Converts any texture into a grid of characters picked by brightness, or lays out typed text, with per-cell scale warping and randomization.

The ASCII node renders a character grid. In its default mode each cell samples the input texture's brightness and picks a character from a dark-to-light set — classic ASCII art from any generator, image, or video source.

ASCII default output driven by a Perlin Noise source

One texture output; a brightness-source input and a composite input
Two modes: brightness-to-charset conversion, or laying out typed text
Found in nerdGRAPH under Generators in the add-node menu

Example patch — drag onto the app to load

The image on the right is the example patch itself — drag and drop it onto the app (or load it with File → Load) to open the full graph. It feeds a frozen Perlin Noise into the Input port as the brightness source.

Inputs and outputs

ASCII node

Port	Type	Purpose
Input	Texture	Brightness source — each cell's luminance picks a character
Composite Input	Texture	Composited over the output using the node's Blend Mode and Opacity
Output	Texture	The rendered character grid

The Input texture also drives the scale-warp system (see Dark Scale / Light Scale) and, with Inherit Source Color on, per-cell color.

Unconnected, the Input falls back to a black field, so every cell renders the first (darkest) character in the set — a space by default, which looks like empty output. Wire a source in, or switch to Sequential mode.

Perlin noise source next to its ASCII conversion

Parameters

Opacity, Blend Mode, ALPHA — the standard operator header.

Structure

Mode — Texture (brightness -> charset) samples the input per cell and picks a character by luminance. Sequential (typed text) lays the Text string across cells in reading order instead, ignoring brightness and the character set; newlines force a row break.
Text (default AURAGEN ) — the string used in Sequential mode.
Character Set (default .:-=+*#%@) — the lookup used in Texture mode, ordered dark to light. Cell brightness indexes into this string, so reordering or replacing characters restyles the whole output.
Font (default monospace) — any font family available to the system. Weight — Regular (400) through Black (900).
Cell Width (4–64, default 12) / Cell Height (4–96, default 16) — the grid cell size in pixels; together they set each cell's aspect ratio.
Grid Density (0.1–4, default 1) — single-knob density that divides both cell dimensions. Above 1 gives more, smaller glyphs; below 1 gives fewer, larger ones.
Kerning Horiz / Kerning Vert (−16 to 32) — extra spacing between cells without rescaling the glyphs.
Glyph Scale (0.1–2, default 0.95) — glyph size relative to its cell. Below 1 leaves gaps; above 1 makes glyphs overlap.
Rnd Amount (0–200, default 0) — per-cell randomization strength. Rnd Type picks what gets randomized: the glyph's Position, the Glyph choice itself, or both.
Dark Scale / Light Scale (0–4, default 1/1) — per-cell glyph scale driven by the input's luminance: cells at black render at Dark Scale, cells at white at Light Scale. The defaults disable the effect. 0 / 2 makes glyphs vanish in shadows and double in highlights; swapping the values inverts the mapping. With no input wired, a built-in procedural noise drives the same warp — Noise Density sets its scale.
Density Scale (−1 to 1, default 0) — radial size gradient: positive grows glyphs toward the screen center, negative shrinks them there.
Inherit Source Color — colors each glyph from the input texture instead of Text Color. Use it when piping in a color image or video.
Invert Mapping — flips the brightness-to-charset mapping so dark cells pick light characters.

Dynamics

Rnd Speed (0–20, default 0) — animation rate of the per-cell randomization. 0 freezes it.
Noise Speed (0–2, default 0) — animation rate of the built-in scale-warp noise (only relevant with no input wired).

Output

Text Color (default white) and Alpha — glyph fill. Hue / Saturation / Lightness — color adjustments applied on top, useful together with Inherit Source Color.
Blur (0–64, default 0) — gaussian blur over the result, in pixels.
Background / Background Alpha — the fill behind the glyphs. Drop Background Alpha to 0 to composite the glyphs over downstream content.
Brightness Floor (0–1, default 0) — cells darker than this render the first charset entry, punching clean black regions into the output.

Every slider has a per-parameter animation bar, so any of these can be animated, audio-driven, or MIDI-mapped — see Parameters and Controls.

Troubleshooting

Dark Scale / Light Scale sliders do nothing — they are equal (both default to 1). The effect is the difference between the two endpoints.

Everything is one color despite a colorful input — turn on Inherit Source Color; by default glyphs use the flat Text Color.

Bit Glyphs

Procedural bit-sprite grids — glyph cells without a source texture.

Perlin Noise

The brightness source used in this page's example patch.

ASCII default output driven by a Perlin Noise source

One texture output; a brightness-source input and a composite input
Two modes: brightness-to-charset conversion, or laying out typed text
Found in nerdGRAPH under Generators in the add-node menu

Inputs and outputs

ASCII node

Port	Type	Purpose
Input	Texture	Brightness source — each cell's luminance picks a character
Composite Input	Texture	Composited over the output using the node's Blend Mode and Opacity
Output	Texture	The rendered character grid

The Input texture also drives the scale-warp system (see Dark Scale / Light Scale) and, with Inherit Source Color on, per-cell color.

Perlin noise source next to its ASCII conversion

Parameters

Opacity, Blend Mode, ALPHA — the standard operator header.

Structure

Mode — Texture (brightness -> charset) samples the input per cell and picks a character by luminance. Sequential (typed text) lays the Text string across cells in reading order instead, ignoring brightness and the character set; newlines force a row break.
Text (default AURAGEN ) — the string used in Sequential mode.
Character Set (default .:-=+*#%@) — the lookup used in Texture mode, ordered dark to light. Cell brightness indexes into this string, so reordering or replacing characters restyles the whole output.
Font (default monospace) — any font family available to the system. Weight — Regular (400) through Black (900).
Cell Width (4–64, default 12) / Cell Height (4–96, default 16) — the grid cell size in pixels; together they set each cell's aspect ratio.
Grid Density (0.1–4, default 1) — single-knob density that divides both cell dimensions. Above 1 gives more, smaller glyphs; below 1 gives fewer, larger ones.
Kerning Horiz / Kerning Vert (−16 to 32) — extra spacing between cells without rescaling the glyphs.
Glyph Scale (0.1–2, default 0.95) — glyph size relative to its cell. Below 1 leaves gaps; above 1 makes glyphs overlap.
Rnd Amount (0–200, default 0) — per-cell randomization strength. Rnd Type picks what gets randomized: the glyph's Position, the Glyph choice itself, or both.
Dark Scale / Light Scale (0–4, default 1/1) — per-cell glyph scale driven by the input's luminance: cells at black render at Dark Scale, cells at white at Light Scale. The defaults disable the effect. 0 / 2 makes glyphs vanish in shadows and double in highlights; swapping the values inverts the mapping. With no input wired, a built-in procedural noise drives the same warp — Noise Density sets its scale.
Density Scale (−1 to 1, default 0) — radial size gradient: positive grows glyphs toward the screen center, negative shrinks them there.
Inherit Source Color — colors each glyph from the input texture instead of Text Color. Use it when piping in a color image or video.
Invert Mapping — flips the brightness-to-charset mapping so dark cells pick light characters.

Dynamics

Rnd Speed (0–20, default 0) — animation rate of the per-cell randomization. 0 freezes it.
Noise Speed (0–2, default 0) — animation rate of the built-in scale-warp noise (only relevant with no input wired).

Output

Text Color (default white) and Alpha — glyph fill. Hue / Saturation / Lightness — color adjustments applied on top, useful together with Inherit Source Color.
Blur (0–64, default 0) — gaussian blur over the result, in pixels.
Background / Background Alpha — the fill behind the glyphs. Drop Background Alpha to 0 to composite the glyphs over downstream content.
Brightness Floor (0–1, default 0) — cells darker than this render the first charset entry, punching clean black regions into the output.

Every slider has a per-parameter animation bar, so any of these can be animated, audio-driven, or MIDI-mapped — see Parameters and Controls.

ASCII

Inputs and outputs

Parameters

Structure

Dynamics

Output

Troubleshooting

Bit Glyphs

Perlin Noise

On this page

ASCII

Inputs and outputs

Parameters

Structure

Dynamics

Output

Troubleshooting

Bit Glyphs

Perlin Noise

On this page