A circular lens that resolves the text under it into a denser dot-matrix of ASCII glyphs — every character it passes over is redrawn as its own 5x7 grid of ramp characters, more glyphs per glyph rather than the same glyph bigger.
npx shadcn add https://design.helpmarq.com /r/lens-ascii-magnify.jsonregistry/core/lens-ascii-magnify/component.tsx"use client";
import { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from "react";
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// AsciiMagnifyLens — a lens that resolves the region under it into DENSER
// glyphs, not a bigger version of the same glyph. Distinct from slider-loupe
// (optically scales the same canvas-drawn tick marks bigger) and from
// text-prism-split (tears a headline into RGB channel offsets): here every
// character has a small 5x7 dot-matrix representation, and the lens redraws
// whichever characters fall inside it as that matrix — a grid of ascii-ramp
// cells finer than the flat glyph outside the lens, i.e. genuinely more
// characters per character. The base text is real, plain DOM text the whole
// time; the lens is a purely decorative aria-hidden canvas overlay on top of
// it, so accessibility is never in question. Direct-DOM rAF: the lens springs
// toward the pointer (slight optical lag) and parks at the block's center at
// rest and on pointer-leave, so the resting screenshot already shows the
// mechanic rather than plain text with nothing happening.
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
const CELL_COLS = 5;
const CELL_ROWS = 7;
const RAMP = " .:-=+*#%@";
// Compact 5x7 dot-matrix font. "1" = ink, "0" = empty. Characters outside
// this table fall back to a light 40%-fill block so nothing renders blank.
const FONT: Record<string, string[]> = {
A: ["01110", "10001", "10001", "11111", "10001", "10001", "10001"],
B: ["11110", "10001", "10001", "11110", "10001", "10001", "11110"],
C: ["01111", "10000", "10000", "10000", "10000", "10000", "01111"],
D: ["11110", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "11110"],
E: ["11111", "10000", "10000", "11110", "10000", "10000", "11111"],
F: ["11111", "10000", "10000", "11110", "10000", "10000", "10000"],
G: ["01111", "10000", "10000", "10011", "10001", "10001", "01111"],
H: ["10001", "10001", "10001", "11111", "10001", "10001", "10001"],
I: ["01110", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "01110"],
J: ["00111", "00010", "00010", "00010", "00010", "10010", "01100"],
K: ["10001", "10010", "10100", "11000", "10100", "10010", "10001"],
L: ["10000", "10000", "10000", "10000", "10000", "10000", "11111"],
M: ["10001", "11011", "10101", "10101", "10001", "10001", "10001"],
N: ["10001", "11001", "10101", "10101", "10011", "10001", "10001"],
O: ["01110", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "01110"],
P: ["11110", "10001", "10001", "11110", "10000", "10000", "10000"],
Q: ["01110", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10101", "10010", "01101"],
R: ["11110", "10001", "10001", "11110", "10100", "10010", "10001"],
S: ["01111", "10000", "10000", "01110", "00001", "00001", "11110"],
T: ["11111", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100"],
U: ["10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "01110"],
V: ["10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "10001", "01010", "00100"],
W: ["10001", "10001", "10001", "10101", "10101", "10101", "01010"],
X: ["10001", "10001", "01010", "00100", "01010", "10001", "10001"],
Y: ["10001", "10001", "01010", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100"],
Z: ["11111", "00001", "00010", "00100", "01000", "10000", "11111"],
"0": ["01110", "10011", "10101", "10101", "11001", "10001", "01110"],
"1": ["00100", "01100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "00100", "01110"],
"2": ["01110", "10001", "00001", "00010", "00100", "01000", "11111"],
"3": ["11111", "00010", "00100", "00010", "00001", "10001", "01110"],
"4": ["00010", "00110", "01010", "10010", "11111", "00010", "00010"],
"5": ["11111", "10000", "11110", "00001", "00001", "10001", "01110"],
"6": ["00110", "01000", "10000", "11110", "10001", "10001", "01110"],
"7": ["11111", "00001", "00010", "00100", "01000", "01000", "01000"],
"8": ["01110", "10001", "10001", "01110", "10001", "10001", "01110"],
"9": ["01110", "10001", "10001", "01111", "00001", "00010", "01100"],
".": ["00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "01100", "01100"],
",": ["00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "01100", "01000"],
"-": ["00000", "00000", "00000", "11111", "00000", "00000", "00000"],
":": ["00000", "01100", "01100", "00000", "01100", "01100", "00000"],
"'": ["01100", "01100", "01000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000"],
"/": ["00001", "00010", "00010", "00100", "01000", "01000", "10000"],
" ": ["00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000", "00000"],
};
function glyphRows(ch: string): string[] {
return FONT[ch.toUpperCase()] ?? ["01010", "10101", "01010", "10101", "01010", "10101", "01010"];
}
export interface AsciiMagnifyLensProps {
text: string;
/** lens diameter in px */
lensSize?: number;
className?: string;
}
export function AsciiMagnifyLens({ text, lensSize = 130, className = "" }: AsciiMagnifyLensProps) {
const containerRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
const canvasRef = useRef<HTMLCanvasElement>(null);
const ringRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
const charRefs = useRef<(HTMLSpanElement | null)[]>([]);
const [reduced, setReduced] = useState(false);
const chars = useMemo(() => Array.from(text), [text]);
useEffect(() => {
const mq = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)");
setReduced(mq.matches);
const onChange = () => setReduced(mq.matches);
mq.addEventListener("change", onChange);
return () => mq.removeEventListener("change", onChange);
}, []);
useEffect(() => {
const container = containerRef.current;
const canvas = canvasRef.current;
const ring = ringRef.current;
if (!container || !canvas || !ring) return;
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
if (!ctx) return;
let ink = "rgb(237,237,237)";
let bg = "rgb(10,10,10)";
let monoFam = "ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, monospace";
const derive = () => {
const cs = getComputedStyle(container);
const root = getComputedStyle(document.documentElement);
ink = root.getPropertyValue("--foreground").trim() || cs.color || ink;
bg = root.getPropertyValue("--background").trim() || bg;
const fam = cs.fontFamily;
if (fam) monoFam = fam;
};
derive();
let dpr = Math.min(2, window.devicePixelRatio || 1);
let w = 0;
let h = 0;
let lx = 0;
let ly = 0;
let tx = 0;
let ty = 0;
let raf = 0;
let lastT = 0;
let visible = true;
const resize = () => {
const rect = container.getBoundingClientRect();
w = rect.width;
h = rect.height;
dpr = Math.min(2, window.devicePixelRatio || 1);
canvas.width = Math.round(w * dpr);
canvas.height = Math.round(h * dpr);
canvas.style.width = `${w}px`;
canvas.style.height = `${h}px`;
tx = w / 2;
ty = h / 2;
if (!raf) {
lx = tx;
ly = ty;
render();
}
};
const render = () => {
ctx.setTransform(dpr, 0, 0, dpr, 0, 0);
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
const r = lensSize / 2;
ctx.save();
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.arc(lx, ly, r, 0, Math.PI * 2);
ctx.clip();
ctx.fillStyle = bg;
ctx.fillRect(lx - r, ly - r, r * 2, r * 2);
const containerRect = container.getBoundingClientRect();
for (let i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
const el = charRefs.current[i];
if (!el || !chars[i] || /\s/.test(chars[i]!)) continue;
const box = el.getBoundingClientRect();
const cx = box.left - containerRect.left + box.width / 2;
const cy = box.top - containerRect.top + box.height / 2;
const dist = Math.hypot(cx - lx, cy - ly);
if (dist > r + Math.max(box.width, box.height)) continue;
const rows = glyphRows(chars[i]!);
const cellW = box.width / CELL_COLS;
const cellH = box.height / CELL_ROWS;
const fontPx = Math.max(6, Math.min(cellW, cellH) * 1.6);
ctx.font = `${fontPx}px ${monoFam}`;
ctx.textAlign = "center";
ctx.textBaseline = "middle";
const originX = box.left - containerRect.left;
const originY = box.top - containerRect.top;
for (let row = 0; row < CELL_ROWS; row++) {
const bits = rows[row] ?? "00000";
for (let col = 0; col < CELL_COLS; col++) {
const on = bits[col] === "1";
const px = originX + col * cellW + cellW / 2;
const py = originY + row * cellH + cellH / 2;
if (Math.hypot(px - lx, py - ly) > r) continue;
const glyph = on ? RAMP[RAMP.length - 2] : RAMP[2];
ctx.globalAlpha = on ? 1 : 0.28;
ctx.fillStyle = ink;
ctx.fillText(glyph!, px, py);
}
}
}
ctx.globalAlpha = 1;
ctx.restore();
const ringR = lensSize / 2;
ring.style.transform = `translate3d(${(lx - ringR).toFixed(1)}px, ${(ly - ringR).toFixed(1)}px, 0)`;
};
if (reduced) {
resize();
const ro = new ResizeObserver(resize);
ro.observe(container);
return () => ro.disconnect();
}
const loop = (now: number) => {
const dt = lastT ? Math.min(0.05, (now - lastT) / 1000) : 1 / 60;
lastT = now;
// exponential chase toward the pointer (or the parked center) — a
// slight optical lag, not an instant snap
lx += (tx - lx) * Math.min(1, dt * 10);
ly += (ty - ly) * Math.min(1, dt * 10);
render();
const settled = Math.abs(lx - tx) < 0.2 && Math.abs(ly - ty) < 0.2;
if (!settled && visible && !document.hidden) {
raf = requestAnimationFrame(loop);
} else {
raf = 0;
}
};
const wake = () => {
if (!raf) {
lastT = 0;
raf = requestAnimationFrame(loop);
}
};
resize();
const onMove = (e: PointerEvent) => {
const rect = container.getBoundingClientRect();
tx = e.clientX - rect.left;
ty = e.clientY - rect.top;
wake();
};
const onLeave = () => {
const rect = container.getBoundingClientRect();
tx = rect.width / 2;
ty = rect.height / 2;
wake();
};
container.addEventListener("pointermove", onMove);
container.addEventListener("pointerleave", onLeave);
const ro = new ResizeObserver(resize);
ro.observe(container);
const io = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => {
visible = entries[0]?.isIntersecting ?? true;
if (visible) wake();
});
io.observe(container);
const mo = new MutationObserver(() => {
derive();
render();
});
mo.observe(document.documentElement, { attributes: true, attributeFilter: ["class"] });
const onVis = () => {
if (!document.hidden) wake();
};
document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", onVis);
return () => {
cancelAnimationFrame(raf);
ro.disconnect();
io.disconnect();
mo.disconnect();
container.removeEventListener("pointermove", onMove);
container.removeEventListener("pointerleave", onLeave);
document.removeEventListener("visibilitychange", onVis);
};
}, [chars, lensSize, reduced]);
return (
<div
ref={containerRef}
className={`relative touch-none select-none font-mono leading-relaxed text-foreground ${className}`}
>
<p className="relative z-0 whitespace-pre-wrap">
{chars.map((c, i) => (
<span
key={i}
ref={(el) => {
charRefs.current[i] = el;
}}
className="inline-block"
>
{c}
</span>
))}
</p>
<canvas ref={canvasRef} aria-hidden className="pointer-events-none absolute left-0 top-0 z-10" />
<div
ref={ringRef}
aria-hidden
className="pointer-events-none absolute left-0 top-0 z-20 rounded-full border border-border shadow-[0_4px_18px_-6px_rgba(0,0,0,0.4)] will-change-transform"
style={{ width: lensSize, height: lensSize }}
/>
</div>
);
}
a magnifying lens over a body of text where the payoff is seeing each letter resolve into a denser dot-matrix of ascii characters, not an optically bigger version of the same glyph; pick slider-loupe instead for optically magnifying a numeric tick scale, or text-prism-split when the lens should tear the text into RGB channel offsets rather than resample its density.
A circular lens, driven by a `text` prop rendered as real plain DOM text (one `<span>` per character, plain content, no aria-hidden anywhere on the real text — it's never hidden, so accessibility needs nothing special here). Layered on top is a purely decorative `aria-hidden` `<canvas>` plus a DOM ring div; together they are the lens. Every character in `text` has a hand-built 5x7 dot-matrix representation (a compact bitmap font covering A-Z, 0-9, space and basic punctuation; an unmapped character falls back to a light diagonal-hatch placeholder rather than rendering blank). On every frame, for each character whose measured `getBoundingClientRect()` falls within the lens radius of its current center, the canvas fills the lens circle's background with a `--background`-token flat fill (occluding the flat glyph underneath) and then redraws that character as its OWN 5x7 grid of cells, each cell either a solid ramp glyph (`--foreground` at full alpha, for an 'on' bit) or a faint one (28% alpha, for an 'off' bit) — that grid is strictly finer than the single flat character it replaces, which is the entire mechanic: MORE glyphs resolving one glyph, not the same glyph scaled up (that's slider-loupe's job) and not a channel-split refraction (text-prism-split's job). The lens position chases the pointer with an exponential lag (10/s time-constant) via one direct-DOM `requestAnimationFrame` loop that sleeps once settled, wakes on `pointermove`, and returns to a PARKED position at the text block's own center on `pointerleave` — so the resting/default screenshot already shows the lens sitting mid-block resolving whatever text is there, not a plain, unmagnified paragraph waiting for a cursor. All canvas ink (`--foreground` fill/background fill) and the mono font family are read via `getComputedStyle` at mount and re-derived on a `MutationObserver` watching `documentElement` class changes, so both themes render correctly with no baked-in hex. `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` disables the chase loop and the pointer-follow entirely: the lens renders once, parked at center, with no rAF running — still legible as the concept, just not animated. ResizeObserver and IntersectionObserver keep it correctly sized and paused off-screen. Zero dependencies.