🎥 ASCII Converter

Convert images, GIFs,audio, videos and webcam steam into ASCII art in the terminal or save them as files.

ASCII Converter is a tool that can be used to convert or preview images (png, jpg), GIFs, videos (mp4, avi, mov, webm), audio (mp3, wav) and webcam streams in ASCII art mode.

⚠️ Video, audio and webcam support requires FFmpeg to be installed.
📷 Camera conversion is currently available only on Linux.

Installation

go install github.com/Apollo478/ascii-converter@latest

GIF/Image to ASCII Comparison

Here’s a side-by-side look at the conversion:

Original	ASCII (no color)	ASCII (colored)

📖 Usage

Usage: ac <command> [options]
Commands:
convert   Convert image/gif/video to ASCII
preview   Preview ASCII frames in terminal
camera    Preview/convert camera ASCII frames
audio   Visualize audio in ascii art

convert

ac convert -i <input> -o <output> [options]
Options
Usage of convert:
-C    Alias for --color
-I    Alias for --invert
-P    Alias for --preview
-a float
Alias for --aspect-ratio (default 0.5)
-aspect-ratio float
Set aspect ratio of ASCII’s Y axis (default 0.5)
-clear-screen
Clear screen before printing frames (default true)
-color
Enable colored ASCII
-f    Alias for --fit-terminal
-fit-terminal
Fit ASCII to terminal size
-h int
Alias for --height (default 120)
-height int
ASCII height (default 120)
-i string
Alias for --input
-input string
Input file
-invert
Invert the ASCII scale
-o string
Alias for --output
-output string
output file
-p    Alias for --parallel
-parallel
Process frames in parallel
-preview
Preview ascii while saving
-s    Alias for --clear-screen (default true)
-w int
Alias for --width (default 140)
-width int
ASCII width (default 140)

preview

ac preview -i <input> [options]
#Options
Usage of preview:
-C    Alias for --color
-I    Alias for --invert
-a float
Alias for --aspect-ratio (default 0.5)
-aspect-ratio float
Set aspect ratio of ASCII’s Y axis (default 0.5)
-clear-screen
Clear screen before printing frames (default true)
-color
Enable colored ASCII
-f    Alias for --fit-terminal
-fit-terminal
Fit ASCII to terminal size
-h int
Alias for --height (default 120)
-height int
ASCII height (default 120)
-i string
Alias for --input
-plain
Output the ASCII art as simple line-by-line text with ANSI color codes, without using cursor repositioning or screen clearing escape sequences.(image only)
-input string
Input file
-invert
Invert the ASCII scale
-p    Alias for --parallel
-parallel
Process frames in parallel
-s    Alias for --clear-screen (default true)
-w int
Alias for --width (default 140)
-width int
ASCII width (default 140)

camera

ac camera  [options]
Options
Usage of camera:
-C    Alias for --color
-I    Alias for --invert
-P    Alias for --preview
-a float
Alias for --aspect-ratio (default 0.5)
-aspect-ratio float
Set aspect ratio of ASCII’s Y axis (default 0.5)
-clear-screen
Clear screen before printing frames (default true)
-color
Enable colored ASCII
-f    Alias for --fit-terminal
-fit-terminal
Fit ASCII to terminal size
-h int
Alias for --height (default 120)
-height int
ASCII height (default 120)
-invert
Invert the ASCII scale
-o string
Alias for --output
-output string
output file
-p    Alias for --parallel
-parallel
Process frames in parallel
-preview
Preview ascii while saving
-s    Alias for --clear-screen (default true)
-w int
Alias for --width (default 140)
-width int
ASCII width (default 140)

audio

ac audio -i <input> [options]
#Options
-2D
2 dimentional audio visualization
-C    Alias for --color
-I    Alias for --invert
-a float
Alias for --aspect-ratio (default 0.5)
-aspect-ratio float
Set aspect ratio of ASCII’s Y axis (default 0.5)
-clear-screen
Clear screen before printing frames (default true)
-color
Enable colored ASCII
-f    Alias for --fit-terminal (default true)
-fit-terminal
Fit ASCII to terminal size (default true)
-fr
Aliad for --full-ramp
-full-ramp
Use a wider set of characters
-h int
Alias for --height (default 120)
-height int
ASCII height (default 120)
-i string
Alias for --input
-input string
Input file
-invert
Invert the ASCII scale
-s    Alias for --clear-screen (default true)
-w int
Alias for --width (default 140)
-wave
Audio to wave visualization
-width int
ASCII width (default 140)

🎥 CLI Demo

Here’s a quick demo of the CLI converting a video into ASCII art:

In this example, the tool takes a video input and outputs an ASCII-rendered version in real time.

Try it yourself

ac preview -i examples/andvari.mp4 -C

Audio visualization

Check out the audio source video