Ascii Generator 2 / News: Recent posts

Ascii Generator 2 (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into the highest quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind with output adjustments in real-time and conversions for variable width fonts.

Download: http://ascgendotnet.jmsoftware.co.uk/download

Here are the main changes:
- Complete rewrite of almost the entire code-base into cleaner, more readable and modular code.
- The conversion process has been optimized at every step, with a big overall speed increase.
- The input image has moved from the main panel into a new widget, plus lots of other UI changes.
- Batch conversion has been completely rewritten with a new and more usable interface.
- The settings form and the whole settings system have been rewritten, and it now automatically saves to a new data file when you press ok.
- Several memory leaks have been fixed, as have all known bugs.
- Added support for handling multiple translation files.... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into the highest quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind with output adjustments in real-time and conversions for variable width fonts.

This release adds dithering to improve the output, all text widgets have been merged into one, and adds automatic loading of translation files in translation.*.xml format.... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into the highest quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind with output adjustments in real-time and conversions for variable width fonts.

This release adds dithering to improve the output, all text widgets have been merged into one, and adds automatic loading of translation files in translation.*.xml format.... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

This release introduces a new method of choosing the output, plus an important bug fix.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Added toolstrip with buttons to rotate and flip the input image
Replaced the different save menu items with a dialog
Set Accept (enter) and Cancel (escape) buttons for edit settings and text magnification forms
Fixed ctrl codes being enabled/disabled when they shouldn’t be if the menu hasn’t been opened

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

This release introduces the framework for translating the program into other languages, and adds the ability to save and print colour images.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786 ... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786

Fixed an error that was badly affecting the output and has been there since the start, plus filters are now applied to the edges. Recommended upgrade for everyone.... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Added maximum width and height to the variables and settings file
Restored clicking and dragging outside the image to start selection
Added checkbox, menu item and F12 shortcut to toggle image visibility
Added link to the tutorials page
Added the currently open filename to the title
Added dragging and dropping an image onto the RichTextBox to load it
Added pressing escape while dragging/moving selection rectangle to cancel changes
Cleaned up and refactored JMSelectablePictureBox a little
Added holding shift while selecting to constrain it to a perfect square

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786

New Features:
Added ability to print the text image
Added print preview and page setup
Moved image and text out of the tabs and into a split panel control
Added rotating the input image by 90/180/270 degrees
Added flipping the input image horizontally and vertically... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
- Fixed crash on '&' in generated ramps (thanks Anonymous)
- Moved html/rtf creation into a separate class
- Fixed xhtml character encoding, and specified it in the file

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Changed rtf output to be ASCII instead of Unicode/UTF to make them work in other programs
Added automatic version checking against the sourceforge website
Added "check for new versions?" bool to the variables and settings file
Moved the version number into a structure instead of one variable
Moved most effects applied to the output into classes
Moved apply convolution matrix function into the ConvolutionMatrix structure
Moved ascii conversion related files into a new folder
Changed solution to compile without warnings in Visual C# Express
Added "Copy Ramp to Clipboard" to the edit menu
Moved ramp menu items into a sub-menu
Moved font related menu items into a sub-menu
Batch Conversion/Settings:
- Restored missing resource string for Auto button/right click menu
- Changed auto button right-click menu to a menustrip
- Fixed problem with disabled Ok button when the regional settings decimal symbol isn't "."
- Added setting backcolor of an invalid textbox to red
- Fixed tab order
- Fixed problems with invalid character sizes being allowed

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Removed "Force Greyscale" option when saving images, and set it to always output greyscale
Added "Font..." to the edit menu
Added "+" to the center of the selected area when moving it
Fixed pictures not being released after they have been loaded
Fixed brightness/contrast not being applied to the colours when saving as a colour image
Fixed saving as html/colour text with ansi and other non-standard characters
Small improvement to outputted css

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time. It is written in C# using the .NET Framework 2.0.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Added "Save as Colour Text" to output as html and rtf files with the Color information added
Added menu links to the report a bug and feature request pages
Changed batch conversion form from contextmenus to contextmenustrips
Added saving as html files

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time. It is written in C# using the .NET Framework 2.0.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Ported code to .Net framework 2.0
Menu and toolbar changed to MenuStrip and multiple ToolStrips (all rearrangable)
Replaced native measure and draw text code with TextRenderer functions
Added "█▓▒░ " ansi ramp and valid characters - Select "Plain Text (Unicode)" as the type when saving the text
Changed "Close without saving the output?" to "Save the output before closing?"
Added menu icons
Replaced context menus with context menu strips

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support conversion into variable width fonts, and output adjustments in real-time.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Added right-click menu items to show a dialog for changing the selection area's fill and border colours
Added saving/loading of the selection area fill and border colours from the settings file
Added confirmation dialog for closing an image
Added confirm on close to the settings file (default: true)
Fixed double-click on a selected area loses the selection area
Changed clicking outside the image to not remove the selection area
Moved image and text brightness/contrast settings into a sub-category
Added variables and settings to specify whether to load image and text brightness/contrast and levels from the settings file (default: false)
Added variables and settings to specify whether to load the output size from the settings file (default: true)

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Fixed phantom colours problem when saving as images with Cleartype on:
- Added code for converting the output images to greyscale
- Added force greyscale checkbox to the Save as Image... magnification dialog
Properly fixed the batch conversion problems with variable width default fonts

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
“Save as Image…” magnification dialog box:
- Improved layout
- Added display of the output image size
- Made the form resizable
- Caught crash if the sample text is empty
- Increased accuracy of the trackbar by a factor of 10
Added saving of user entered ramp/valid characters to variables and xml
Fixed crash on opening batch conversion settings with a variable width default font
Restored “ASCII-” prefix when saving as text
Added a default prefix to the variables and xml
Set initial batch conversion output and input directories from the settings
Fixed crash on processing a batch conversion with a variable width default font

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

Changes in this version:
Added default font to the variables
Added reading and writing of the default font to the xml
Added pinvoke function to fix problem with some variable width fonts being identified as fixed width
Fixed minimum size of valid characters dialog when the font size changes
Added handling for System.Argument exception raised on some fonts

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ascgen2/ascgen2-0.6.4.zip?download

If you are using the settings file from the previous version, please either delete it, or remove the <validcharacters>...</validcharacters> line, load the program and save the settings.... read more

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ascgen2/ascgen2-0.6.3.zip?download

Notes:
Implemented a save default settings feature. You can now set up the program how you wish, and go to "Edit/Save Settings as Default" to write the settings to an xml file. The file must be in the same directory as the executable, and have the same name as the executable but with ".xml" replacing ".exe".... read more

The Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ascgen2/ascgen2-0.6.2.zip?download

Notes:
A couple of bug fixes and a lot of internal changes.... read more

The Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art, i.e. text that accurately represents the original image. The first and only program of its kind to support variable width fonts, and real-time output adjustment.

Download it here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ascgen2/ascgen2-0.6.1.zip?download

Changes in this version:
Improved the accuracy of variable width conversions
Improved speed of variable width conversions
Added support for white text on black with variable width fonts
Fixed incorrect output when using white text on black and font changes

The Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen) is an application for the conversion of images into high quality ASCII art, with real-time adjustment of the output text image's brightness/contrast/levels etc.

This release is the first image to text converter (ever?) to allow the use of variable width fonts for the conversion.

Changes made in this version:
Variable Width Conversions
Added exception handling for the odd dividebyzero error reported
Added Edit menu
Set the valid ramp dialog's textbox to display in the current font

The Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen) is an application for the conversion of images into high quality ASCII art, with real-time adjustment of the output text image's brightness/contrast/levels etc.

Changes made in this version:
Fixed picturebox not receiving focus when it was clicked on
Fixed problem when an area is being selected and the picturebox loses focus
Various small optimizations of the apply text effects code
Moved text to values code into a separate class

The Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen) is an application for the conversion of images into high quality ASCII art, with a real-time adjustment of the output text image's brightness/contrast/levels etc.

Changes made in this version:
Added levels adjustment values to the batch conversion settings
Removed unnecessary boolean from TextProcessingSettings
Changed conversion from Brightness/Contrast->Levels->Stretch to Brightness/Contrast->Stretch->Levels to match what is shown on the graph
Made Brightness/Contrast widget resizable

The latest major release of the ASCII Generator dotNET is available. This high quality image to ASCII art converter has now gained the ability to adjust the output image's levels histogram in real time.