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ASCII Terrain Animation – Live Background

Rolling ASCII hills made of shading blocks that scroll slowly sideways. Landscape background with fullscreen, PNG and HTML export.

About the Terrain effect

Terrain draws a side-on landscape. For each column, two slow sine waves of different lengths are added to find the height of the ground, producing gentle hills with occasional larger swells. Below the ground line, cells are filled with the shading blocks ░▒▓█, getting denser with depth, so the surface has a light crust and the earth beneath looks solid. Over time the waves drift in opposite directions, so the hills slowly change shape and the landscape seems to scroll past, like the view from a train or the parallax backdrop of an old side-scrolling game. The upper half of the screen stays mostly clear for titles or text. Green gives grassy hills, amber a desert at sunset, white a snowy ridge. Combine a slow speed with a large font size for a chunky, pixel-art style horizon.

Ideas for using Terrain

  • Footer or hero landscape for an outdoors, travel or game site
  • Parallax-style backdrop for a retro game trailer or stream
  • Horizon wallpaper with space for text in the sky (PNG export)

Download as wallpaper

Get the Terrain ASCII wallpaper at the exact resolution of your phone, tablet or monitor. Pick a size below to open the wallpaper panel, choose color and character size in the toolbar, then download a PNG, save it to Photos on mobile, or record a 6 second video loop. See every effect side by side on the ASCII wallpapers page.

Download options

  • Wallpaper — exact-size PNG for phone, iPhone, tablet, 4K desktop, ultrawide, square, story, watch or social card, Save to Photos on mobile, and a 6 s MP4/WebM loop.
  • PNG snapshot — single image frame with your chosen color, glow and font size. Use it as a wallpaper, slide background, or social media share.
  • Animated HTML — self-contained .html file with the generator inlined. Open it in any browser and the animation runs offline indefinitely.
  • TXT frame — the current ASCII frame as plain text. Drop it into a README, code comment, or any place that supports preformatted text.
  • Copy ASCII — copy the current frame to clipboard for instant paste anywhere.
  • Copy embed — an iframe snippet pointing at asciify.art with all your color / speed / size parameters in the URL.

Keyboard shortcuts

  • H — toggle UI (hide / show toolbar)
  • F — toggle browser fullscreen
  • Esc — exit fullscreen

Frequently asked questions

Can I put text above the hills?

Yes. The ground sits around the middle of the screen, leaving the upper half mostly empty for a title or logo.

Why does the landscape change shape?

The height is the sum of two sine waves drifting in opposite directions, so hills slowly rise, fall and travel sideways.

How do I download the Terrain ASCII background?

Use the toolbar at the bottom of the fullscreen view. PNG snapshot exports the current frame as a styled image (background, color, glow). Animated HTML exports a self-contained .html file that replays the animation in any browser. TXT exports just the current ASCII frame, and Copy ASCII puts it into your clipboard.

How do I get the Terrain background as a phone wallpaper?

Tap "Wallpaper" in the toolbar and pick a preset: Phone 9:19.5 (1440×3120), iPhone Pro Max (1320×2868), Tablet, Desktop 4K, Ultrawide, Square, Story 9:16, Watch or Social card. The image is rendered at that exact resolution, not upscaled from your screen. "Keep top 25 % calm" dims the area behind the clock and widgets. On a phone, "Save to Photos" opens the share sheet so you can save it straight to your gallery, and "Download video (6 s)" records a short MP4/WebM loop for live-wallpaper apps, Reels or TikTok.

Can I embed the Terrain background on my own site?

Yes. Click "Copy embed" in the toolbar to get an <iframe> snippet pointing at asciify.art. Width, color, speed and font size are encoded in the URL, so it stays exactly the way you configured it.

Can I customize color and speed?

Yes. Pick one of the preset colors, use the native color picker for any RGB value, adjust speed from 0.1× to 3×, and change font size from 6px to 24px. The PNG / HTML / embed export uses the current settings.