PPM-to-ASCII Converter (Zig)

A simple Zig program to convert PPM images to ASCII art. It supports multiple output modes, scaling, and optional saving of the output image.

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Build

To build the project:

zig build

This will produce the executable at zig-out/bin/ppm_to_ascii.exe.

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Usage

zig-out/bin/ppm_to_ascii.exe <image.ppm> [print_type] [scale] [--save]

Parameters

• image.ppm
  The path to the PPM image file you want to convert.

• print_type (optional)
  Determines the ASCII output style. Options:

  • normal → standard grayscale ASCII
  • color → colored ASCII using ANSI escape codes
  • full_color → retains full RGB coloring in ASCII Default: normal

• scale (optional)
  A positive float that scales the image.

  • Values < 1 → downscale
  • Values > 1 → upscale Default: 1.0

• --save (optional)
  Saves the converted ASCII output to output.ppm. Without this flag, it only prints to the terminal.

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Examples

1. Convert image.ppm to normal ASCII and print to terminal:

zig-out/bin/ppm_to_ascii.exe image.ppm

2. Convert image.ppm to colored ASCII and save the output:

zig-out/bin/ppm_to_ascii.exe image.ppm color 1.0 --save

3. Convert image.ppm to full-color ASCII, upscale by 2x, and save:

zig-out/bin/ppm_to_ascii.exe image.ppm full_color 2.0 --save

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Notes

• Scaling affects both terminal output and saved PPM file.
• Colors in color and full_color modes require a terminal that supports ANSI colors.
• The program only supports PPM input.
• ASCII mapping uses an 8x16 font internally. Modify the font array for different ASCII styles.

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License

This project is fully open source under the MIT License.