Amid all the fuss over DeepSeek, OpenAI has pushed out o3-mini, a new AI reasoning model available to all ChatGPT users.
There’s no shortage of ASCII art generators online, but product designer Mike Bespalov’s tool avoids the limitations of many of the basic converters and provides plenty of parameters to play with. Warning: you may become addicted.
Meet Monospace: An Image-to-ASCII Art Converter
Mike is the founder of the product UI-focused online library referodesign. Writing on X, he says it took him just an hour to build an image-to-ASCII art converter using Open AI’s new AI model “The exact tool I’ve always wanted. And it works so well,” Mike writes. Within a day, he had it online with the name Monospace, and people were sharing the images they created in the responses to his post.
The Power of o3-mini
Older AI models could already build a tool like Monospace, but the result would require rewrites, debugging. With o3, it took just a few prompts, and it worked off the bat.
How to Use Monospace
You can try the ASCII art generator online. You simply upload an image, and the tool will immediately convert it to ASCII art. You can then play with the contrast, brightness and blur level, invert the colours and change the dithering options and character set or enable edge detection.
About o3-mini
OpenAI o3-mini was designed to be faster and more accurate than the last iteration, o1-mini. It’s also the first time that OpenAI has given free access to a small reasoning LLM to all ChatGPT users.
How to Access o3-mini
To use o3-mini, select ‘Reason’ in the ChatGPT message composer. There are three options, low, medium and high. For more on AI, catch up with the US Copyright Office stance on AI art.
What is ASCII Art?
A descendant of typewriter art and line-printer art, ASCII art is a technique that uses printable characters instead of graphic marks. Traditionally, ASCII Standard and ASCII compliant characters would be used, although the term is now often used more loosely to refer to art using other character sets.
ASCII art was mainly invented to be able to produce art using early printers, and it was also used to mark divisions between print jobs. It would later be used in emails and text messages before it became possible to embed or send images. ASCII art can be created with any text editor, usually with a fixed-width font (see our pick of the best monospace fonts.
Conclusion
The release of o3-mini has opened up new possibilities for creative applications of AI. The image-to-ASCII art converter, Monospace, is a testament to the power of this new model. With its ability to produce high-quality ASCII art in just a few prompts, it’s no wonder that Mike Bespalov was able to build the tool in just an hour.
FAQs
Q: What is o3-mini?
A: o3-mini is a new AI reasoning model available to all ChatGPT users, designed to be faster and more accurate than the last iteration, o1-mini.
Q: What is ASCII art?
A: ASCII art is a technique that uses printable characters instead of graphic marks to create images.
Q: How do I use Monospace?
A: You can try the ASCII art generator online by uploading an image and playing with the contrast, brightness and blur level, invert the colours and change the dithering options and character set or enable edge detection.
Q: How do I access o3-mini?
A: To use o3-mini, select ‘Reason’ in the ChatGPT message composer and choose one of the three options, low, medium, or high.
