Which ANSI color codes are supported?

Foreground color codes: the standard 16-color set (ESC[30-37m and ESC[90-97m), 256-color palette codes (ESC[38;5;nm), and 24-bit truecolor codes (ESC[38;2;r;g;bm). Reset codes (ESC[0m, ESC[39m) are also recognized.

What about background colors or bold/underline?

Those aren't tracked. This tool focuses specifically on foreground color, since that's what determines each rendered block's fill color; other SGR attributes are parsed past but don't affect the output.

What color does uncolored text render as?

Plain characters with no active color code render as black (the same default this tool starts with before any escape sequence is seen), matching how most terminals display unstyled text on a light background.

Does the actual character matter?

No — every non-newline character becomes a solid color block sized to the chosen cell size; the glyph itself isn't rendered, only the color that was active when it appeared.

ANSI Art to PNG Converter - Render Colored Terminal Art as an Image

Overview

Introduction

This tool renders pasted ANSI-colored terminal art back into a viewable, full-color PNG entirely in your browser.

It's the reverse of the PNG to ANSI Art converter, parsing the same class of foreground-color escape sequences that tool produces, plus common variants found in ANSI art from other sources.

What Is ANSI Art to PNG Converter?

A client-side ANSI-art-to-PNG converter with a real SGR (Select Graphic Rendition) escape-sequence parser: it tracks the currently active foreground color as it walks the text, updating on 16-color, 256-color, and truecolor codes, and paints a solid block for every character using whatever color was active at that point.

The output dimensions are derived from the parsed grid's row count and widest row, times the chosen cell size.

How ANSI Art to PNG Converter Works

A regular expression finds every SGR escape sequence in the text; between matches, each character is recorded at its row/column position along with the currently active color, and newlines start a new row.

Color-setting codes update the active color (16-color and 256-color codes are converted to RGB via a standard xterm-style palette/cube/grayscale-ramp formula; truecolor codes are used directly), while reset codes (0 or 39) return to the default color.

When To Use ANSI Art to PNG Converter

Use it to render ANSI art you've written, found online (in demoscene archives, BBS art, or CLI tool banners), or generated with this site's PNG to ANSI Art converter, into a shareable image.

It's also useful for previewing how ANSI art looks rendered at a fixed size, independent of any particular terminal's font and color settings.

Often used alongside PNG to ANSI Art Converter, ASCII Art to PNG Converter and PNG to Braille Art Converter.

Features

Advantages

Runs entirely client-side; your text never leaves the browser.
Supports three real ANSI color code families: 16-color, 256-color, and 24-bit truecolor.
Reconstructs the exact colors this site's PNG to ANSI Art converter produces, for a faithful round trip.

Limitations

Background colors and text attributes other than foreground color are parsed past but not rendered.
Terminal-specific rendering quirks (custom 16-color palettes some terminals use) aren't replicated; standard xterm colors are assumed.

Examples

Render a truecolor block

Input

ESC[38;2;255;0;0m█ESC[0m at cell size 1

Output

A 1x1 fully red PNG pixel

The truecolor escape code is parsed directly into its exact RGB value.

Render plain, uncolored text

Input

"X" with no escape codes, cell size 1

Output

A 1x1 black PNG pixel

With no color code ever seen, the default foreground color (black) is used.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

Use a larger cell size if you want the rendered image to be clearly visible when shared or embedded.
If colors look off, check whether the source art relies on a non-standard 16-color palette some terminals customize.

Developer Notes

The pure parsing and rendering logic lives in a lib function that operates on plain text with no DOM dependency, using a hand-written SGR parameter parser (splitting on ';' and handling multi-parameter codes like 38;2;r;g;b and 38;5;n) and a standard xterm-style 256-color-to-RGB formula shared with no other module, since this is the one direction that needs to decode arbitrary third-party ANSI art rather than just its own output.

ANSI Art to PNG Converter Use Cases

Rendering found ANSI/BBS-style art as a shareable image
Verifying a PNG-to-ANSI-art round trip visually
Converting a CLI tool's colored banner art into a static image for documentation

Common Mistakes

Pasting art that relies on background colors and expecting those to show — only foreground color is rendered.
Assuming every custom terminal color scheme is replicated exactly; this tool uses the standard xterm palette.

Tips

Pair this with the PNG to ANSI Art converter to check how closely a round trip reproduces original colors.
If your art only needs grayscale characters rather than full color, the ASCII Art to PNG converter may be simpler to use.

ANSI Art to PNG Converter