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Show HN: ASCII Drawing Board
I've made an ASCII drawing board.
You can set any brush, canvas size, export art as a text file.
I want to keep it as manual/analog as possible, hence there is no tool for converting image to ASCII.
Prompting LLMs to draw ASCII art turned out to be a difficult task .
So instead I decided to ask it make a drawing board. Wihtout coding agent I wouldn't even try myself. Although it is an interesting task, it would drift me away.
Basically it's just a drawing board with endless variations of textures and brushes: when you make large canvas and zoom out you don't see ASCII anymore, but textured drawing.
E.g. this is a cat: https://x.com/delopsu_com/status/1971726204073136219 https://x.com/delopsu_com/status/1971726204073136219, brush used: " ".
I would appreciate if you could give it a try and tell your people about it, if it's something that may be of their interest.
Also please give any feedback here or on X.
turns out there is already (or is emerging) ASCII benchmark for LLMs.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- DamonHD 1y agoWould much prefer it to start with just printable ASCII characters in the brush (32--126) from which the output would work in more places and would be in better alignment with the name. Having said that, yes, fun and interesting, thank you...
- delopsu 1y agoThank you for trying it and for the feedback! Glad you liked it! > start with just printable ASCII characters in the brush Yes. I started like this. But then set these fancy characters by default to show the capabilities, because those who are familiar with the concept know the possibilities, but those who don't know could think that it's limited and not notice wide limits.
- delopsu 1y agoIt's a shame that I haven't read text above after posting (only in Edit mode). I used asterisk after "difficult task" and in the footer — all between became italic. And also brush was cleaned out.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jbentley1 1y agoI'm going to use this for all of my Slack replies
- delopsu 1y agoAha, thank you!
- atum47 1y agoIt could work on mobile if you work a little bit on it. Right now touch is dragging the screen
- delopsu 1y agoOh, yes, forgot about it. On tablet it could be pretty convenient to use, if it works. Thank you!
- firasan 1y agoOn my iPad, the vertical movements seem to trigger the page scroll
- delopsu 1y agoThank you, working on it at the moment.
- delopsu 1y agoI've pushed a simple fix. It allows to draw on touch devices (with interesting effects with multi-touch). But one can stuck at the center of the canvas. If it happens — tap the header of the browser to scroll back to top. Could you please try it again? Thinking about more elegant solution.
- arkensaw 1y agoThis is such a great idea, well done. Congrats!
- delopsu 1y agoThank you!
- teddyh 1y agoemacs M-x artist-mode
- delopsu 1y agoTIL :)
- matt3210 1y ago> So instead I decided to ask it make a drawing board Very nice. Congrats to the coding agent which made this. Needs an undo button though!
- delopsu 1y agoPassed it. Here is the reponse: > Love to hear that — thank you for sharing! Not sure about Undo — part of me wants to keep it hardcore. Like with real ink.
- janwillemb 1y agoDoesn't seem to work on Firefox mobile. On each stroke it only renders one "point".
- delopsu 1y agoHm. What OS do you use? It works fine (for me) in Firefox on iOS. Haven't tested on Android.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y agoFor me, Firefox on Android, I get this: One stroke draws one spot at the starting point. Any number of further strokes draw nothing. When I tap outside the canvas I can draw one more point
- delopsu 1y agoCould you please try it now? Pushed a fix, but have no Android to test it.
- janwillemb 1y agoStill only one point
- Grayson2025 1y agovery interesting, good job!
- delopsu 1y agoThank you!
- lesser-shadow 1y ago[dead]
- doi9t 1y agoIt's always nice to see new tools editing ASCII; especially when working with markdown documentation. For those who like those types of tools, but for diagrams, there's asciiflow.com. Good job!
- delopsu 1y agoYes! Thank you for sharing it. And it feels like ASCII art is going through a renaissance. Maybe I'm biased and watched it a lot recently. Let me also share a few cool ASCII tools I came across while working on this one: - animation studio: https://ascii-motion.app/ https://ascii-motion.app/ - image to ASCII converter: https://www.tooooools.app/effects/ascii https://www.tooooools.app/effects/ascii
- jkhanlar 1y agoIt appears a little buggy handling fixed width improperly, noticeably when using a mouse to write out a word, with uneven drawing, the fixed width spacing does not consistently properly match the cursor movement for some lines.
- delopsu 1y agoCould you please share the brush that you used? Some characters squize/expand line because of the font. E.g. emojis. Thank you giving it a try and for the feedback!
- DoctorOW 1y agoYou can actually see this bug with the default brush (Firefox 143.0.4 Windows) https://gifrun.azureedge.net/video/0bf0ec6a48ec4f75b9942cf1a10442fd.mp4 https://gifrun.azureedge.net/video/0bf0ec6a48ec4f75b9942cf1a...
- slig 1y agoNice one, thanks for sharing! Love these simple tools that LLMs can help us ship them in no time.
- delopsu 1y agoYes, exactly! There might so many unexplored and/or abandoned ideas. Thank you for checking it out!
- andrewrn 1y agoReally fun. Perfect HN post.
- delopsu 1y agoThank you!
- 47282847 1y agoNice! Feature request: drop-down menu to select a few “popular“ brush sets.
- delopsu 1y agoYes, thank you! I'm thinking about making brushes and art gallery, it would be very interesting to see what people come up with. Thank you for checking it out and for the feedback!
- delopsu 1y agoJust added brushes palette. So far only local. And reworked layout a bit. Hope it makes board more convenient.
- kordlessagain 1y agoӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨ ӨӨӨӨӨӨ
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- delopsu 1y agoHNNN HHHHHHHN HNNNNNNNNN HHHHHHHHHHHHHN HNNNNN HNNNNNHHHHHHN HN HN HNHHN HN HHN HN HNNN HHN HNNN HHN HNNNN HHHHN HNNNNNN HHHHHHN HNNNNN HHHHHHNHNN HHHHN HN
- pwnfunction 1y agois this opensource? adding a cool fluid simulation to whatever you draw would be really fun. its like one of those ioccc vids - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMYfkOtYYlg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMYfkOtYYlg
- delopsu 1y agoVery interesting one! So many cool things have been made in this field! However I think it's not relevant for the board. It's not open-sourced (at least yet). Anyway thank you for checking it out and suggestion!
- vunderba 1y agoNice job. There's also a good open-source ASCII paint tool which supports export to TXT/ or PNG that I've been using for the past few years as well. Github https://github.com/Kirilllive/ASCII_Art_Paint https://github.com/Kirilllive/ASCII_Art_Paint Online Demo https://kirilllive.github.io/ASCII_Art_Paint/ascii_paint.html https://kirilllive.github.io/ASCII_Art_Paint/ascii_paint.htm...
- delopsu 1y agoThank yuou for sharing! Interesting solution. I'm thinking about adding brush palette. And thank you for checking it out, glad you liked it!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- delopsu 1y agoOh, these guys have a drawing board too, with a bit different approach: https://www.asciiart.eu/ascii-draw-studio/app https://www.asciiart.eu/ascii-draw-studio/app
- bigjobby 1y agoBrilliant. Rick ASCii thanks you https://bigjobby.com/8bitrick/ https://bigjobby.com/8bitrick/
- delopsu 1y agoThank you!