Image pasters

*See background images for instances of full resolution images in OWOT

Image pasters are automated tools that convert images into text so that they can be pasted onto the canvas. A variety of characters and methods can be used for this purpose, and scripters are continuously looking for ways to render images in higher resolutions. Image pasters can also have other features, such as:

• Pasting images without backgrounds
• Adjusting the size and aspect ratio of images
• Rotating images
• Specialized UI(Ex. allowing users to drag image files onto the canvas)

As image pasters are often used for spam, the sharing of such scripts is strongly discouraged.

Community reception

By Guest-1052

Image paste abuse is one of the most obtrusive forms of spam on OWOT and also one of the most common. By late 2024/early 2025, images have begun to regularly outnumber other forms of text at Spawn, prompting several users to jokingly call the site "Our World of Image Pastes."

Furthermore, image pasters are frequently used to display offensive and/or graphic content. Pornographic spam has always been a recurring problem on OWOT and the lack of measures against it have led to fierce criticism against the site's moderation. This issue was only made worse in November 2024, when image pastes achieved significantly higher resolutions with the addition of customizable cell colors to the front page. A breaking point was reached in December 2025, when FP made the decision to disable color on the front page in order to limit the clarity of NSFW image pastes. The color ban will stay in place until he is able to implement a feature that automatically hides images from the canvas.

Despite all these issues, image pasters are not outright despised by the community. Many scripters still enjoy finding new ways to render images on the canvas, and the creation of new image pasters is usually received positively so long as it doesn't result in more spam. Nevertheless, there is an informal ban on the distribution of such scripts which Lemuria refers to as the "OWOT Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Image Pasters."

At the same time, there are many users who tolerate image pasters even when they are used for spam, seeing it as an example of spammers exercising their freedom on the canvas.

Types of image pasters

Braille

One of the oldest and most easily accessible forms of image pasters, since image to braille converters are common on the internet. Braille images are generally black and white, but can achieve relatively high levels of resolution using a small amount of characters.

Braille pasters are the primary form of image pasters in OWOT's sister website Your World of Text.

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  Some examples of braille images
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  A rare instance of colored braille images. It is unknown if these pictures were manually colored or generated using a specialized image paster
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  Another colored braille paster

ASCII

Images rendered entirely using keyboard characters, with characters of different heights and densities being used for shading. ASCII image pastes are among the lowest in resolution and are insufficient to portray more complex details.

Image to text converters are also easy to find on the internet, making them just as accessible as braille pasters.

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Full block

Using the full block "█," it is possible to render one color in each text cell. Two cells can also be combined to form a square pixel.

Full block pasters used to be the primary form of image pasters in OWOT, but have grown out of fashion ever since November 2024, when a variety of higher resolution methods were made possible by the introduction of customizable cell colors to the mainpage.

Example of a image rendered using full blocks

Mixed full blocks

Represents contrasts in color using the additional full block characters "░ ▒ ▓." This method is more common on YWOT.

Smug jug

Half block

By using the half block symbols "▀" and "▄," it is possible to divide each text cell into two pixels of different colors, with one color being the half block itself and the other being the cell background color.

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Octant

Using octant characters, it is possible to divide each text cell into eight pixels, though only two colors can be present in any given cell. Octants allow for higher resolution images than half blocks, though the two color limitation means that some amount of distortion will be visible at smaller scales.

Octant pasters were rare at first, but have become the most common type of image pasters by mid 2025.

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Quadrant

Can display four colors per cell, but faces the same limitations as octant pasters. Quadrant pasters are almost never seen.

• Quadrant paster by Haster
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Sextant

Can display six colors per cell. Almost never seen.

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  Image paste using uncolored sextants

SLC

Images can also be rendered using Symbols for Legacy Computing, giving them a blurry but stylistic appearance.

Horizontal fractional blocks

An extremely rare form of image pasters.

The images they produce look similar to full/half block pastes at large scales, but turning off color will reveal distinct horizontal patterns.

Unlike half and full block pastes, these images are fully discernible even without color.

• By Banksy
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• Test
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Vertical fractional blocks

Also extremely rare.

• By Banksy
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• Mixed fractional blocks (also by Banksy)
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Emoji

One of the two pasting methods alongside links that can render colored images without the need for text colors.

Emoji-based image pasters are more common in YWOT, where they are the only way to render multi-colored images on the canvas.

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From YWOT

Links

This type of image paster renders coloured images using URL and coordinate links. This allows coloured images to be pasted in worlds where coloured text is disabled, albeit you are limited to 4 colours: black, white, blue, and green.

First began popping off during the 2025 color ban.

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  By e_g., red emojis are added in an attempt to render other colors via trichromatic dithering
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  By Catzcute4, dithering is used to render different (shades of) colors
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  For best effect, zoom out as far as possible

• Early tests for link pasting by Dupy, created in Aseprite and ported to OWOT using an image paster
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  "Demo wave"
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  "Sorrow for a bygone era"

More unorthodox characters

Many unicode sets contain characters with varying amounts of negative space, allowing them to create different shades for image pastes. Most of these are incredibly fuzzy and stylistic.

Using various unicode and SLC, by Haster

• Using card unicode, by Banksy
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• Using horizontal blocks, also by Banksy
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Using CJK, by e_g.

Hybrid pasters

Using multiple types of characters.

• Black and white full block pastes that also use other symbols
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  From YWOT
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  From YWOT

• An image paste which utilizes a mix of quadrants and triangle unicodes(Created by Caioz)
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Individual image pasters

Image pasters with unique traits and/or an interesting history.

PinkiePie's image paster

Back in ~2022, notorious user PinkiePie created an especially powerful image paster that could not be disabled due to it being a chrome extension rather than a regular script.

The paster had several other unique features, such as pasting all characters instantly, being able to paste around protected areas(whereas other pasters would stop the moment they touch an uneditable tile), and allowing the user to perform other actions with their cursor while the paste is in progress.

PinkiePie used this tool primarily for the purpose of spamming MLP porn at spawn.

Moonrays' image paster

Created in 2022. Comes with its own interface.

Scar32's image paster

Created by Scar32 in ~January 2023. Coded using Scratch.

An unconventional image paster that scans photos and renders them using SLC slopes.

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KKosty4ka's image paster

KKosty4ka

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Crazy Cat Lady's image paster

to expand more upon it, yes it uses 2x4 octants. i want to try and increase the resolution further though and yea, this one adheres to the paste rate because it copies the image to your clipboard so you can paste it yourself, so no worries there

after being on owot for a week or two, i've seen quite a few basic image pasters used (either full unicode block or half-blocks), and i've been thinking basic ones might actually be worse for the site - since the converted images are lower resolution, users will want to paste them really big so the picture is discernible..

although my paster is more advanced, i think it would be less damaging because people wouldn't feel a need to paste such large images (and the conversion process is more complicated, so creating large images will take more time)

i could potentially add a sneaky throttle to make it more annoying to produce very large pastes, but personally i'd rather give out exactly what im using because that feels more fair

anyways, i get the concern of making any image paster easily accessible, so i won't post it unless that sounds okay with everyone!!

— CCL asking for permission to release her image paster to the public

A high quality image paster that renders pictures using octants.

The paster was mainly used to render photos of cats on the canvas, though on several occasions CCL also used it to post face reveals at Spawn.

CCL had planned to release the script to the community, though several users (including FP) advised her not to.

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  Colors on
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  Colors off

Catha'vi's image paster

Created by Catha'Vi in August of 2025 for the primary purposes of pasting memes at Spawn.

The script can render images using both full blocks and octants, and allows users to customize the dimensions of image pastes.

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Haster's image paster

Contains modes for full blocks, half blocks, quadrants, sextants and octants. Image dimensions are adjustable just like with Catha'vi's image paster.

SLC paster from November 2025

Comes with the ability to rotate images.

The creator of this script, an anon who would later be known as Banksy, also made a series of SLC-based spam scripts at around the same time.

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e_g.'s SLC paster

Likely created in response to the previous paster.

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Pixelmess' image paster

Leaked in an image paster leak and saved by NextOS, given to PixelMess on November 20th 2025.

Uses full blocks and the occasional letter/unicode symbol.

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Image paster with a circular pasting pattern

Appeared in December 2025. The creator was a spammer who used it to paste porn and other offensive content.

Colors turned off due to NSFW content

Banksy's image paster

An octant paster that pastes from bottom to top. The creator is a former anon named Banksy, who also created a number of animations at Spawn around that time.

The script was first seen on December 19th, 2025, where it was used to paste Gold Ship art and Bansky murals. It has the capacity for color, but was rendered monochrome on the frontpage due to a temporary color ban that was announced on the same day.

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  Unique pasting style
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  December 19th, 2025

Catha'vi's emoji paster

Created on December 21st, 2025 as a way to circumvent the ongoing color ban.

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Banksy's emoji paster

Two image pasters created by Banksy on December 24th, 2025, one that uses emojis and one that breaks images down to simple outlines.

The former paster uses a particular set of emojis that gives images a vaguely shiny/glossy look.

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JustAnOWOTUser's 1SPaster

An image paster made by JustAnOWOTUser in 2023. Originally, it only supported full-block pastes, although half-block and link pasting were added to it in 2025.

The main feature that makes it stand out from other pasters is its ease of use and simplicity, as its controlled by only one button and invisibly guides you through the pasting process in stages.

1SPaster in action

Link paster from December 2025/January 2026

The most high quality link paster to have appeared as of early 2026. While the images it generates are hard to make out from up close, they can be startling lifelike when looked at from afar (i.e. at a lower zoom).

The creator of this script is likely also responsible for the next image paster.

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  December 29th, 2025
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  January 6th, 2026
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  January 6th, 2026

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  December 24th, 2025
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  January 6th, 2026
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  January 10th, 2026

Emoji paster from January 1st, 2026

Created during the color ban, which was intended to end on New Year but was extended into 2026.

The script overlays a sparse grid of colored emojis on top of a black and white octant paste, so as to give off the impression that it is fully colored. The quality of this illusion improves the farther you are zoomed out.

The user behind this image paster also made the green koopa shell from the link pasters section, though both that script and this one were initially misattributed to Banksy.

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  January 1st, 2026
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  The creator of the script talking with Banksy on January 5th, 2026
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  January 8th, 2026

Miscellaneous

Various other image pasters(mostly by anonymous users) with different styles.

"Vibe coding makes an image paster."

• Various types of octant pasters
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  (Created by Caioz)
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  (Created by Caioz)

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Massive image pastes in /test, the largest of which is 19 coordinates tall and 38 coordinates wide.

Art created by modifying image pastes

Main article: Art

While image pasters are usually a form of spam, there are rare instances where people use them to make something creative.

Using OWOT as a photo editor

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  December 4th, 2024
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  July 25th, 2025
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  October 29th, 2025
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  By Guest-1052 (October 29th, 2025)
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  By Rscr (November 2nd, 2025)
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  Cont.
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  By Rscr (November 10th, 2025)
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  By Rscr (November 16th, 2025)
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  By Rscr (November 17th, 2025)
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  By Rscr (November 22nd, 2025)
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  December 3rd, 2025
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  December 7th, 2025
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  December 17th, 2025
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  By Rscr (January 14th, 2026)

/archivetests#x:87987988,y:87987978799, by Guest-1052

By Rscr(November 7th, 2025)

Tracing over image pastes using SLC

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  Manually fine-tuning image pastes of popular logos, and then redoing the edges with SLC slopes.
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  Read more at SLC logos.
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  By Banksy
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  By JanTechPL

Adding manual touches to image pastes

The following images were created by Banksy during the 2025 color ban, when (excluding emojis) only coordinate and URL links could be used for color. With this limited palette in mind, Banksy made purposeful decisions to highlight important parts of these monochrome image pastes, giving them an artistic quality in the process. The relative rarity of color would have also made these additions all the more eye-catching for users active during the color ban.

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  Slime effect by Rscr
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Banksy coloring in a monochrome image paste using their paint script (January 9th, 2026)

Text-based video players

Main article: Animated Scripts

Videos can be rendered onto the canvas in the same way as static images, though scripts that allow for this are much rarer.

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  Catha'Vi's movie night script rendered films using half blocks. It ran exclusively in a dedicated world, where the higher rate limit allowed footage to be played at a relatively smooth ~5 fps.
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  During September 2024, Mr. Black would use octants to render black and white videos in the Center Console. Frame rate was capped at 2 fps due to stricter rate limits at Spawn.
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  Another octant-based video player which rendered footage in full color, albeit at a much lower frame rate.
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  Braille-based video player during the 2025 color ban.