pixel-art look
Because block elements occupy full cell boundaries rather than thin strokes, converted logos and sprites read as oversized pixels, producing an authentic 8-bit retro aesthetic.
~/charsets/blocks · four fills and a space
Image to block ASCII art with filled cells
A space and four Unicode block elements: light shade, medium shade, dark shade, full block. Nothing here suggests tone with a punctuation stroke — each character paints the cell it sits in, so the output reads as a mosaic of pixels rather than as a page of letters.
░▒▓█
rendering blocks portrait…
[ how_the_ramp_works ]
Five levels of fill, one per cell
The ramp is a space plus ░▒▓█. Each glyph paints a fixed fraction of its cell, so two neighbours on the same step join into one flat patch, and the edge appears only where the step changes. A photograph comes out as terraces. That banding is the result this ramp is for; raise contrast to push the terraces apart.
The site's own font subset contains ░▒▓█, so the preview uses that face. A destination font may substitute another, and the four shades keep their order. See every charset side by side on the home page.
| step | glyph | unicode | luma range | fill pattern | rendering aesthetic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | [space] | U+0020 | 0–20% | 0% empty | Background paper or deep terminal black. |
| 1 | ░ | U+2591 | 20–40% | 25% stipple | Fine quarter-tone dot matrix. Soft haze. |
| 2 | ▒ | U+2592 | 40–60% | 50% checker | Balanced half-tone checkerboard. Smooth midtones. |
| 3 | ▓ | U+2593 | 60–80% | 75% stipple | Dense three-quarter fill. Solid body shading. |
| 4 | █ | U+2588 | 80–100% | 100% solid | Pure geometric tile. Maximum silhouette weight. |
[ poster_and_pixel_art ]
Where block characters stand out
line-height calibration
Ensure destination text containers specify line-height: 1.0. Excessive line spacing introduces horizontal gaps between rows that fracture otherwise solid fills.
terrace banding
With only 5 discrete fill steps, natural photos develop bold topographical bands. Increasing contrast pushes these terraces apart into dramatic posterized forms.
[ faq ]
Block charset questions
What are the Unicode block elements used in this charset?
The ramp uses four standardized Unicode Block Elements: Light Shade (░, U+2591, 25% fill), Medium Shade (▒, U+2592, 50% fill), Dark Shade (▓, U+2593, 75% fill), and Full Block (█, U+2588, 100% solid).
Why do block characters sometimes show horizontal or vertical gaps?
Block glyphs are designed to touch cell borders seamlessly. If gaps appear, the destination environment is enforcing a line-height greater than 1.0 or using a font with non-standard glyph bounding boxes. Setting line-height: 1 in CSS or terminal profiles restores seamless mosaic tiles.
When should I choose blocks over standard ASCII or braille?
Choose blocks for pixel art, retro gaming sprites, high-contrast posters, and README marquee headers where solid silhouette impact matters more than photographic realism.
Four fills and a space.
Open the converter with blocks preselected, drop an image, and move columns and contrast until the terraces sit where you want them. The conversion runs in your own tab; your image bytes never leave the device.
Open the block ASCII converter