiscoLight and Colour
LEGOlegoPixel and Blocks
MosaicmosaicPixel and Blocks
Pixel ArtpixelPixel and Blocks
Voxel3dPixel and Blocks
DitherditherPrint and Paper

The free post effects, in full

EffectKey
Vignettevignette
Scan LinesscanLines
CRT CurvaturecrtCurve
Chromaticchromatic
Bloombloom
Character BloomcharBloom
Character ChromaticcharChroma
Film GrainfilmGrain
Glitchglitch
RGB SplitrgbSplit
Pixelatepixelate
Halftonehalftone
Film DustfilmDust
Noisenoise
Sharpensharpen
BluradvBlur

Blur is one entry that covers several looks. advBlur discriminates on its own type field, so Gaussian, lens and tilt-shift flavours all arrive through the same free effect rather than being gated individually.

The Pro post effects

EffectKey
ASCIIascii
Diffusediffuse
Thresholdthreshold
Reduce NoisereduceNoise
Pinchpinch
Spherizespherize
Twirltwirl
ZigZagripple
Ripplezigzag
Polarpolar
Shearshear
Fragmentfragment

Levels and Curves are Pro as well, and sit outside this count because they are tone grades rather than effect passes.

Locked is visible, not hidden

A Pro style or effect stays in the browser on a free account, with its name and its thumbnail. Picking one opens the upgrade prompt rather than rendering, and nothing is ever silently substituted for something you did not choose.

Hiding them would make the catalog look smaller than it is, and would mean discovering a style only after paying for it. Showing them costs a moment of friction and is the honest trade.

What is not a Pro feature

Worth stating plainly, because these are the things people assume are gated:

ThingReality
WatermarksThere is no watermark anywhere in the product. Free output is unmarked because there is nothing to mark it with, not because you earned it.
Export resolutionIdentical on both tiers. 1x to 4x, same ceilings.
4K exportNot a preset and not a tier. It is whatever scale multiplies your source up to roughly 4K, and free accounts reach it the same way.
Video exportFree. The caps are device caps, not plan caps.
Priority renderingDoes not exist. Rendering is local, so there is no queue to be at the front of.
Recipes, projects, sharingFree.

Credits

The one metered thing. A free account starts with three, and Pro adds ten per billing period. They roll over rather than expiring, and cancelling does not claw back a balance you already have. Credits are spent only by a generative render, at one credit for 1K, two for 2K and three for 4K, charged per attempt including a regenerate.

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