New browser tool turns images and videos into ASCII art
Asciilator is a web-based studio that converts images and videos into ASCII (text-character) visuals entirely in the browser. Users upload a local video or image and can adjust the character set, frame ratio, cropping/fill, colors, a media-based color mode, matte text (text filled with characters), title overlays, and retro effects like scanlines, CRT distortion, glitch, and matrix-style visuals. The result can be exported as a JPEG image or a short MP4/WebM video, with support for 9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 .
The goal is to make ASCII art and poster creation feel like using a visual design tool rather than a plain terminal filter. All processing in the browser, so media files never need to be uploaded to a server, and the tool supports light/dark mode and a multilingual interface.
Key points
- that converts images and video into ASCII-character visuals
- Customizable character sets, color modes, and frame ratios (9:16/1:1/16:9)
- Retro effects included: scanlines, CRT, glitch, and title overlays
- Exports as JPEG images or MP4/WebM video
- Runs entirely in the browser, so no media is uploaded to a server