Ascii Artist

Despite the wide variety of ways in which consumer grade software improves on the daily, some users may still want to jump back to a program reminiscent of simpler times, when the most basic of functions still felt fresh and the novelty of computers just started to take over the markets.

As such, thanks to a handful of highly talented and dedicated developers, one can relive that experience through a program known as Ascii Artist, a DOS-like rendition of Microsoft Paint that lets you scatter characters across the canvas as brush strokes and turn digital photos into ready-made text mosaics for your retro artistic endeavors.

Double-clicking the application’s executable instantly summons a straightforward terminal-like window whose layout features a top toolbar that may take some getting used to due to the lack of labels accompanying the buttons. In order to circumvent this issue, the program could implement an active section in the bottom status bar which shows the function of each command when hovering the cursor over it.

Moreover, the app excels in the degree of freedom it provides its users with, limited only by the design it religiously follows, particularly in terms of the 16-bit color support that was once standard among computer games and programs of times long gone. Otherwise, you have almost all the ASCII characters at your disposal to accurately portray the landscapes or structures you want to create.

Drawing buildings is made easier with the included shape insertion tools, while last-minute changes are possible thanks to the bundled selection tool and support for undoing or redoing actions through keyboard shortcuts, similarly to quintessential drawing programs such as Microsoft Paint.

Depending on your use case, the app also lets you create custom animations for retro game covers or trailers through the use of a system treating layers as frames. Finally, for an added bit of inspiration, the program boasts support for converting images into fully colored ASCII-based mosaics, which is a feature that comes in handy for making DOS-style character portraits for a game you are currently working on.

Whether you want to relive a nostalgia-fuelled slice of the past, or you want to experience first-hand what the world of 16-colored DOS-based operating systems had to offer, then Ascii Artist may be the best tool for the job, thanks to the level of freedom it provides users with and its bundled support for converting regular pictures into beautiful ASCII mosaics.