Open NFO, FILE_ID.DIZ and ANSI art files in a real DOS VGA font, with the CP437 code page decoded for you - so blocks and box lines look the way the artist drew them. Export the art as PNG or UTF-8 text. Plain logs and notes read better in the TXT File Viewer, and you can turn your own pictures into text art with Image to ASCII.
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Pixel-perfect VGA ANSI colours Export PNG No upload
release.nfo
SAUCE info - title, author and group
ANSI art keeps its own 16 colours, so the themes are switched off for this file.
Box lines turned into letters like Í or Ä? Pick CP437. Accents look wrong in a plain text file? Try Windows-1252 or CP850.
Fonts: IBM VGA from The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack by VileR (int10h.org), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Open your NFO. Drop an .nfo, .diz, .asc, .ans or .txt file anywhere on the page, browse for it, paste the text, or try a sample.
Let it decode. The code page is detected for you - CP437 for classic art, plus UTF-8, CP850, CP866 and Windows-1252 - and the art is drawn in a pixel-perfect VGA font.
Make it yours. Pick a colour theme (classic, amber, green or light), zoom in or fit the width, switch on the CRT scanlines, and read the SAUCE details of ANSI art.
Export or copy. Save the art as a PNG image, download it as UTF-8 text, or copy it to the clipboard.
Keyboard shortcuts
Open a fileCtrl + O
Zoom in / outCtrl + + / -
Back to 100%Ctrl + 0
Fit the widthF
Export PNGCtrl + S
Leave full screenEsc
NFO viewer features
Pixel-perfect VGA font
The IBM VGA 9×16 and 8×16 fonts draw blocks with no gaps between lines - exactly like a DOS screen.
Right code page, every time
CP437 for classic art, with UTF-8, CP850, CP866 and Windows-1252 detected automatically and one click to switch.
ANSI art in colour
16 VGA colours, iCE bright backgrounds, cursor moves, 256 and 24-bit colours from .ans files.
SAUCE details
Title, author, group, date, canvas size, font and comments from the SAUCE record at the end of the file.
Themes and CRT look
Classic grey on black, amber and green phosphor or light paper, with optional scanlines and glow.
Zoom and fit
Sharp whole-step zoom up to 400%, fit to the window width and full screen for big art.
Export PNG or text
Save a pixel-exact PNG, a UTF-8 text file that opens right anywhere, or copy the art.
100% private
Your file is read by your browser and never uploaded. Close the tab and it is gone.
What is an NFO file?
An NFO file (short for "info") is a plain text file that comes with a software, music or video release.
It usually holds the release notes, install steps and credits.
Release groups and BBS sysops of the DOS era turned NFOs into an art form: big logos and frames drawn with the block and line characters of the IBM PC character set, code page 437.
Related files you will meet next to an NFO:
FILE_ID.DIZ - a short description (up to 10 lines of 45 characters) that BBS software showed in its file lists.
.ASC - plain ASCII art, often using only the first 128 characters.
.ANS - ANSI art: text plus escape codes for colours and cursor moves, made in editors like TheDraw, ACiDDraw or PabloDraw.
SAUCE - a 128-byte record at the very end of many art files with the title, author, group, date and display flags.
Not every .nfo is art. Kodi, Jellyfin and Emby store movie and TV metadata in .nfo files written in XML, and Windows System Information (msinfo32) saves its reports as .nfo XML too. Those open here as text, and as a tree in the XML Viewer.
How to open NFO files on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
The quickest way on any device is this page: open it, drop the file, done.
Here is what happens with the apps you already have.
Windows
Double-clicking an .nfo starts System Information, which only opens its own reports and shows an error for release NFOs. Notepad opens them, but reads CP437 as another code page and spaces the lines out, so the art falls apart. Use this viewer or a dedicated NFO viewer app.
Mac
macOS has no NFO viewer. TextEdit and Quick Look show the words, but the blocks and frames turn into accented letters. Open this page in Safari or Chrome instead.
iPhone and iPad
The Files app cannot preview .nfo files. Open this page in Safari, tap the drop area and pick the NFO from Files or iCloud Drive - pinch or use Fit width to read it.
Android
Android has no NFO viewer either. Open this page in Chrome and pick the file from Downloads or Drive - nothing to install.
Linux
A terminal shows NFOs nicely with iconv -f CP437 -t UTF-8 file.nfo, as long as the terminal font has the block characters. This page needs no command line.
ANSI art, iCE colours and SAUCE
ANSI art adds colour to text art with escape codes - short commands that start with the ESC character.
The viewer runs those commands just like a DOS terminal would.
Colours - the 16 VGA colours, with bold for the bright shades. Modern 256-colour and 24-bit codes are drawn too.
iCE colours - DOS used one bit for either blinking text or bright backgrounds. Most art packs chose bright backgrounds, and the SAUCE record says so. The switch under Options overrides it.
Cursor moves - jumps, save and restore, and erase commands are followed, and lines wrap at the canvas width (80 columns unless SAUCE says otherwise).
SAUCE - the title, author, group, date, canvas size, font and comments are shown above the art.
How to convert an NFO file
Every export is built in, so there is nothing else to install.
NFO to PNG - the art is drawn pixel by pixel from the VGA font in your colour theme, at 1× or 2× size. Need a JPG for a forum? Run the PNG through PNG to JPG.
NFO to UTF-8 text - the blocks and lines become real Unicode characters that show correctly in any modern editor, on GitHub or in a chat, with a monospaced font.
Picture to ASCII art - going the other way? Image to ASCII turns photos and logos into text art.
The file was read with the wrong code page - Windows-1252 instead of CP437. Here CP437 is the default; if a file still looks off, choose CP437 under Options > Code page.
There are gaps between the lines of the logo
Most fonts add space between lines, which splits the blocks apart. The VGA fonts used here are exactly 16 pixels tall with no gap, like a real DOS screen.
The art is shifted or wrapped
Word wrap or a proportional font breaks the columns. Art stays unwrapped here, and Fit width shrinks it to your screen instead of folding it.
My ANSI has blinking text or dark backgrounds
The file may need iCE colours. Switch them on under Options to swap blinking for bright backgrounds.
The file shows as one long line or as binary junk
It is probably not an NFO at all - an archive, image or program with the wrong extension. The viewer checks the first bytes and points you to the right tool, such as the TXT File Viewer for big text files.
NFO vs DIZ vs ASC vs ANS vs TXT
They are all text underneath, but they serve different purposes.
Format
What it is
Typical size
Colours
NFO
Release notes with CP437 art, or XML metadata for media centres
2 - 20 KB, 80 columns
No
DIZ
FILE_ID.DIZ: a short file description for BBS lists
Up to 10 lines × 45 columns
No
ASC
ASCII art, often limited to the first 128 characters
Any
No
ANS
ANSI art with escape codes, often with a SAUCE record
5 - 100 KB, 80 columns
16 (or more)
TXT
Plain text in any encoding
Any
No
Looking for another format? Browse all file viewers for documents, images and archives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Drop the .nfo file onto this page, click to browse, or paste the text. It opens instantly in a DOS VGA font with the right code page, so the ASCII art and box lines look exactly as intended.
It works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android with nothing to install.
NFO art is written in the old IBM PC code page CP437, where bytes like 219 and 205 are blocks and double lines.
Notepad reads the same bytes as Windows-1252 or UTF-8 and shows letters such as Û and Í instead, and its font has gaps between lines. This viewer decodes CP437 and uses a pixel-exact VGA font.
Windows links the .nfo extension to System Information (msinfo32), which only reads its own XML reports. A release NFO is a plain text file, so msinfo32 refuses it.
Open it here instead, or right-click it and choose Open with and a text editor.
Yes. .ans files are drawn with their ANSI escape codes: 16 VGA colours, bright iCE backgrounds, cursor moves and even 256 and 24-bit colours.
FILE_ID.DIZ, .asc and plain .txt files open just like NFOs, and the SAUCE record with title, author and group is shown when the file has one.
Open the NFO and press Export PNG. The picture is drawn from the pixels of the VGA font in your chosen colour theme, at 1x or 2x size, so it looks the same everywhere you share it.
Very tall art is split into several PNG files.
Open the file and press Download TXT. You get a UTF-8 text file in which the blocks and box lines are real Unicode characters, so they show correctly in Notepad, on GitHub or in an email - as long as the font is monospaced.
Media centres such as Kodi, Jellyfin and Emby use .nfo files to store movie and TV metadata in XML, like the title, year and plot. They are not ASCII art.
They open here as text, but the XML Viewer shows them as a tidy tree.
No. The file is read by your own browser and never leaves your device.
Recent files are only remembered if you switch that option on, and then only in this browser.
