Printscii transforms your photos into ASCII art composites, blending the original image with a text-based rendering using authentic retro fonts like UNSCII, IBM VGA, Amiga Topaz, and C64. The result is a unique hybrid image that merges photography with the nostalgic aesthetic of early computing.

Printscii is great for:

• Social media content – Create eye-catching profile pictures and posts with a retro-tech aesthetic
• Print art – Generate unique wall art, posters, or merchandise designs
• Developer branding – Perfect for tech blogs, conference talks, or portfolio sites
• Album covers & music visuals – Add a lo-fi digital feel to your artwork
• Gifts – Turn photos of friends, pets, or places into personalized ASCII portraits

The real-time preview lets you experiment quickly until you find the perfect look.

Yes, completely. Your images never leave your browser. All processing happens locally on your device using WebAssembly and GPU acceleration. There's no server upload, no cloud processing, and no data collection. Your photos stay on your machine from start to finish.

Upload a photo, adjust the settings to your taste, and download. Everything runs locally in your browser using modern web technology—no uploads, no waiting for a server. The live preview updates instantly as you tweak settings, so you can experiment freely until you get the look you want.

No generative AI. Printscii does not use ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Adobe Firefly, Nano Banana, Google Gemini, or any other generative AI models. Your photos are not fed into neural networks or diffusion models. There's no "prompt" and no AI hallucinations.

Instead, Printscii uses deterministic algorithms: your image is analyzed pixel-by-pixel, and each region is matched to the closest ASCII character based on brightness and pattern. The result is a faithful, reproducible transformation. Run it twice on the same image with the same settings, and you'll get the exact same output every time.

The only machine learning used is an optional background removal feature (using a segmentation model), which isolates your subject from the background. This is a classification task, not generative AI, so it doesn't create or alter your image content.

Printscii supports JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, and HEIC/HEIF (iPhone photos). HEIC files are automatically converted in-browser. You can export your creations as high-resolution JPEG or SVG for infinite scaling.

Printscii uses your computer's GPU for the heavy lifting, which is much faster than traditional image processing. We spent a lot of time optimizing the architecture—parallel processing, GPU shaders, and smart caching all work together to give you instant feedback as you adjust settings.

Images you create are yours to use. For commercial licensing inquiries, integrations, or bulk/enterprise use cases, please reach out to [email protected].

Not yet, but we plan to open source Printscii in time. In the meantime, we're open to conversations about licensing, white-label solutions, or API access. Reach out to [email protected] to discuss.

We'd love to hear from you! Send feature requests, bug reports, or general feedback to [email protected]. We read every message.

Printscii works on desktop and mobile in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. It requires WebGL 2, which is available in all modern browsers. Performance is best on desktop; mobile works well but may be slower with large images. Some features like background removal may use a slower fallback on Safari.