Convert Image to ASCII Art with Node.js

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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!

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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.
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  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!