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ASCII Pixel Effect Generator

Drop an image and watch it turn into an animated grid of ASCII characters. Each character picks up the color of the pixel it represents. Export the result as a GIF or WebM video.

How to get an image in

Three ways:

  • Drag and drop a file onto the drop zone.
  • Click the drop zone to open a file picker.
  • Paste from your clipboard with Ctrl+V (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+V (Mac) — useful when you've just copied a screenshot.

What happens after you drop an image

Processing runs in three stages you can watch on the progress bar:

  1. Preparing image — loads the image into a canvas.
  2. Removing background — strips the background using the browser's built-in Segmentation API so the ASCII effect only applies to the subject.
  3. Building ASCII — maps each pixel to a character and color, then draws the animated grid.

The whole thing runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Exporting

Once the animation is running, two export options appear:

  • GIF — a looping animated GIF, good for sharing on most platforms.
  • WebM — a short video clip, smaller file size, better quality.

Both exports are rendered frame-by-frame from the canvas and saved directly to your device.

Notes

  • Works best with photos that have a clear subject — portraits, objects against simple backgrounds.
  • Very large images (above ~4000×4000 px) may be slow to process on older devices.
  • Background removal requires a modern browser (Chrome 111+, Safari 17+, Firefox 126+).
  • Animated GIFs have a 256-color palette limit, which can cause some color banding. WebM preserves color better.