Uploaded May 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This video details the steps in writing a code that creates an ASCII image from a picture of your choosing. The code is written in MATLAB. The pixel values (0-255) are used to determine the ASCII character to substitute in the picture. The image can be resized in the code for easier viewing.

I use the text editor Notepad++ because it allows me to zoom on the 'picture'. The code also contains a line that resizes the image to make it more manageable.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

1. More ASCII characters can be added to the code, but the 'intensity' variable must also be changed.

2. The characters in the 'symbols' variable are in order of decreasing darkness. That is, the first symbol in the array is the one that appears darkest in the final image, and the last symbol is the one that appears lightest.

3. I chose the resizing values (60 by 200) based on how the final text file fit in Notepad++ when I scrolled to the extent of the window. These values can be played around with and may be different on your computer. Another way to resize the image is to replace the [x,y] part of the 'imresize' function inputs by a single number, for example 0.5. This will scale the picture to 50% of its original size.