How do I convert the image into ASCII format?

How to convert Tiff image file into ASCII file?

• I have a TIFF image file(image size: 256x256 pixels, 8-bit grayscale) Now I want to convert this file into a ASCII file of 256x256 matrix, and each character of the matrix is a the grayscale level of the related pixel of the TIFF image. My question: Does any software or programs can do such job?

• Answer:

  Hello bigcakelin, Thank you for your question. There are a number of ways to do this. One such is an online converter: www.text-image.com Here you can convert images to both ascii and html. I did have difficulty with .tif files here, but it may have been because of the file size. I converted in Photoshop to .jpg and had no difficulty. Many programs are available to convert from tif to jpg or bmp, and you may already have a program that will do this for you. The DMOZ has an entire directory of ASCII art converters: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Visual_Arts/ASCII_Art/Software/ There are some excellent programs here, but you will find that most require a bmp or jpg file for input. I searched to find free converters for you. I happened across a program that is not free, but will convert tifs to other formats AND does ASCII art in the same program. It sells for $29.95. http://www.keksoft.com/ Magic Converter makes it easy to get, view, convert, optimize, enhance and share digital photos. It will allow you to convert image files using scripts and optimize interactive web graphics. With batch converting functionality, it can generate output formats including BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, WMF, EMF, TGA, ICO, and so on. Other more, it can create self-running(.EXE) file from formats BMP, JPG and GIF. It even converts images to ASCII art picture with TXT(monochrome) or HTM(color) file. Major Features Convert image files using scripts. Optimize interactive web graphics. Supports screen capture. Create ASCII Art Picture with TXT or HTML formats. Compress and Create self-running of image. Create ASCII Art Picture ASCII Art Picture can be useful since many people's e-mail programs do not view graphics files without the help of another program. Using ASCII characters to create your picture will allow you to have a picture included on the screen with your message. ASCII covers letters, numbers, and certain control codes. It doesn't cover graphics. Essentially, ASCII artwork denotes artwork that is created without using graphics at all. With Magic Converter, you can create ASCII Art Picture easily and fast! You can see sample on the left! They have a trial version available at the site above. You will find another Windows based freeware application to convert to ascii here: http://www.aolej.com/free.html Characterizer Characterizer is freeware "One form" application for converting images to ascii text (ASCII art). Characterizer support JPG, BMP and WMF source images. Result is plain text file. You can set result size (width x height in characters), destination font size. There is implemented more render methods like photo, shape or contour blur. User can define own character set for rendering. Characterizer support four rendering modes, color inverting and adding random noise. Once again, native tif is not supported and must be converted. So we have a variety of choices for converting bmp or jpg to ascii, let's find the last piece of the puzzle for you. SoftPile offers this program free: http://www.softpile.com/Multimedia/Image_Editors/Review_13830_index.html Image Converter .EXE Description: Image Converter .EXE is a fast and flexible image conversion program, which allows support for converting to over 15 formats... Image Converter .EXE supports conversion to any of the 15 supported formats, here are a few of the common types to convert: BMP to JPG, BMP to GIF, BMP to PNG, BMP to TIF, TIF to BMP, TIF to JPG, TIF to GIF, JPG to GIF, GIF to JPG, PIC to JPG, DCX to JPG, DIB to JPG, JIF to JPG, PBM to JPG, PCX to JPG, PGM to JPG, PPM to JPG, TGA to JPG, and WPG to JPG. Perhaps one fo the best freeware converters is XnView: http://www.xnview.com/ Come to discover XnView, a software to view and convert graphic files, really simple to use ! Support of more than 400 graphics formats ! It's free, so do not hesitate ! The latest version (1.50) exists for Windows, Linux x86, Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, Irix mips, HP-UX, AIX ! So, convert your tif to either jpg or bmp and using one the uitilities above, then converting to ascii with an online or downloadable converter will accomplish your goal. I did an example just to verify my strategy. Unfortunately, I was unable to paste into this answer box due to the nature of Google Answers formatting, but these programs will do an excellent job of converting to ASCII once you have converted your tif to jpg or bmp. I did search one more time to see if I could find ONE program to do the conversion from tif to ascii that was free and was successful: http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~wardog/html/about.html ASCII Generator Beta The ASCII Generator (ASCGEN) is a 32-bit Windows text editor that allows anyone to easily convert images into artwork created from text characters. Features currently include: -A unique system to quickly produce impressive conversions -Conversions are now optimised for the specified font -Create a text banner, created out of text characters -Doubles as a text editor -Convert from any: rla, rpf, pic, cel, cut, eps, fax, gif, jpg, jpeg, jpe, jfif, pcd, psp, pdd, psd, pbm, pgm, png, ppm, bw, rgb, rgba, sgi, tif, tiff, icb, tga, vda, vst, win, ico, emf, wmf, bmp, dib, rle, scr, pcc or pcx image -Save to a TXT, RTF, or as a HTML Web Page created from a template -Capture the source image directly from any TWAIN device -Paste and convert an image from the clipboard -Export the text image as a bitmap -Crop the input picture -Modify brightness and contrast -Modify RGB colour levels -Solarize the image -Convert to greyscale using a choice of four different algorithms -Edit the text by hand with all the usual text editing functions -Apply various effects to the text -Use your own character ramp or select from the most common ones -Extensive options for tweaking the output -Print the text image directly from the program -Custom print preview/page layout hybrid -Compiled as a stand-alone exe - no extra files required This may well be a good single program solution for you to experiment with and seems to produce excellent results. Search Strategy: convert to ascii art convert tif OR tiff to jpg OR bmp +free I trust my research has provided you with a selection of programs to solve your need. If a link above should fail to work or anything require further explanation or research, please do post a Request for Clarification prior to rating the answer and closing the question and I will be pleased to assist further. Regards, -=clouseau=-