ASCII art guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

The text looks blocky at a large width

When Width (chars) is larger than the picture is wide in pixels, neighbouring cells read the same pixel, so the text repeats itself and adds no detail. Lower the width, or use a bigger picture. Braille reads two pixels per character, so it reaches this sooner.

Braille is all dots, or empty

Braille sets a dot wherever a pixel is brighter than middle grey, the same way round as the other sets. A bright picture fills with dots and a dark one stays nearly empty. Invert swaps that, and Draw edges adds dots along the outlines. Try the other setting of Invert, or turn on Draw edges.

Draw edges does nothing

Edge detection works with every set, Braille included, but it only draws where the brightness changes sharply. Lower Threshold to draw more lines. A soft or blurry picture has few sharp outlines.

The text vanished on a light background

Background changes only what is behind the text. Mono stays white, so it barely shows on a light colour. Pick ANSI 16 or Full RGB, or turn Invert on and keep a dark background.

My pasted text looks like a negative

The sets put heavy marks on bright areas, which looks right as light text on a dark background. Pasted as dark text on a white page, it reads the other way round. Turn on Invert before you copy.

It is slow with a big picture

A picture longer than 1600 pixels on a side is read through a copy of that size, so even a big photo stays quick; the line under Image shows both sizes. The text is still redrawn on every step while a slider glides, so on a slow device lower Width (chars) or turn Draw edges off.

My picture did not open

The tool opens what your browser can show as an image: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP work everywhere. If the browser cannot read a file, a message says so and the picture you had stays. Save it as a PNG or JPEG and try again.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. On phones and touch screens Width (chars) stops at 120 and opens at a width that fits the frame. Every set, colour mode and export stays. Wide text scrolls inside the frame.

Copy did nothing

Some browsers do not let a page write to the clipboard, and the tool says Copy failed. Use Save .txt for the text or Save PNG for the picture instead.

Does the saved HTML keep the colours?

Yes. Mono saves white text and Green saves green text. In ANSI 16 and Full RGB every character keeps its own colour.

Is my picture uploaded?

No. The picture is turned into text on your device and never leaves it.

Why is a picture from another tool here?

Pictures you add are kept on this device for every lab tool that takes one, so you need not add them again. Press × on a tile to forget that picture; the logo comes back.

Are there keyboard shortcuts?

The tool has none of its own. Anywhere in the lab, Ctrl K, or Cmd K on a Mac, opens the list of all tools.

Why does the video stop by itself?

Record video keeps exactly one sweep, Seconds a cycle long, so the clip loops when it plays. It is an MP4 in H.264, the kind phones, Photos and Instagram play.