image to ascii converter that takes the shape of character into account

[forward-...@anonymous.cybertrench.com]

Hi.

A couple of years ago, there was a challenge for the best ascii art
generator
(image to ascii art) I don't know the results though.

I searched the net, but all stuff I found works by 'character
brightness' and treats characters as pixels. The result is either very
huge images - loss of all details, nothing that would ever fit into an
neat email signature or similar.
Hand creating is always an option of course, but I would like to know
if anyone knows a good program for line-art to ASCII conversion.

Years ago I wrote my own software for this, its a part of motiontrack
(http://motiontrack.sourceforge.net) and attempts to find the best
possible ASCII character for every part of the image by weighted
pattern matching.

I am thinking about getting that project out of the fridge and
improving it a bit. Is there anything out there that's better, so I
can compare results?

regards

Corvus

PS: obascii :

this is the (crappy) source image
http://cybertrench.com/test2.png

this is the result of a conversion:

> menhance test2.png -q 75 -s 210 x.png >/dev/null 2>&1;
> masciiart x.png 2>/dev/null |sed -e 's/^/> /'
>
> _/
> _/' ,/'
> /' ," ,*'
> _we^^m _/ ,/ ,/
> _m^~ j' ,/ ,/
> _*' _/ _/ _/'
> _/' ,' /' /'
> j' _,am*mm--ww_ p' ,~ ,"
> p' w^~ ~\_ _f /' /'
> p ," " ,' _/ _/
> j' / _mmmemw_ l j' j' j'
> ' f _/' \ I j' / /
> ] j p' l_a*mq` L f ' _/ /
> ' ' j' #L F j' q' _, ,' j'
> j j I ~ / f f j@ ,' /'
> I t j~ _f / jQ' r' /
> | b_ "^^^" _a' / j#F ' f
> ] "w,_ __jm~ _/ q#f _ ,'
> , ~"""~~ _/' _## Q ~
> ~w _/' /dV^ _@ /
> \w_ __m^' { #, # &
> ~"^^mm^"~ ` q@I #' f
> / #Q[ d' _A , ,
> _^ Jfq j( _g' q ' _'
> ' f j@1 #' ._______ -l & f
> ` j _#"B' &' ~~"g _jM^w j 1 qQ f
> / ' /A' # jY a' r~ ' j d^^ fI /
> / 7 j0Y f # _/ p f H_ j I q'
> ' jM ' j' #H /' j' j j ] ' I [
> 7 /Y # #'j, ,' ! j' I \_ I [j
> '/7 f ,/f [[ _/ [__,/ ' \_ j' Lf
> ]/ ' ' ,jMY N j' __,, ~~~ ` I "
> 7'< j',#'j' N ^^^^^"""~~~
> '/ F d' [ |7
> j j'j' d ]E
> ' ##' RI
> ` j#' II , , j'
> 4' N' _ ' /7
> f j] l\w ] / I
> # II I [ I J '
> /' j I ' L g__j_
> j ] Lj/ j _' ~T~""'
> ' ' 4~"! I f ]
> / j f [ f _
> ' f j j _,mem^ j `
> ' mM |"~ `
> j
> I
> '

(i hope google news doesnt mess this up)

[Markus Gebhard]

Hi,

with JavE6.0rc1 using "Edge Detection" conversion algorithm I get this
result:

_,,---
_.-'
,'
,' _,.----"`----._
,' ,' \
,' ,' ,,-----.. | ,-
.' / ,'. __.. | | ,-' ,-' ,.
| | / '`' ,' / / ,' ,-' ,-'
| | | ,' _' / ,' ,-' ,'
| `. `----' ,' ,' ,' ,' `-'
\ `--.....--' ,' ,' ,' ,'
\ ,-' ,' ,-' ,'
`-.._____,,.--' / / ,'
- ,' ,'
,' ,'
,' ,' ,'
/ ,'
/ / <
.<' / ,
|-> / .^
/ ,' ,'
,[ /
/ ,'| /
/ || _/
.' / |,
,' . ,'|
' | ,' ||
<`,' .\
, . / ,' |
',' ||
/ |
/ /
/ /
, |
/
|
.'
|
| /
'-------.._ ,.. ,'. /| /
/' ,-' | ``- / | /
,-' / / /\ ,'.' /
,' | ,' / `. / | /
/' `..,' ' ` / '/
. ..-------''

, ,\
,._ .' '.'
| \ | ,' |
| ,' | :`..L...
+^\ | / |
| / | __ / \
/,' '-''' <

(I have split up and rearanged the conversion result w/o altering its
ascii content, because I am pretty sure the lines would break otherwise)

Regards,
Markus