ComfyUI-Custom-ASCII-Art-Node

ComfyUI Custom ASCII Art Node

A powerful and enhanced ASCII art node for ComfyUI, based on FL_Ascii from ComfyUI_Fill-Nodes but completely rewritten with improved features and better usability.

🌟 Features

• Multiple Character Sets: Classic, blocks, dots, braille, minimal, extended, and custom
• Color Preservation: Maintain original image colors or use monochrome output
• Advanced Controls: Spacing, font size, contrast enhancement, and brightness inversion
• Smart Font System: Automatic monospace font detection with cross-platform fallbacks
• Batch Processing: Efficient handling of multiple images
• Background Customization: Configurable background colors
• Robust Error Handling: Graceful fallbacks and error recovery

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

1. Download the latest release or clone this repository
2. Copy the custom_ascii_node.py file to your ComfyUI custom_nodes directory
3. Restart ComfyUI
4. Find the node under "image/effects" → "Custom ASCII Art"

Basic Usage

1. Load an image using the LoadImage node
2. Connect it to the Custom ASCII Art node
3. Adjust parameters as desired
4. Connect output to SaveImage or PreviewImage

📋 Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | character_set | Dropdown | "classic" | Predefined character sets | | custom_characters | String | " .:-=+*#%@" | Custom character string | | spacing | Integer | 8 | Distance between characters (1-50) | | font_size | Integer | 12 | Size of ASCII characters (6-72) | | invert | Boolean | False | Reverse brightness mapping | | preserve_color | Boolean | True | Keep original image colors | | background_color | String | "#000000" | Background color (hex format) | | contrast | Float | 1.0 | Contrast multiplier (0.1-3.0) |

🎨 Character Sets

• Classic: .:-=+*#%@ - Traditional ASCII art
• Blocks: ░▒▓█ - Unicode block characters
• Dots: .·•● - Dot-based patterns
• Minimal: .-+# - Clean, simple characters
• Extended: .:-=+*#%@$& - More detailed mapping
• Braille: ⠁⠃⠇⠏⠟⠿⡿⣿ - Unique braille texture
• Custom: User-defined character strings

📖 Examples

Classic Black & White ASCII

Character Set: classic
Preserve Color: False
Spacing: 8
Font Size: 12

Colored Unicode Blocks

Character Set: blocks
Preserve Color: True
Spacing: 6
Font Size: 14
Contrast: 1.5

Matrix-Style Binary

Character Set: custom
Custom Characters: "01"
Invert: True
Background Color: "#000000"
Preserve Color: False

🔧 Technical Details

Font Handling

The node automatically searches for monospace fonts in this order:

1. DejaVuSansMono.ttf
2. Courier.ttf
3. consola.ttf
4. System-specific paths (macOS, Linux, Windows)
5. Default PIL font (fallback)

Performance

• Efficient tensor operations for batch processing
• Memory-optimized image handling
• Smart font caching
• Cross-platform compatibility

🧪 Testing

Run the included test scripts to verify functionality:

# Basic functionality test
python test_ascii_node.py

# Comprehensive feature demonstration
python ascii_comparison_demo.py

📁 Project Structure

comfyui-custom-ascii-node/
├── custom_nodes/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── custom_ascii_node.py
├── examples/
│   ├── ascii_workflow_example.json
│   └── demo_images/
├── tests/
│   ├── test_ascii_node.py
│   └── ascii_comparison_demo.py
├── docs/
│   ├── README_ASCII_NODE.md
│   └── CUSTOM_ASCII_NODE_SUMMARY.md
├── README.md
├── LICENSE_ASCII_NODE
└── setup.py

🆚 Comparison with FL_Ascii

Improvements

✅ Simplified parameter interface
✅ Better font fallback system
✅ Added contrast control
✅ More character set options
✅ Enhanced error handling
✅ Comprehensive documentation
✅ Optimized code structure

Retained Features

✅ Color preservation
✅ Batch processing
✅ Spacing control
✅ Font size control
✅ ComfyUI compatibility

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE_ASCII_NODE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Based on FL_Ascii from ComfyUI_Fill-Nodes
• Inspired by the ComfyUI community
• Built for educational and creative purposes

📞 Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check the documentation
2. Run the test scripts to verify installation
3. Open an issue on GitHub with details about your problem

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Made with ❤️ for the ComfyUI community