Convert Image to ASCII Art with Node.js

By  on  

ASCII Art

There are many people out there that don't appreciate ASCII art;  we call those people "idiots".  ASCII art has been used forever and remains, in my opinion, a feat of programming and creativity.  There's a project called image-to-ascii which doesn't just create ascii art but does so from an image of your choosing.  Baller!

Assuming you've installed dependencies, outputting an image to ASCII art in the console is fairly simple:

var ImageToAscii = require('image-to-ascii');
ImageToAscii(__dirname + '/logo.png', function(err, converted) {
    console.log(err || converted);
});

Short bit of code for a cool effect.  You'll want to size the image down to less than 200px for best display and even then the ASCII output within the console looks excellent.  As I mentioned in Show Images in Console with Node.js console-png, adding graphical elements to the console can be a nice touch and enhancement from bland text!

Recent Features

  • By
    CSS Gradients

    With CSS border-radius, I showed you how CSS can bridge the gap between design and development by adding rounded corners to elements.  CSS gradients are another step in that direction.  Now that CSS gradients are supported in Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome...

  • By
    JavaScript Promise API

    While synchronous code is easier to follow and debug, async is generally better for performance and flexibility. Why "hold up the show" when you can trigger numerous requests at once and then handle them when each is ready?  Promises are becoming a big part of the JavaScript world...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

  1. Thanks for sharing this informative blog!! From your blog I have been able to get how to convert Image to ASCII Art with Node.js
    ASCII is one of the important part of programming and can’t be left behind.
    Web Development Company in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad
    http://bespokedigitalmedia.in/web-development/

  2. Wow this really brings me back. I remember when I first saw ASCII art for the first time many years ago. I tried to create my own, and what was meant to be an Owl turned out more like The Creature from the Black Lagoon! Very cool article, will definitely give this a try when I get a chance.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!