Turn video and photos into ASCII art

How to turn a video into ASCII art online

1. 1

   Open your video or photo

   Choose Open your own file: the editor opens with the effect, ready for your file (videos as MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV; photos as JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF). It opens in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

2. 2

   Set the characters and compare

   Choose the characters, their size and colour, and how far the picture behind them darkens. Compare shows the original beside the result; play a video to see the characters follow it.

3. 3

   Export it

   In the editor, export the video as MP4 or WebM, or the photo as PNG, JPEG or WebP, at its full resolution, with no watermark.

Binary, Classic or Blocks

Characters picks how each cell of the grid is drawn. Binary scatters 0s and 1s at random over most of the brighter cells. Classic picks each cell's character by its brightness, from a dot through - : + = % * # to @, none in the darkest cells, each with no less ink than the one before, as in ASCII art. Blocks shades each cell from light to solid.

The characters come from a 5×7 pixel font, drawn smooth at any size.

Cell size, colour and background

Size sets each character's cell, from 6 to 64 pixels on a 1080p frame, scaled with the resolution: at 16, a landscape 16:9 video is 120 characters across, in the small preview and in a 4K export alike.

Colour draws the characters in white, brighter in brighter cells, or in the colour of the picture under each one. Background sets how far the picture behind them darkens: at 0 the characters sit over the picture, and at 100, with Amount at 100, only the characters show, on black.

ASCII art that moves with your video

Every frame is drawn in characters as the video plays, so they follow the picture, and the export matches the preview frame for frame.

A video or image file, not text

The characters are drawn into the picture: you export an MP4 or WebM video or a PNG, JPEG or WebP image, not text to copy. That keeps the colour, the motion and the sound, and it looks the same on every screen, with no font or line spacing to stretch it. For ASCII art as text to paste, use a text converter.

Build a retro terminal look

In the editor, ASCII combines with Scanlines, Glitch, RGB split, a vignette and your own LUT, and you can drag the effects into the order they apply in. By default ASCII applies as the picture is read, so a colour grade, glows, scanlines and grain go over the characters.

Your files stay on your device

Everything happens right on your device, in your browser. Your videos and photos are opened, edited and saved there, and never sent anywhere.

Because nothing is uploaded, your files are safe: nothing can leak, and no one else, not even us, ever sees them. You don't need an account: one holds only your email address and the AI agents you let in, and signing in keeps a single cookie. An agent's instructions to your editor pass through our server and are deleted as soon as the editor has carried them out; your files never do. Without cookies, the site counts visits and a few choices, such as a preset or effect you pick and the format you export to, but never which files you open or anything in them.

Exports leave out hidden details such as where a video was recorded, and a shared link carries only your settings, never your file.

Files and browsers

Opens MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV videos and JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF photos, and exports MP4 or WebM, or PNG, JPEG or WebP, at full resolution, keeping the original sound where the browser can. Works in current Chrome and Edge on a computer or Android, in current Firefox on a computer and in Safari 26 or later; HDR video is converted to standard range.

Questions about turning a video into ASCII art

More effects to try

• Film grainAdd film grain to a video or photo in your browser. On video it changes every frame. Export MP4, WebM, PNG or JPEG at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• HalationAdd a film halation effect, the red-orange glow round bright highlights, to video or photos in your browser. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• Black and whiteMake a video or photo black and white in your browser, all the way or part way, or as a negative. Export MP4, WebM, PNG or JPEG at full size. Free, no upload.
• GlitchAdd a glitch effect to a video or photo in your browser: bands torn sideways, colours split, blocks broken. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• DitherAdd a dither effect to video or photos in your browser: ordered or noise dots, black and white or colour, 2 to 16 levels. Export at full size. Free, no upload.
• LetterboxAdd cinematic black bars to a video or photo in your browser: a letterbox for 1.85:1, 2.39:1 or up to 2.76:1. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• HalftoneAdd a halftone effect to video or photos in your browser: dots that grow with the light, or mosaic tiles. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• ScanlinesAdd CRT scanlines, the dark horizontal lines of an old TV screen, to a video or photo in your browser. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• Rain on glassPut a video or photo behind a rainy window: drops that bend the picture, run down the glass and clear trails through the mist. Free, no upload.
• Chromatic aberrationAdd chromatic aberration to a video or photo in your browser: red and blue lens fringes that grow toward the edges. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• RGB splitAdd an RGB split to a video or photo in your browser: red and blue shifted apart, like a worn videotape. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.
• VignetteAdd a vignette effect to a video or photo in your browser: darker corners in an ellipse, a circle or the frame's rectangle. Full resolution. Free, no upload.
• BloomAdd a bloom effect, the soft glow that spreads from the brightest parts of the frame, to video or photos in your browser. Free, no upload, full resolution.
• FisheyeAdd a fisheye look to a video or photo with barrel lens distortion, in your browser. No black corners. Export at full resolution. Free, no upload.

See every effect