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Image to ASCII Art Converter (NFO style)

Convert PNG or JPEG images to pure 7-bit ASCII • TXT / NFO / PNG

Turn any picture into old-school ASCII art, the way it decorated BBS screens, scene NFO files and demo scrollers. Instead of a simple darkness ramp, the converter compares every character cell with the actual shape of each glyph, so /, \, _ and brackets follow the edges of your image. The output is pure printable ASCII (no extended characters), ready for a .txt or .nfo file. It runs entirely in your browser — your image is never uploaded.

📁
DROP YOUR IMAGE HERE
or click to browse • PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, WEBP
Source image for ASCII conversion
Conversion options
WIDTH
80 columns (80 = classic NFO)
CHARACTERS
MODE
Shape follows edges • Tone = darkness only
VIEWED ON
Notepad = light • NFO viewer / terminal = often dark
FONT
characters are matched against this font
FRAME
NFO TEXT
BRIGHTNESS
0
CONTRAST
0
GAMMA
1.00
SHARPEN
0
OPTIONS
⏳ CONVERTING...

    

      
      

    

    

      ⧉ COPY
      ⬇ .TXT
      ⬇ .NFO
      ⬇ .PNG
    

  


  

    
How to use

    

      
🎚 Getting a good result

      
    
        
  • Start at 80 columns, the classic NFO width; go wider for detail, narrower for a bold logo look
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  • High-contrast pictures (logos, portraits on a plain background) give the cleanest art
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  • Set Viewed on to match where the text will be read: on a dark background, bright areas need the ink (a wall of @ means the picture is mostly white: switch to light background)
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  • Options update the result live once the first conversion is done
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🖼 Frame & title

      
Wrap the art in a classic scene frame with an optional spaced-out title and a credits line, all in plain ASCII, ready to paste at the top of a release NFO.

      
📄 .TXT / .NFO

      
Pure 7-bit ASCII with DOS line endings (CR LF), trailing spaces removed. Open it in a monospaced font: Notepad, Notepad++, an NFO viewer, a terminal, or paste it between <pre> tags or a code block.

      
🖼 .PNG

      
The art rendered exactly as previewed, handy to share where monospaced text gets mangled.

    

  


  

    
FAQ

    

      
What is an NFO file?
A plain-text information file shipped with releases since the BBS days, traditionally decorated with ASCII art and meant to be read in a monospaced font, 80 columns wide.

      
Why does it look better in some editors than others?
ASCII art relies on a monospaced font with the line spacing set to roughly twice the character width. Open the .txt in Notepad, Notepad++, an NFO viewer or a terminal; proportional fonts (Word, mail clients) break the alignment.

      
What is the difference between Shape and Tone mode?
Tone mode picks characters by darkness only (the classic ramp from space to @). Shape mode compares each 1:2 character cell with the drawing of every glyph, so slashes, underscores and brackets follow the edges of the picture.

      
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No, everything runs in your browser; nothing leaves your device.

    

    
Want colours? Try the Image to ANSI art converter. Prefer real pixels? Try our PNG to Amiga IFF converter or the PNG to ZX Spectrum converter, or browse all RetroVault tools.

  


  

    
Your image stays in your browser — it is never uploaded to our server

    
Pure printable ASCII • 7-bit clean • NFO / BBS / terminal friendly

    
IBM VGA font: Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack by VileR, CC BY-SA 4.0