# Documentation

Source: https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs (ASCII Magic documentation)

ASCII Magic turns an image or a video into ASCII art, halftone, LEGO, voxel and 87 other looks, in the browser or straight from an AI agent.

![A studio photograph of a person in profile against a grey background](https://www.ascii-magic.com/landing-assets/docs/ledmatrix-before.webp)

_Source_

![The same photograph redrawn as a grid of amber LED dots on a yellow field](https://www.ascii-magic.com/landing-assets/docs/ledmatrix-after.webp)

_Rendered_

_LED Matrix, one of the 91 render modes, at its shipped defaults. Nothing was uploaded to draw this: the source is read off your disk into a canvas and the render happens in the tab._

[**Quickstart**One image to one export, in about two minutes.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/quickstart) [**MCP server**Use ASCII Magic from Claude, Cursor or any MCP client.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/mcp) [**Core concepts**Style, variant, post effect, recipe, credit.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/concepts)

## What the tool actually is

A browser-based render engine. Your image never leaves the tab: it is loaded through `URL.createObjectURL` and drawn to a canvas, so there is no upload step and no server round trip for a normal render. The only thing that goes to a server is a generative render, which needs a model.

Everything is live. Changing a style, a slider or a post effect repaints immediately, and an export is the same render at a higher scale.

_The whole path an image takes. A generative render is the one exception: it is the only step that calls a server, because it calls a model._

## Where to go next

[**Styles**91 render modes, what each parameter does, and which 15 are free.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/styles) [**Post effects**28 effects, their defaults, and the fixed order they stack in.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/effects) [**Recipe format**The wire format, decoded well enough to parse by hand.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/recipes) [**Limits and errors**File caps, resolution ceilings, rate limits, every error string.](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/limits)

## Three ways to use it

| Route | Good for | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| [The editor](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/quickstart) | Making one thing and looking at it while you make it. Everything repaints live. | Nothing. It works signed out. |
| [The MCP server](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/mcp) | An agent doing it for you, in a loop, over many images. | An account, and a client that speaks MCP. |
| [A link](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/deep-links) | Handing someone a complete look without handing them a file. | Nothing. |

## What it is not

Saying this early saves a wasted evening:

- **Not a text-art generator.** The output is an image of characters, not characters. There is no plain-text and no SVG export, so you cannot paste the result into a terminal.
- **Not a photo editor.** Brightness and contrast exist to feed the tone-to-glyph mapping, not to retouch. Levels and Curves grade the render, not the source.
- **Not a batch tool in the browser.** One source at a time. Batch work is what [the MCP server](https://www.ascii-magic.com/docs/mcp) is for.
- **Not an upload service.** There is no library of your files on a server, because your files never reach one.

## The numbers, current as of this build

|  | Count |
|---|---|
| Style tiles in the browser | 100 |
| Distinct render modes | 91 |
| Free render modes | 15 |
| Post effects | 28 (16 free, 12 Pro) |
| Generative presets | 171 across 10 groups |
| Dither palettes and algorithms | 15 and 15 |
| Character ramps | 17 |

These are read out of the engine source when this page is built, not typed in, so they cannot drift from the app.

## How these docs are organised

| Section | Answers |
|---|---|
| **Get started** | What this is, how to make one thing, and what the words mean. Read in order if you have never opened the tool. |
| **The editor** | One page per region of the interface and per stage of the pipeline. Read the one you are stuck on. |
| **MCP server** | Connecting an agent, and the exact shape of every tool call. |
| **Reference** | The wire formats and the hard numbers. Not meant to be read through. |

Every count on these pages is read out of the engine source when the site is built, so a page cannot quote a number the app no longer has. Where a behaviour is a known bug rather than a design decision, it is marked as one rather than described as intended.