What Is TextPaint and What Can You Do With It?

Updated

TextPaint is a browser-based editor for drawing with text. You use ASCII characters, Unicode symbols, emojis, or any character you choose to paint on a canvas, much like pixel art made from symbols. It requires no account and no installation: you open the site, pick a character, and start drawing. It suits anyone who wants to make traditional ASCII art or modern Unicode-based character designs without design software.

What you can make with it

TextPaint covers both classic and contemporary text art:

  • Traditional ASCII art built from letters, numbers, punctuation, and keyboard symbols.
  • Unicode and emoji designs that go beyond the standard keyboard.
  • Text-based graphics for forum signatures, retro-style projects, or creative experiments.

The site describes the process as similar to pixel art, except every "pixel" is a character you choose.

The drawing tools

The sidebar holds the main tools. You can try each one directly or read its dedicated page on the site.

Tool What it does
Pencil Draw freehand with the character you selected
Paint Bucket Fill closed areas instantly with any character
Text Input Type text, convert it to ASCII art, and place it anywhere on the canvas
Select Area Highlight part of the workspace to copy, delete, or move
Character Picker Grab any character already on the canvas and reuse it
Find & Replace Swap characters by specifying what to find and what to replace it with
Draw Line Create straight or shaped lines in different styles
Image to ASCII Upload an image and convert it into character art
Merge two texts Combine two text files into one

Below these are additional settings for shifting text on the page, rotating or mirroring the artwork, choosing a font style, and setting the canvas size.

Canvas features worth knowing

  • Draw with any character, emoji, or symbol.
  • Adjust text and background colors while editing.
  • Resize and shift the canvas as the artwork grows.
  • Flip or rotate the whole piece with one click.
  • Copy, paste, export, and merge separate projects.
  • Highlight characters that may break formatting, such as wide or odd-width ones.
  • Choose from clean monospace fonts; the site notes Courier or Lucida Console work best.

Exporting your work

When the artwork is finished, you can export it as a plain text file, as HTML, or as a JavaScript string. The site recommends displaying ASCII art in monospace fonts so it renders correctly on any website.

Who it is for

The site lists its audience broadly: hobbyists making forum signatures, people creating retro-computing-style visuals, and anyone experimenting with character-based design. Because there is no signup and everything runs in the browser, it also works well for quick one-off pieces where installing software would be overkill.

Getting started

Open a demo from the sidebar and experiment with the paint tools. If you are new to the format, start with the Pencil and a single character, then try the Paint Bucket to fill enclosed shapes. Use Image to ASCII when you want to convert an existing picture rather than draw from scratch.