Pict2Ascii reads Pict files, and generates texts representing the pictures.
Controls allow the user to choose the font among the monospace fonts installed, the font size, and the zoom factor applied to the picture.
The text may be optimized for screen rendering or for printing.
How is it distributed ?
Pict2Ascii is freeware.
Print2Ascii is provided "as is", without any warranty of any kind. I cannot be held responsible for anything happening to your machine including disk crash, OS version conflicts, lack of free RAM, screen diagonal sticking to 14" or sudden power failure.
I wrote it to play around in MetroWerk's PowerPlant with simple things before I begin tougher projects.
The source code may not be a example to follow, but I will send it by email to anyone asking for it. In particular, low memory conditions are NOT handled gracefully, altough they ought not to crash the machine.
The PPC version only is distributed. The 68k version has been tested on 7600 and 9500, and seems to run fine. It surely runs slowly. I will send it to anyone asking for it, and will make it available if the crowd asks for it (more than 5 demands).
How does it work ?
Pict2Ascii computes the grey equivalent of each character in the font (deliberately limited to «portable» chars between 32 and 126).
It also computes the grey equivalent of each rectangle of the picture to be represented by a character.
It then fits the extents of the picture's greys to those of the characters to maximize the contrast ; the text is generating by simply selecting for each rectangle in the picture the character whose grey equivalent is the closest.
Grey equivalents are computed with real size characters for screen rendering, and with «big» characters for printing, to take into account the higher resolution of the printers. Texts optimized for printing may seem wrong on screen : try printing to a PDF file to have a better idea of the printed result.
