erdart.com

where the code becomes the artifact

1 · Shape
image
text goes in dark

Choose an image, drop one here, or paste. A bold black-and-white image works best. Images never leave your browser.

2 · Text
·
3 · Tune

How light a pixel can be and still count as part of the shape.

Characters are about twice as tall as wide. Adjust if the shape looks stretched.

  
  
 


How it works
 
     
  1. Your image is shrunk so
that  each  pixel  becomes  one character cell.
    2.  
  2. Cells darker than the
threshold become text; the rest stay blank.
    3.  
  3. Your words are
poured  into  each  run  of  text  cells in order and fully justified to fill it
exactly,  so  the  outline  of  the image appears.
    4.  
  4. Paste HTML and the
result  is  still working HTML: the source code itself becomes the picture. This
page's original 2008 home page was made this way.
    5.