This guide teaches how to convert images into ASCII format in Linux. For the purpose of this task, we will be using Jp2a. Jp2a is a command line tool that helps you to convert the given image(s) into ascii character format. You can specify a mixture of image files and URLs and the Jp2a tool will convert all of them into ascii characters instantly. Jp2a has many useful options to manipulate the images. Here are some couple things that Jp2a can do for you!
- read images from standard input,
- set background mode as light or dark,
- set border,
- set output height and width,
- set custom dimension for output images,
- flip output image vertically or horizontally,
- use a specific characters when producing the output ASCII image,
- invert images,
- download images from web and convert them,
- And many.
Table of Contents
Install Jp2a in Linux
Jp2a is packaged for many Linux distributions and is available in the default repositories.
To install Jp2a on Arch Linux and its variants like Manjaro Linux, run:
$ sudo pacman -S jp2a
On Debian, Ubuntu, Linux mint:
$ sudo apt install jp2a
On Fedora:
$ sudo dnf install jp2a
On CentOS / RHEL:
$ sudo yum install epel-release
$ sudo yum install jp2a
On openSUSE:
$ sudo zypper install jp2a
Convert Images Into ASCII Format In Linux
To convert a given JPG/JPEG image into ASCII character format, simply run:
jp2a <path-to-image>
Example:
$ jp2a arch.jpg
Sample output:
MWXMWXWWXWWXWWXWWXWMXWMXNMNNMNNMNNMNNMNXWNXMWXWWXWWXWWXWMXWMXNMXNMNNMNNMNNMNXMNXMW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWdxWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNkccxWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNW0ccccOWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWKlccccc0WNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNXlccccccl0WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNocccccccclXWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNdccccccccccoXWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNkccccccccccccoXWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNkccccccccccccccdNWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNkccccccccccccccccdNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWXxccccccccccccccccdXWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNOoOXNklccccccccccccccdNWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNOccccok0kdcccccccccccccoXWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNOcccccccccodoccccccccccccoXWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNkccccccccccccccccccccccccccoNWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNkccccccccccccccccccccccccccccoXWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNkccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccoKWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNxcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccclXWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWXdcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccclKWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNdccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccl0NWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWXoccccccccccccccccdx0Oxdlcccccccccccccccl0WNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW NWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWKlcccccccccccccclkXWWNWWNNOlcccccccccccccccOWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNKlcccccccccccccclKNWWNWWNWWNXocccccccccccccccONWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWW0lcccccccccccccclXNNWNNWWNWWNWNoccccccccccccccckWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNkccccccccccccccccONWWNWWNWWNNWNNXccccccccccccccccdNWNWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWNWWNkcccccccccccccccclNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNdcccccccccloolcccdNWNNWNNWNNWWNWW WWNWWNWWNWWNWWxcccccccccccccccccoNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNkcccccccccccoxO0OddNNNWNNWNNWNNWW NWWNNWNNWNNWXdccccccccccccccccccoWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWkcccccccccccccclxKNXWWNWWNWWNWWNN WWNWWNWWNWWXoccccccccccccccccccccXWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNdcccccccccccccccccoOXNWNNWNNWWNWW WWNWWNWWNWXocccccccccccccccldxk00XWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNK0kxdlcccccccccccccccxKNNWNNWNNWW NWWNNWNNWKlccccccccccldxO0NWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWXK0xdlccccccccccl0WNWWMMMMM WWNWWNWWOccccccccoxOXNWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNKOxoccccccccOWNWMMMMM WWNWWNWOcccccox0NNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNN0xoccccckNNMMMMM NWWNNWkccok0XNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNN0xocckWNWWNW WWNWNxdOXWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNXOxxNNNWW NWWNXNNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWNNWWNWWNWWNWWNWWNWNXWWNN
Simple, isn't it?
You can specify multiple images and convert all of them in one go.
$ jp2a img1.jpg img2.jpg
This command converts the given images into ASCII and will display them one after another.
Like I already said, Jp2a has many options and flags to manipulate the input images. Let us see the usage of some options with examples.
Read images from standard input
To read images from standard input and prints the ASCII characters in the standard output, make use of pipe command like below.
$ cat arch.jpg | jp2a -
Mind the hyphen symbol (-) at the end.
Write output to a file
Instead of displaying the ASCII image in the standard output, you can write it to a file as shown below.
$ jp2a arch.jpg --output=arch_ascii
This command will append the ASCII output in a text file called arch_ascii. You can view the file's contents using the "cat" command:
$ cat arch_ascii
Print images with specific height/width
You can convert the image to ASCII format and print them with a specific height or width of your choice.
To print using a specific height, for example 30 rows, simply do:
$ jp2a --height=30 arch.jpg
The width will be automatically calculated from the aspect ratio of the image.
Similarly, to specify the width, run:
$ jp2a --weight=30 arch.jpg
You can also combine the both options and print the image.
$ jp2a --height=20 --width=40 arch.jpg
Print images in ASCII format in X columns and Y rows
The following command converts the given image file into ASCII and prints the output in 50 columns and 30 rows.
$ jp2a --size=50x30 arch.jpg
Sample output:
Set border to ASCII characters
If you want to set border around the ASCII output, use border option like below:
$ jp2a --border --size=50x30 arch.jpg
Sample output:
Print images in light/dark background
Jp2a has options to print the ASCII characters in light and dark backgrounds.
$ jp2a --background=light arch.jpg
$ jp2a --background=dark arch.jpg
Print images into ASCII format in dark background
If you view a picture with white background, but you are using a display with light characters on a dark background, you should invert the image using the invert flag.
$ jp2a arch.jpg --invert
Sample output:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
:;
,oo;
.oooo'
.looooo.
.looooool.
cooooooool.
:ooooooooooc.
,ooooooooooooc.
,oooooooooooooo:
,oooooooooooooooo:
.;oooooooooooooooo:.
'c'. ,loooooooooooooo:
'ooooc,.,:oooooooooooooc.
'oooooooooc:cooooooooooooc.
,ooooooooooooooooooooooooooc
,ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooc.
,ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooc.
;ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.
.:ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.
:ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.
.coooooooooooooooo:;.';:loooooooooooooool.
.looooooooooooool,. 'looooooooooooooo'
.looooooooooooool. .cooooooooooooooo'
.looooooooooooool. cooooooooooooooo,
,oooooooooooooooo' .oooooooooooooooo:
,ooooooooooooooool :ooooooooolcclooo:
;oooooooooooooooooc ,oooooooooooc;'.'::
.:ooooooooooooooooooc ,ooooooooooooool;. .
.coooooooooooooooooooo. :oooooooooooooooooc'.
.coooooooooooooool:;,... ..,;:looooooooooooooo;.
.looooooooool:;'. ...;:looooooooool.
'ooooooooc;'. .';coooooooo'
'oooooc;. .;cooooo,
,ooc,.. .;coo,
;:'. .';;
. .
Print images with specific characters only
Instead of printing the image in the default characters, you can use some custom characters of your choice.
$ jp2a --size=50x30 --chars=" ...sskk@@" arch.jpg
Download images directly from Internet
Not just local images, it is possible to directly download the images from Internet and convert them into ASCII.
To download images directly from Internet and print them in ASCII format, run:
$ jp2a --size=50x30 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Linux_logo.jpg
Alternatively, use curl or wget programs to download the images and jp2a will read the image from standard input like below.
$ curl -s https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Linux_logo.jpg | jp2a -
Convert images other than JPG/JPEG
What if you have the different image type other than the JPG/JPEG? In that case, you can use ImageMagick's Convert tool like below. ImageMagick is available in the default repositories of many Linux distributions.
On Arch Linux and its variants like Manjaro Linux:
$ sudo pacman -S imagemagick
On Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt install imagemagick
After installing ImageMagick, run the following command to convert the given PNG format image to Jpeg/Jpg format and then convert it to ASCII format:
$ convert arch.png jpg:- | jp2a -
Please note the hyphen symbol (-) at the end.
Similarly, you can simply convert any image format into JPEG/JPG and then convert it again to ASCII format.
Produce strict HTML output
Jp2a has an option to produce strict XHTML 1.0 output.
$ jp2a --size=50x30 --html arch.jpg --output=arch.html
Sample output:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd'>
<html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' lang='en' xml:lang='en'>
<head>
<title>jp2a converted image</title>
<style type='text/css'>
body {
background-color: black;
}
.ascii {
font-family: Courier;
color: white;
font-size:8pt;
font-weight: bold;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class='ascii'><pre>
MNWNWNWWNWNWNMXMNWNWNWWNNXWNWXMXWNWNWNNWNWNWXMXWNW
NWNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNWNWWWWkkNWNWNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
NWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWNWWWKccKWNWNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
NWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWNWWNoccoNNWNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
WNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWNWWWOcccckWNWNWNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNW
WNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNWNWWXlcccccKNWNWNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNW
WNWWWWWWWWNWNWNWNWWWNdcccccclNWNWNWWWWWWWWNWNWNWNW
NWNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNWNOccccccccxNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
NWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWXlccccccccc0WNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNkccccccccclXWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNWxlkKdccccccccoNNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNW
WNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNOccccddocccccccxNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWKccccccccccccccccOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
NWNWNWWWWNWNWNWXlcccccccccccccccccKWWWWWWNWNWNWNWN
NWNWNWWWWNWNWNNdcccccccccccccccccclXNWWWWNWNWNWNWN
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWxccccccccccccccccccccdNWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WNWNWWWWWWNWNOccccccccccccccccccccccxNWWNWNWNWNWNW
WNWNWWWWWWNWKccccccccclx0OklcccccccccOWWNWNWNWNWNW
WWWWWWWWWWWXlccccccccoXWWWWXdccccccccc0WWWWWWWWWWW
NWNWNWWWWNNocccccccclNWWNWNWNocccccccclXWNWNWNWNWN
NWNWNWWWWNdcccccccccOWWWNWNWNKcccccccccoNNWNWNWNWN
WWWWWWWWNxccccccccccXWWWWWWWWNlcccccldlcoNWWWWWWWW
WNWNWWWWOcccccccccccNWWWWNWNWNocccccccx0O0NWNWNWNW
WNWNWWW0ccccccccccccXWWWWNWNWNlcccccccccdKNWNWNWNW
NWNWNWKlcccccccccodkXWWWNWNWNNkdocccccccccdKWNWNWN
NWNWNXlccccccdk0NNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNN0kdcccccclXNWMMM
NWNWNoccclx0NNWNWNWNWWWWNWNWNWNWNWNWWN0xlccclXWMMM
WNWNdclkKNNWNWNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWNWWWWWWNKklcdNWMW
WNWkxKNWWWNWNWNWNWNWWWWWWNWNWNWNWNWNWWWWNWNWKxkWNW
NWXNNWWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWWNWNWNWNNNWN
</pre>
</div>
</body>
</html>This can be useful when you want to view the ASCII characters of an image in a web browser.
There are a few more options available such as flip the images in X and Y direction, set RGB to grayscale conversion weight, use ANSI colors in output, use terminal display height/width etc. Look at the help section or man pages to learn to use them.
For help, run:
$ jp2a --help
$ man jp2a
Suggested read:
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