Mitos

Mitos is an ASCII art generator built by Oxide Computer Company. It converts images, GIFs, into ASCII text illustrations, with a live-code option. It's used for producting branded ASCII graphics.

Live version: https://mitos.shared.oxide.computer/

Features

• Generate ASCII art from multiple sources:
  • Images
  • GIFs
  • Custom JavaScript code
• Preprocessing controls (brightness, contrast, dithering, inversion)
• Customizable ASCII character sets
• Real-time preview with zoom and pan
• Animation support with playback controls
• Multiple export options
• Grid overlay

Technology

Mitos is built with:

• React
• TypeScript
• Vite
• TailwindCSS
• CodeMirror (for the code editor)
• gifuct-js (GIF processing)

The project builds on play.core by Andreas Gysin (ertdfgcvb), an ASCII rendering library with an API inspired by GLSL programming. Whilst it might be more efficient to process and render the text directly to the DOM, sidestepping the need for a library— the library enables consistent rendering and easier packaging of self-contained ASCII art components.

Getting Started

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/oxidecomputer/mitos.git
   cd mitos
   

2. Install dependencies:

   bun install
   

3. Start the development server:

   bun run dev
   

Contributing

In its present state, Mitos is an internal tool for Oxide Computer Company and is tightly coupled to Oxide's design system. While we're open to PRs, we are a small company and the primary goal of this repo is as an internal tool, so we can't guarantee that all PRs will be integrated.

Credits

• Developed by Oxide Computer Company
• Based on play.core by Andreas Gysin (ertdfgcvb)
• Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0