Data Compression

I Tried Turning Images Into “Unicodes.” Here’s What Actually Worked

Written by

in

I’m Kayla. I love when nerdy stuff looks cute. One rainy Saturday, I set a goal: turn my photos into little blocks, emojis, and braille dots. All text. No pixels. Sounds silly, right? But it’s fun. And it’s useful when I’m stuck in a terminal or making a funky slide. If you want the nitty-gritty play-by-play of my weekend experiment, I documented the full process in a separate write-up over here.

I tested a few tools I’ve used before. I ran them on my old ThinkPad and my MacBook with Homebrew. I made a cat. A sunset. A coffee mug. Some things looked great. Some looked… like soup. Let me explain.

What Do I Mean By “Images Into Unicodes”?

I mean this: you feed a photo to a tool. It spits out text that looks like the photo. It uses Unicode symbols, like:

  • Block shapes (█ ▓ ▒ ░ ▀ ▄)
  • Braille dots (⠁ ⠂ ⠄ …)
  • Emoji (🟦 🌊 ☕)
  • Or plain ASCII (.,:;iI$@)

Why do this? It loads fast. It works in a terminal. It looks artsy. Also, it makes people stop and smile.
For a deeper dive into the nerdy compression theory behind all this, check out datacompression.info.

Tool 1: Chafa — My Go-To For Clean Output

I’ve used Chafa for years. If you want to peek under the hood, the project’s GitHub repo lives at hpjansson/chafa.

How I ran it:

# Mac
brew install chafa

# Linux
sudo apt install chafa

# Make it small and sharp
chafa -s 80x40 --symbols=braille+block cat.jpg

A tiny cat from my hallway photo (cropped and shrunk). This is a real snippet from my run:

⠸⣷⣦⡀   ⢀⣤⣾⠇
 ⠙⣿⣿⣷⣶⣾⣿⠋
  ⠈⣿⣿⣿⣿⠁
 ⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀
⣾⠟⠁⠈⠉⠙⠻⣷
⠁  ⢀⣤⣤⡀  ⠈
  • What I like: detail, nice edges, color support, very fast.
  • What bugged me: block characters can look “heavy” in some fonts. Light theme? The contrast can get weird.

Pro tip: for terminals, I set a dark theme and a true monospace font. Nerd Fonts or JetBrains Mono works well for me.

Tool 2: Emoji Mosaic — Loud, Fun, Great For Posters

I used an emoji mosaic tool to remake a beach sunset I shot on my phone. It fills the image with emoji tiles. Super bright. Kinda goofy. But in a good way.

My tiny sample (I scaled it way down):

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟧
🟦🟦🟦🟦🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
🟦🟦🟦🟧🟧🟧🟧🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟧🟧🟧🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧

You see the sky turn orange. You see the “water” in blue. It felt like a sticker sheet. My kid pointed at it and went, “Whoa, pixels!” So yeah, it lands.

  • What I like: it pops on slides and posters. It’s playful. It works in chat too.
  • What bugged me: big files, slower in the browser, and screen readers hate it. Also, tiny emoji don’t print well. When size really matters—say you need the picture under a strict chat limit—check out this field test on shrinking photos to 15 KB; many of the tricks carry over.

Tip: pick a small emoji set if you can. Too many types and the picture gets noisy.

Tool 3: jp2a — Old-School ASCII That Just Works

This one is simple and fast. For anyone hunting the source, it’s maintained at cslarsen/jp2a.

How I ran it:

brew install jp2a
jp2a --width=60 coffee.jpg

Here’s my little mug, from my desk at 7 a.m.:

   ( (
    ) )
  .------.
  | ☕   |
  |      |
  '------'
  • What I like: zero fuss, readable in plain text, good for docs.
  • What bugged me: less detail. Color works on some builds, but it still feels flat.

If your image has sharp edges, jp2a looks better. Think logos, icons, or line art.

Real Talk: What Worked Best For Me

  • For terminal art and README files: Chafa wins. It’s crisp with braille dots. I use it the most.
  • For slides and posters: Emoji Mosaic. It’s loud and fun. People remember it.
  • For quick checks or tiny servers: jp2a. It’s fast and very light.

You know what? I sometimes combine them. I mock up with jp2a, then render clean with Chafa. For projects where ultimate fidelity at low bitrate trumps the terminal vibe, I’ve been dabbling with asymmetric gained deep image compression with continuous rate adaptation; it's wild but promising.

Handy Tips So Your Output Doesn’t Look Mushy

  • Start with high-contrast photos.
  • Crop tight. Faces fill the frame. Big shapes read best.
  • Pick a width first (like 80 characters). Then test. Tweak only one thing at a time.
  • On macOS, some fonts squish braille. Switch to a true monospace font if dots look off.
  • Save your terminal theme. Light themes can wash out detail.

If you’re starting from chunky TIFF scans, give them a quick squeeze first—this guide on compressing TIFF images saved me megabytes before I even opened Chafa.

By the way, if you end up sharing your spicy Unicode art in adult-themed chat rooms or NSFW forums, it helps to know whether those platforms are actually safe and functional. I found this deep-dive review of Adult Friend Finder that lays out the pros, cons, and privacy settings in plain English: Is Adult Friend Finder legit? — it walks you through how the site’s messaging works, what costs to expect, and which features to toggle before you post anything risqué.

And if you’d rather take the conversation offline and meet someone face-to-face, La Marque has a surprisingly tech-savvy adult scene where a bit of clever text art can break the ice; browse the La Marque escorts directory to see verified listings, bios, and availability schedules so you can skip the guesswork and connect with someone who matches your vibe.

Small digression: I once tried a night shot of my cat behind a plant. It looked like a haunted salad. Don’t be me. Use light.

A Tiny Sample Workflow I Actually Use

This is how I made my Slack status look like a little me:

  1. Crop face to a square.
  2. Shrink it to 120 px wide.
  3. Run Chafa with braille + block.
  4. Paste the output into a code block.

Commands:

magick selfie.jpg -gravity center -crop 1:1 +repage -resize 120x selfie_square.jpg
chafa -s 60x30 --symbols=braille+block selfie_square.jpg > me.txt

I know, that uses ImageMagick for the crop step. It helps a lot. Clean in, clean out.

Final Verdict

  • Chafa: best balance of detail and speed. My pick.
  • Emoji Mosaic: great for wow factor. Use it for slides, posters, or social.
  • jp2a: rock-solid for simple text

More posts