GIF to ASCII Art Converter

Drop an animated GIF. asciify.art decodes every frame, replays the ASCII version with the original delays and respects GIF disposal rules. No upload, runs in your browser.

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How animated GIFs become ASCII

  1. The GIF byte stream is parsed by gifuct-js.
  2. For each frame, the GIF disposal flag is applied to the prior canvas state.
  3. The frame's patch is composited at the correct offset.
  4. The composited frame is downsampled and converted to ASCII.
  5. Frames replay using the original per-frame delay in milliseconds.

Frequently asked questions

How does a GIF to ASCII converter work?

asciify.art parses your GIF with gifuct-js, applies the GIF89a disposal rules between frames (so partial frames composite correctly), and converts each composited frame to ASCII characters based on brightness. The replay uses the GIF's original per-frame delays so the animation looks identical to the source.

Does it work for animated GIFs?

Yes. Both static and animated GIFs are supported. Static GIFs render as a single ASCII frame; animated GIFs replay frame by frame in a loop.

Is my GIF uploaded to a server?

No. The file is read locally with the File API and every frame is decoded in your browser. No upload, no storage, no analytics on the file content.

Will GIF transparency look right?

Yes. asciify.art applies the GIF disposal flag correctly — frames with disposal 1 keep prior content, disposal 2 clears to background, disposal 3 restores the previous state. This is the same behaviour a native image viewer uses, so transparent regions render correctly without flicker or stale pixels.

Can I export the ASCII GIF?

You can copy any visible frame as TXT, export as PNG, or download HTML+CSS. Native animated GIF export of the full ASCII loop is on the roadmap.

What is the largest GIF I can use?

There is no hard limit. Decoding happens locally so the practical ceiling is your device's RAM. A typical few-megabyte animated GIF processes in seconds.