Damn Simple PHP Ascii Art Generator

ascii.php

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php

if(isset($argv[1]) && strlen($argv[1])) {
	$file = $argv[1];
}else{
	echo 'Please Specify a File';
	exit(1);
}

$img = imagecreatefromstring(file_get_contents($file));
list($width, $height) = getimagesize($file);

$scale = 10;

$chars = array(
	' ', '\'', '.', ':',
	'|', 'T',  'X', '0',
	'#',
);

$chars = array_reverse($chars);

$c_count = count($chars);

for($y = 0; $y <= $height - $scale - 1; $y += $scale) {
	for($x = 0; $x <= $width - ($scale / 2) - 1; $x += ($scale / 2)) {
		$rgb = imagecolorat($img, $x, $y);
		$r = (($rgb >> 16) & 0xFF);
		$g = (($rgb >> 8) & 0xFF);
		$b = ($rgb & 0xFF);
		$sat = ($r + $g + $b) / (255 * 3);
		echo $chars[ (int)( $sat * ($c_count - 1) ) ];
	}
	echo PHP_EOL;
}

Can't you replace:

$chars = array(
    ' ', '\'', '.', ':',
    '|', 'T',  'X', '0',
    '#',
);

$chars = array_reverse($chars);

$c_count = count($chars);

with:

$chars = "#0XT|:.' ";

$c_count = strlen($chars);

I'm not understanding why the array_reverse() is being used as you can declare the array in reverse to begin with. Also the chars do not need to be in an array as a string is already indexed. $chars[1] for instance will grab the 2nd char from a string. Other than that, awesome script! =o)

Its declared as an array rather than a string to allow me to use multibyte characters more easily, I'm not here but I had experimented with it.

As for the array_reverse, its simply so its easier for my brain to wrap it self around, starting at lightest and going to darkest. That is all.