UnexceptedSpectic / Binary-ASCII-Image-Generation

Randomized binary ASCII image generator

This repository describes a procedure for using any image to generate another with randomized* binary as its foreground and whitespace as its background.

*The foreground edges are configured to consist of "1" characters to ensure a more crisp delineation between the foreground and the background.

Steps:

1. Use https://cloudapps.herokuapp.com/imagetoascii/ to generate ASCII text from an input image (e.g. charlotte_skyline.jpg), using a custom charset of 01.
2. Click "Copy to Text" and paste the contents into a text file e.g. imagetoascii.txt.
3. Manually modify imagetoascii.txt to correct/improve appearance, as needed.
4. Run ascii_customizer.py to remove the image background and randomize the foreground binary (except for the edges, which are set to "1"s). customized_ascii.txt is automatically generated.
5. Use the "Copy to HTML" feature of the web service from step 1 to create an customized_ascii.html file.
6. Replace the content of the pre element in customized_ascii.html to include the text contained within customized_ascii.txt. If upon previewing customized_ascii.html in your browser, the image is distorted, try pasting the ASCII content using a different text editor.
7. Optionally, customize the CSS styling of the pre element to change the foreground font and background color.
8. Use WebVector to generate an SVG based off of customized_ascii.html.
9. Use cloudconvert to generate PNGs of variable resolutions, as needed.
10. Crop PNGs as needed.