What Is Text Art? ANSI, ASCII, and How to View or Convert Text Art Files

Text art is any image made from characters rather than pixels — letters, punctuation, block glyphs, and sometimes color codes. The two forms you'll meet most often are ASCII art (plain characters, no color) and ANSI art (characters plus color and cursor control, usually from the BBS era). If you just want to look at a file, open it in a viewer or terminal that supports its character set and font; if you want a shareable image, convert it to PNG with a tool like Ansilove.

The main forms of text art

Form Made of Color Typical extensions Where it comes from
ASCII art Printable ASCII characters No .asc, .txt, .nfo Usenet, readme files, early computing
ANSI art Characters + ANSI escape codes Yes (16 colors) .ans BBSes, artscene, PCBoard
Other text-mode art Extended character sets and fonts Varies .xb, .adf, .idf Amiga, C64, other platforms
Emoji / kaomoji Unicode symbols Depends on renderer inline text Messaging, web

The practical difference between ASCII and ANSI art is color and character set. ASCII art relies on the shape of standard characters alone, so it looks the same anywhere the font is monospaced. ANSI art adds escape sequences that set foreground and background colors and move the cursor, so it only looks right when the viewer interprets those codes. A .ans file opened in a plain text editor will show garbage characters mixed with the art.

Common file formats

  • .ans — ANSI art with color codes. The core format for BBS-era art.
  • .asc — plain ASCII art, no color codes.
  • .nfo — scene release info files, often ASCII or ANSI with box-drawing characters.
  • .xb, .adf, .idf — extended/other text-mode formats from non-PC platforms.
  • Artpacks — archives (often .zip) bundling many art files from a group or period. You extract them and open individual files.

How to view text art correctly

  1. Pick a viewer that understands the format. For .ans files, use an ANSI-aware viewer or terminal. A plain text editor will not render the colors.
  2. Use a monospaced font. Text art is drawn on a character grid; a proportional font breaks the alignment.
  3. Match the character set. ANSI art typically uses CP437 (the original IBM PC character set). If your viewer uses a different encoding, block characters and line-drawing glyphs will appear wrong.
  4. Check the font for extended glyphs. Some art depends on specific fonts. Ansilove, for example, documents support for the Spleen 8x16 font, which has full CP437 coverage, and handles font selection from SAUCE metadata — the metadata block that records which font and mode an art file expects.

If the art looks like random symbols, the encoding is wrong. If it looks like the right shapes but no color, you're viewing it as plain text.

Converting ANSI or ASCII art to PNG

Ansilove is a set of tools that convert ANSI and artscene-related file formats into PNG images. The workflow is:

  1. Get the tool. Download from the Ansilove site. Recent releases include ansilove 4.2.2 (June 10, 2026) and libansilove 1.4.2.
  2. Run it against your file. Point it at the .ans, .asc, or other supported file.
  3. Check the output PNG. The converter renders the characters with the correct font and applies the color codes, so the result matches how the art was meant to look.

Why convert at all? PNG output is portable — it displays identically everywhere, doesn't depend on the viewer's font or encoding, and can be posted or archived without the original toolchain.

Troubleshooting common display problems

  • Wrong font or broken block characters — the viewer isn't using the font the art expects. Select the correct font (for example, an Amiga Topaz or Spleen variant) or let the converter read the SAUCE metadata. Note that font selection from SAUCE metadata has had fixes (ansilove 4.2.2 fixed "Amiga Topaz 1" font selection).
  • Missing colors — you're viewing a .ans file as plain text. Use an ANSI-aware viewer or convert to PNG.
  • Garbled characters — encoding mismatch. ANSI art is usually CP437; set your viewer or terminal to that encoding.
  • Font table issues — some fonts weren't reachable due to entry-count bugs (fixed in 4.2.2 so topaz500+ is reachable). If a font seems missing, update the tool.

Choosing what to do

  • Just want to see it? Use an ANSI-aware viewer with a monospaced font and CP437 encoding.
  • Want to share or archive it? Convert to PNG with Ansilove so it renders the same for everyone.
  • Working with artpacks? Extract the archive first, then open or convert individual files.
  • Building something? libansilove is the library behind the converter, used by other projects including Durdraw, Abydos, and Textfiles.com.
ansilove.org
ANSi to PNG converter - A set of tools to convert ANSi and artscene related file formats into PNG images