NFO / ANS Editor

A browser-based editor and viewer for NFO, ANS and ANSI art files. No install, no server — open index.html and go.

Features

View & Open

• Drag-and-drop or browse for .nfo .ans .diz .asc .txt files
• Full CP437 character set rendering with authentic IBM VGA 8x16 bitmap font
• ANSI escape code parser: colors, bold, cursor movement (ESC[C, ESC[H, etc.)
• Adjustable column width (80 / 160 / auto)

New Canvas

[ NEW ▾ ] opens a dropdown with three options:

• Empty — configure columns and rows
• From clipboard — reads the system clipboard and auto-detects column width; falls back to the ANSI code dialog if the clipboard is empty or inaccessible
• From ANSI code — paste raw ANSI escape sequences into a textarea (supports \x1b and \033 escape notation)

Edit

• Text mode — type directly onto the canvas with active FG/BG color
• Draw mode — click or drag to paint cells with any character + color
  • Right-click to erase (drag to erase multiple cells)
• Select mode — drag to select a rectangular region
  • Cut / Copy (Ctrl+C also copies plain text to the system clipboard) / Paste
  • Paste from system clipboard (Ctrl+V) — supports ASCII art and ANSI art from external apps
  • Move — click inside a selection and drag to reposition content
• Eyedropper — right-click any cell to pick its FG/BG color; or use [ PICK ] for one-shot pick
• 256-color picker — click the FG or BG color button to open a popup with:
  • 16 system colors
  • 6×6×6 color cube (arranged as 6 distinct planes)
  • 24-step grayscale ramp
• Full CP437 character set via the character picker (F2)
• Insert / delete rows
• Zoom in/out
• Undo / Redo (50 steps)

Image → ANSI

Convert any image to ANSI art directly in the browser:

• Configurable column/row count with optional aspect-ratio lock
• ASCII-tecken mode — maps pixel luminance to a character density ramp ( .:-=+*#%@) with palette color per cell
• Half-block mode (▀) — double vertical resolution using foreground + background color per cell
• Full-block mode (█) — one palette color per cell
• 256-color mode — uses all 256 xterm colors for nearest-color matching (much better accuracy for photos)
• Floyd–Steinberg dithering for better color gradients

Save & Export

• [ SAVE ] — saves directly back to the original file (Chrome/Edge only via File System Access API); on other browsers the button is disabled
  • Ctrl+S triggers save; if no file handle exists a save-as dialog appears
• [ EXPORT ▾ ] — always downloads a new file:

Format	Description
.ANS	ANSI escape codes + color, standard terminal format; 256-color sequences (38;5;N) used automatically when needed
.NFO plain	Raw CP437 text, no color codes, \r\n line endings
.HTML	Self-contained HTML with inline color styles

Tabs & Session

• Multiple files open simultaneously in tabs
• Session auto-saved to localStorage — reloading the page restores all tabs and canvas content

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+N	New (opens dropdown)
Ctrl+S	Save directly to file (Chrome/Edge)
Ctrl+Shift+S	Export HTML
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+C	Copy selection (+ to system clipboard)
Ctrl+X	Cut selection
Ctrl+V	Paste — from app clipboard or system clipboard
Tab	Toggle Text ↔ Draw mode
F2	Open character picker
Esc	Exit edit mode / close dialogs
Ctrl+Delete	Delete current row
Ctrl+Insert	Insert empty row
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-	Zoom in / out

Usage

1. Clone or download the repo
2. Place ibm_vga_8x16.woff in the same folder (IBM VGA 8x16 font file)
3. Open index.html in a modern browser
4. Drop an NFO/ANS file onto the page or click [ OPEN ]

No build step, no dependencies, no network required after initial font load.

Font

The editor uses the IBM VGA 8x16 bitmap font for authentic rendering. The font file (ibm_vga_8x16.woff) is not included in this repo — source it from int10h.org (The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack).

Browser Support

Feature	Chrome/Edge	Firefox	Safari
Editor (view, edit, export)	✓	✓	✓
Save directly to file (Ctrl+S)	✓	—	—
Open with file handle	✓	—	—

Direct save requires the File System Access API, supported in Chrome 86+ and Edge 86+.