Convert your pictures to HTML.

January 23, 2002 1:18 PM

Convert your pictures to HTML. So cool I nearly wet myself.
Seriously.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger (26 comments total)

Poor guy -- you're going to kill his little Pentium 166 with this post!
posted by me3dia at 1:30 PM on January 23, 2002

I've never seen it done server-side, this is really cool, though slow as molasses.

Whatever anyone does, don't post the output from that site here, it takes forever to render even a single demo image like this one of me with pancakes, and I'd hate to see this server brought down trying to serve up a few dozen on a single page.
posted by mathowie at 1:39 PM on January 23, 2002

Really. It even worked from my dinky dial-up.
posted by bjgeiger at 1:39 PM on January 23, 2002

Already dead... server timed out. Alas...
posted by internook at 1:40 PM on January 23, 2002

"asciiporncakes"??
posted by phatboy at 1:47 PM on January 23, 2002

It was cool. Couldn't resist converting a kitten pic for the mrs. Funny, the two thoughts going through my head as it rendered were: "This server is probably toast within 10 - 15 minutes." and "I hope people don't crash the MeFi server with a bunch of these."
posted by gimli at 2:05 PM on January 23, 2002

That server is getting fried as we speak... I'm using a 1.7 GHZ processor and cable modem, yet that page took forever to load.
posted by Aikido at 2:20 PM on January 23, 2002

PixelTransformer is a similar text to image utility, but client-side.
posted by skyline at 2:30 PM on January 23, 2002

I made a man.
posted by sudama at 2:48 PM on January 23, 2002

looks like they put up another server: here.
posted by jnthnjng at 2:49 PM on January 23, 2002

there used to be a Photoshop plug-in that did the same thing (this is just using colored table cells to represent the image right?). The output files were just enormous. Not much practical use for it, but kinda geeky cool nonetheless.
posted by xochi at 2:59 PM on January 23, 2002

argh! radness overload.
posted by mcsweetie at 3:01 PM on January 23, 2002

I did a cool intro graphic for my website. I also discovered that if you stick some [div align="center"] tags on it, it looks like it's being poured out onto your screen.

Take a look.
posted by tpoh.org at 3:12 PM on January 23, 2002

I've seen this somewhere else, some design site, which renders exactly the same way, a few months ago.

Ah, there it is. June 14th. And of course the site itself doesn't work anymore (bandwidth, anyone ?), so you'll have to take my word for it =)
posted by XiBe at 3:22 PM on January 23, 2002

Here's a PHP package if you want to host a similar service [ Here's a live version ].

Some client side pic-to-ascii freeware programs: BG_ASCII, AsciiMagic, AsciiPic
posted by nikzhowz at 3:33 PM on January 23, 2002

The cost of cool is server destruction.
posted by Slagman at 3:37 PM on January 23, 2002

i thought it came out pretty good...
posted by ejoey at 3:49 PM on January 23, 2002

I timed out on me several times. Nevertheless, I am amused for now.
posted by bottledbliss at 4:20 PM on January 23, 2002

great stuff. thanks, man!
posted by arrowhead at 6:40 PM on January 23, 2002

a similar thing has been floating around on thinkgeek for the last couple years. i've got the source somewhere, i just can't remember where.
posted by awadwatt at 9:06 PM on January 23, 2002

You know, we all really need to get out more often.
posted by tpoh.org at 9:34 PM on January 23, 2002

I remember when this was big on the FirstClass bulletin boards. About ten years ago. Still lots of fun, though.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:14 PM on January 23, 2002

It's similar to gif2txt. But this link is just a script that will convert your gif to regualar old-fashioned ASCII in a text file. No colours and not as fancy, but the result of course is much tinier. Retro fun.
posted by sixdifferentways at 7:16 AM on January 24, 2002

Wow, pictures converted to ASCII? How sweet that I have lived so long as to see the 21st century! If only they had this around 20 years ago.
posted by dhartung at 8:56 AM on January 24, 2002

Anything similar that converts to ANSI with color? I have a friend who wants to make her site look like an old BBS.

Don't ask why.
posted by Hildago at 1:56 PM on January 24, 2002

The domain is "tf," which is "French Southern Territories." Huh, what? Is that, like, Andorra or something?
posted by Allen Varney at 11:11 PM on January 25, 2002