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https://github.com/symisc/ascii_art

Real-Time ASCII Art Rendering Library
https://github.com/symisc/ascii_art

algorithms ascii-art ascii-glyphs embedded graphics image-processing library machine-learning rendering tree

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Real-Time ASCII Art Rendering Library

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README 

        
# ASCII Art

### Real-Time ASCII Art Rendering Library - Live demo: https://art.pixlab.io

### Integration Reference Guide: https://pixlab.io/art



ASCII Art is a single file C/C++ library that let you transform an input image or video frame into printable ASCII characters at real-time using a single decision tree. Real-time performance is achieved by using pixel intensity comparison inside internal nodes of the tree.



### ASCII Camera Now Availabe On Unity Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/165558



For a general overview on how the algorithm works, check the bottom of the [demo page](https://art.pixlab.io/#algo).



![Output](https://i.imgur.com/cdJBzXI.png)

ASCII art is a related (and older) graphic design technique for producing images from printable characters. This implementation is based on the paper:



>N. Markus, M. Fratarcangeli, I. S. Pandzic and J. Ahlberg, "Fast Rendering of Image Mosaics and ASCII Art", Computer Graphics Forum, 2015, 



# Getting started



Embedding the library in your application is straightforward. All you have to do is drop the **ascii_art.c** and its header file in your source tree plus the hex model that can be downloaded [here](https://pixlab.io/art) and perform the following API calls successively:



 1. Call [AsciiArtInit](https://pixlab.io/art) first to initialize the **ascii_render** structure defined in the **ascii_art.h** header file.

 2. Prepare the image to be processed by converting it to the grayscale colorspace. You can rely on some external library like OpenCV [cvtColor](https://docs.opencv.org/3.1.0/de/d25/imgproc_color_conversions.html) or the built-in [AsciiArtLoadImage](https://pixlab.io/art) interface.

 3. Allocate a buffer big enough to hold the entire ASCII text output. The amount of bytes needed is returned via the [AsciiArtTextBufSize](https://pixlab.io/art) interface. This step is optional if you do not want a text output but instead a binary ASCII glyphs image.

 4. Finally, transform the input image into ASCII glyphs/text via [AsciiArtRender](https://pixlab.io/art).

 

Below is a simple C program that demonstrates a typical usage of the ASCII Art C/C++ interfaces.



```C

#include "ascii_art.h"



ascii_render sRender; /* Stack allocated */

	

/* Initialize the render structure */

AsciiArtInit(&sRender);

	

/* Load an image from disk */

int width, height;

unsigned char *zBlob = AsciiArtLoadImage(argv[1],&width,&height);

if( zBlob == 0 ){

	puts("Cannot load image");

	return;

}

	

/* Allocate a buffer big enough to hold the entire text output */

size_t nBytes = AsciiArtTextBufSize(&sRender, width, height);

unsigned char *zText = malloc(nBytes);

	

/* Finally, process */ 

AsciiArtRender(&sRender, zBlob, &width, &height, zText,1);

/* zBlob[] hold the binary ASCII glyphs now */

	

/* Output the result */

fwrite(zText, sizeof(char), nBytes, stdout);

	

/* Release memory */

free(zText);

free(zBlob);

```

sample.c [source code](https://github.com/symisc/ascii_art/blob/master/sample.c)

# Resources

* The C/C++ API reference (Only three interfaces are exported plus another optional), the hex model are all available on the official PixLab page at: https://pixlab.io/art

* The live demo: https://art.pixlab.io

* Please report any issue or feature request here on Github. 

* Unity Asset Store Package: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/165558