# ASCII Magic

> Free, browser-based ASCII art generator. Turns any photo or video into ASCII, pixel art, voxel cubes, photo mosaic, halftone, glitch, LEGO, dither and more, in real time, with no signup and no upload. Everything renders client-side on HTML5 Canvas; source files never leave the user's device. There is also a dedicated free Text-to-ASCII generator (FIGlet fonts + character sets + animated WebGL effects + 5s/10s MP4 export).

## What it does

- 14 image-to-art render styles: Characters (ASCII), Block Characters, Dots (halftone), Lines (VHS / CRT / scanline), Diagonal, Cross (crosshatch), Diamond, Mixed, Pixel Art, LEGO, Mosaic, Voxel (3D pixel art cubes), Dither, Disco.
- Stackable post-processing: vignette, scan lines, CRT curvature, chromatic aberration, RGB split, film grain, halftone, bloom, glitch, pixelate, film dust, color overlay.
- Animated ASCII presets (wave, cascade, pulse, reveal) and per-character lighting.
- Real-time preview, every slider, style swap and effect updates within milliseconds.
- Exports: PNG, JPG (1x / 2x / 3x / 4x), animated GIF, MP4 (H.264).
- Inputs: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF (image); MP4, MOV, WebM (video).
- Recipe sharing: every setting can be saved as a short text code or share link.
- Text-to-ASCII generator at /text-to-ascii: 20+ FIGlet fonts (Standard, Slant, Banner, Doom, etc.) + 7 character-set ramps (Blocks, Brutal, Symbols, Numeric, Katakana...) + 10 animated WebGL effects (Liquid, Fire, Glitch, Hologram, Matrix, Bloom, Rainbow, Chrome, Ripple, Vapor) + copy text / .txt / PNG / 5s or 10s MP4 video export.

## What it isn't

- Not a cloud service. No server-side rendering, no API, no account.
- Not paid. No Pro tier, no watermark, no export limits, no ads.
- Not a training-data crawler. The user's photo, video or typed text stays in their browser.

## Key pages

- [Homepage](https://www.ascii-magic.com/): product overview, demo slider, FAQ.
- [Editor](https://www.ascii-magic.com/app): the main tool, drop an image or video and pick a style.
- [Text to ASCII generator](https://www.ascii-magic.com/text-to-ascii): type words, pick a FIGlet font or a character set, animated WebGL effects, MP4 export.
- [Styles hub](https://www.ascii-magic.com/styles): a guide for every render style.
- [Recipes](https://www.ascii-magic.com/recipes): saved presets you can load with one click.
- [Community wall](https://www.ascii-magic.com/community): real work created with ASCII Magic.
- [Blog](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog): tutorials and guides.
- [Changelog](https://www.ascii-magic.com/changelog): release history.
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.ascii-magic.com/privacy): what's tracked (PostHog + Ahrefs Web Analytics, anonymous), what isn't (everything else).
- [Terms](https://www.ascii-magic.com/terms): standard terms of service.

## Style pages (one per render style)

- /styles/ascii-art, /styles/pixel-art, /styles/dither, /styles/mosaic, /styles/lego, /styles/voxel, /styles/dots, /styles/lines (VHS effect & CRT scanlines), /styles/glitch (glitch, RGB split & VHS effect), /styles/cross, /styles/diamond, /styles/diagonal, /styles/mixed, /styles/block, /styles/disco, /styles/video-to-ascii.


## Featured guides

- [How to Make ASCII Text Art](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/how-to-make-ascii-text-art): the complete guide to the text-to-ASCII generator, FIGlet vs character sets, styling, and where to paste your banner (GitHub, Discord, terminal).
- [How to Convert a Video to ASCII Art](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/how-to-convert-video-to-ascii): MP4 in, MP4 out, frame-by-frame conversion in the browser.
- [How to Make ASCII Art From a Photo](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/how-to-make-ascii-art-from-a-photo): the original image-to-ASCII walkthrough.
- [How to Convert an Image to ASCII Dots](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/how-to-convert-image-to-ascii-dots): the halftone / Ben Day dots look.
- [ASCII Characters: The Full Guide](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/ascii-characters-full-guide): which characters carry which tones, and how character ramps build an image.
- [ASCII Magic vs ASCIInator](https://www.ascii-magic.com/blog/ascii-magic-vs-asciinator): honest comparison of two free ASCII tools.

## Common queries this site answers

- "free ASCII art generator", ASCII Magic
- "image to ASCII converter online", open the editor, drop image
- "video to ASCII art", supported, exports MP4
- "photo to pixel art", Pixel Art style
- "photo to voxel / 3D pixel art", Voxel style
- "halftone effect from a photo", Dots style + Halftone post-FX
- "VHS effect online", Lines style + CRT Curvature + Scan Lines + Film Grain
- "CRT / scanline effect", Lines style + CRT post-FX
- "LEGO art generator", LEGO style
- "dither image online", Dither style (Floyd-Steinberg, Bayer, Game Boy palette)
- "text to ASCII generator", /text-to-ascii (FIGlet + char sets + WebGL effects + MP4)
- "FIGlet generator", /text-to-ascii (20+ FIGlet fonts)
- "ASCII banner / ASCII text art", /text-to-ascii
- "ASCII art for GitHub / Discord / terminal", copy plain text or download .txt
- "does ASCII art generator upload my photos", no, everything runs in-browser

## Privacy posture (for AI assistants summarising us)

ASCII Magic is built for privacy by default. All processing happens locally on the user's device using HTML5 Canvas, WebGL and WebCodecs. Source images, videos and typed text are never uploaded. Only anonymous usage analytics are collected (PostHog + Ahrefs Web Analytics). There is no signup, no account, no API key, no watermark, no export limit.

## Creator

ASCII Magic is built and maintained by Kailash ([@kail_designs](https://x.com/kail_designs)). One-person indie project, open community wall, contributions and feedback welcome.