diff --git a/ascii.py b/ascii.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 013a9f6..1d23cb0
--- a/ascii.py
+++ b/ascii.py
@@ -1,195 +1,262 @@
-#! /usr/bin/env python3
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-"""
-ASCII
-"""
-from io import BytesIO
-
-import requests
-from PIL import Image, ImageFont, ImageDraw
-#import imageio
-import numpy as np
-import numpngw
-
-ASCII_CHARS = "$@%#*+=-:. "
-HEADERS = {'User-Agent': 'bix nood where dah  ascii tiddies at'}
-
-
-def scale_image(image, size=(100,100)):
-	"""
-	Resizes an image while preserving the aspect ratio. Chooses the
-	dimension to scale by based on whichever is larger, ensuring that
-	neither width or height is ever larger than the accepted size tuple.
-
-	Because text characters are typically pretty close to a 1:2 rectangle,
-	we weight the width twice as much.
-	"""
-	original_width, original_height = image.size
-	original_width = original_width * 2
-	if original_width > original_height:
-		if original_width > size[0]:
-			new_width = size[0]
-			aspect_ratio = original_height/float(original_width)
-			new_height = int(aspect_ratio * new_width)
-		else:
-			new_width, new_height = image.size
-	else:
-		if original_height > size[1]:
-			new_height = size[1]
-			aspect_ratio = original_width/float(original_height)
-			new_width = int(aspect_ratio * new_height)
-		else:
-			new_width, new_height = image.size
-	image = image.resize((new_width, new_height))
-	return image
-
-
-def pixels_to_chars(image, reverse=False):
-	"""
-	Maps each pixel to an ascii char based on where it falls in the range
-	0-255 normalized to the length of ASCII_CHARS.
-	"""
-	range_width = int(255 / len(ASCII_CHARS)) + (255 % len(ASCII_CHARS) > 0)
-
-	pixels_in_image = list(image.getdata())
-	pixels_to_chars = []
-	for pixel_value in pixels_in_image:
-		if reverse:
-			index = -int(pixel_value/range_width)-1
-		else:
-			index = int(pixel_value/range_width)
-		pixels_to_chars.append(ASCII_CHARS[index])
-
-	return "".join(pixels_to_chars)
-
-
-def open_image(imagePath):
-	"""
-	Opens the image at the supplied file path in PIL. If an internet URL
-	is supplied, it will download the image and then open it.
-	"""
-	try:
-		if imagePath.startswith("http"):
-			res = requests.get(imagePath, headers=HEADERS, verify=True,
-				timeout=20)
-			res.raise_for_status()
-			image = Image.open(BytesIO(res.content))
-		else:
-			image = Image.open(imagePath)
-	except FileNotFoundError as e:
-		return e
-	except OSError:
-		return e
-	except Exception as e:
-		return("Error opening image file: " + imagePath)
-
-	return image
-
-
-def image_to_ascii(image, reverse=False):
-	"""
-	Reads an image file and converts it to ascii art. Returns a
-	newline-delineated string. If reverse is True, the ascii scale is
-	reversed.
-	"""
-	image = scale_image(image)
-	image = image.convert('L')	# convert to grayscale
-
-	chars = pixels_to_chars(image, reverse)
-
-	image_ascii = []
-	for index in range(0, len(chars), image.size[0]):
-		image_ascii.append(chars[index: index + image.size[0]])
-	image.close()
-	del(image)
-	return "\n".join(image_ascii)
-
-
-def ascii_to_image(image_ascii):
-	"""
-	Creates a plain image and draws text on it.
-	"""
-	# TODO: make font type, size, and image size non-fixed
-	width = len(image_ascii[:image_ascii.index("\n")]) * 8
-	height = (image_ascii.count("\n")+1) * 12 + 4
-
-	font = ImageFont.truetype("LiberationMono-Regular.ttf", 14)
-	image = Image.new("RGB", (width, height), (255,255,255))
-	draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)
-	draw.text((0,0), image_ascii, (0,0,0), font=font, spacing=0)
-	return image
-
-
-def handle_gif(output, reverse=False):
-	image = open_image(args.imagePath)
-	ascii_seq = []
-	new_image = ascii_to_image(image_to_ascii(image, reverse))
-	image.seek(1)
-	while True:
-		try:
-			im = ascii_to_image(image_to_ascii(image, reverse))
-			ascii_seq.append(im)
-			image.seek(image.tell()+1)
-		except EOFError:
-			break # end of sequence
-
-	#new_image.save(output, save_all=True, append_images=ascii_seq,
-	#	duration=60, loop=0, optimize=True)
-	ascii_seq = [new_image] + ascii_seq
-	np_ascii_seq = [np.array(im) for im in ascii_seq]
-	#images2gif.writeGif(output, ascii_seq, nq=10, subRectangles=False)
-	#imageio.mimsave(output, np_ascii_seq)
-	with open(output, "wb") as file:
-		numpngw.write_apng(file, np_ascii_seq)
-
-
-if __name__=='__main__':
-	import argparse
-
-	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
-		description="Converts an image file to ascii art.")
-	parser.add_argument(
-		"imagePath",
-		help="The full path to the image file.")
-	parser.add_argument(
-		"-r",
-		"--reverse",
-		action="store_true",
-		help="Reverses the ascii scale.")
-	parser.add_argument(
-		"-o",
-		"--output",
-		help="Outputs the ascii art into a file at the specified path.")
-	parser.add_argument(
-		"-i",
-		"--image",
-		action="store_true",
-		help="Outputs the ascii art as an image rather than plain text. \
-		Requires --output.")
-	parser.add_argument(
-		"-a",
-		"--animated",
-		action="store_true",
-		help="Handles animated GIFs. Includes --image.")
-	parser.set_defaults(reverse=False, image=False, animated=False)
-	args = parser.parse_args()
-	
-	if args.animated:	# --animated includes --image
-		args.image = True
-	if args.image:		# --image requires --output
-		if not args.output:
-			parser.error("--image requires --output")
-
-	if args.animated:
-		handle_gif(args.output, args.reverse)
-	else:
-		image = open_image(args.imagePath)
-		image_ascii = image_to_ascii(image, args.reverse)
-		if args.image:
-			image = ascii_to_image(image_ascii)
-			image.save(args.output, "PNG")
-		elif args.output:
-			with open(args.output, "w+") as file:
-				file.write(image_ascii)
-		else:
-			print(image_ascii)
+#! /usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+ASCII
+"""
+from io import BytesIO
+
+import requests
+from PIL import Image, ImageFont, ImageDraw
+#import imageio
+import numpy as np
+import numpngw
+
+ASCII_CHARS = "$@%#*+=-:. "
+HEADERS = {'User-Agent': 'Gimme the ascii.'}
+
+
+def scale_image(image, size=(100,100)):
+	"""
+	Resizes an image while preserving the aspect ratio. Chooses the
+	dimension to scale by based on whichever is larger, ensuring that
+	neither width or height is ever larger than the accepted size tuple.
+
+	Because text characters are typically pretty close to a 1:2 rectangle,
+	we weight the width twice as much.
+	"""
+	original_width, original_height = image.size
+	original_width = original_width * 2
+	if original_width > original_height:
+		if original_width > size[0]:
+			new_width = size[0]
+			aspect_ratio = original_height/float(original_width)
+			new_height = int(aspect_ratio * new_width)
+		else:
+			new_width, new_height = image.size
+	else:
+		if original_height > size[1]:
+			new_height = size[1]
+			aspect_ratio = original_width/float(original_height)
+			new_width = int(aspect_ratio * new_height)
+		else:
+			new_width, new_height = image.size
+	image = image.resize((new_width, new_height))
+	return image
+
+
+def pixels_to_chars(image, reverse=False):
+	"""
+	Maps each pixel to an ascii char based on where it falls in the range
+	0-255 normalized to the length of ASCII_CHARS.
+	"""
+	range_width = int(255 / len(ASCII_CHARS)) + (255 % len(ASCII_CHARS) > 0)
+
+	pixels = list(image.getdata())
+	chars = []
+	for pixel in pixels:
+		if reverse:
+			index = -int(pixel/range_width)-1
+		else:
+			index = int(pixel/range_width)
+		chars.append(ASCII_CHARS[index])
+
+	chars = "".join(chars)
+	chars = [chars[i:i + image.size[0]] for i in range(0, len(chars),
+		image.size[0])]
+	return "\n".join(chars)
+
+
+def char_color(pixel, code="irc"):
+	"""
+	Maps a color to a character based on the original pixel color.
+	Calculates the distance from the provided color to each of the 16
+	colors in the IRC and ANSI color codes and selects the closest match.
+	"""
+	colors_index = ["white", "black", "blue", "green", "red", "brown", "purple",
+		"orange", "yellow", "light green", "teal", "cyan", "light blue", "pink",
+		"grey", "silver"]
+
+	colors_rgb = {"white": (0,0,0), "black": (255,255,255), "blue": (0,0,255),
+		"green": (0,255,0), "red": (255,0,0), "brown": (150,75,0),
+		"purple": (128,0,128), "orange": (255,128,0), "yellow": (255,255,0),
+		"light green": (191,255,0), "teal": (0,128,128), "cyan": (0,255,255),
+		"light blue": (65,105,225), "pink":(255,192,203), "grey": (128,128,128),
+		"silver": (192,192,192)}
+
+	colors_irc = {"white": "0", "black": "1", "blue": "2", "green": "3", "red": "4",
+		"brown": "5", "purple": "6", "orange": "7", "yellow": "8", "light green": "9",
+		"teal": "10", "cyan": "11", "light blue": "12", "pink": "13", "grey": "14",
+		"silver": "15"}
+
+	colors_ansi = {"white": "[1;37m", "black": "[0;30m", "blue": "[0;34m",
+		"green": "[0;32m", "red": "[0;31m", "brown": "[0;33m",
+		"purple": "[0;35m", "orange": "[1;31m", "yellow": "[1;33m",
+		"light green": "[1;32m", "teal": "[0;36m", "cyan": "[1;36m",
+		"light blue": "[1;34m", "pink": "[1;35m", "grey": "[1;30m",
+		"silver": "[0;37m"}
+
+	dist = [(abs(pixel[0] - colors_rgb[color][0])**2
+		+ abs(pixel[1] - colors_rgb[color][1])**2
+		+ abs(pixel[2] - colors_rgb[color][2])**2)**0.5
+		for color in colors_index]
+
+	color = colors_index[dist.index(min(dist))]
+
+	if code == "irc":
+		return colors_irc[color]
+	elif code == "ansi":
+		return colors_ansi[color]
+
+
+def open_image(imagePath):
+	"""
+	Opens the image at the supplied file path in PIL. If an internet URL
+	is supplied, it will download the image and then open it. Returns a
+	PIL image object.
+	"""
+	try:
+		if imagePath.startswith("http"):
+			res = requests.get(imagePath, headers=HEADERS, verify=True,
+				timeout=20)
+			res.raise_for_status()
+			image = Image.open(BytesIO(res.content))
+		else:
+			image = Image.open(imagePath)
+	except FileNotFoundError as e:
+		return f"File not found: {imagePath}"
+	except Exception as e:
+		return(f"Error opening image: {imagePath}\n{e}")
+
+	return image
+
+
+def colorize(chars, image, code):
+	"""
+	Colorizes the ascii matrix.
+	"""
+	prefix = {"irc": "\03", "ansi":"\033"}
+	chars = chars.split("\n")
+	for j in range(0, image.size[1]):
+		new_row = ""
+		for k in range(0, image.size[0]):
+			new_row += prefix[code] + char_color(image.getpixel((k,j)), code)
+			new_row += chars[j][k]
+		chars[j] = new_row
+	return "\n".join(chars)
+
+
+def image_to_ascii(image, reverse=False, colors=None):
+	"""
+	Reads an image file and converts it to ascii art. Returns a
+	newline-delineated string. If reverse is True, the ascii scale is
+	reversed.
+	"""
+	image = scale_image(image)
+	image_grey = image.convert('L')	# convert to grayscale
+
+	chars = pixels_to_chars(image_grey, reverse)
+
+	if colors:
+		chars = colorize(chars, image, colors)
+	image.close()
+	image_grey.close()
+	del(image)
+	del(image_grey)
+	return chars
+
+
+def ascii_to_image(image_ascii):
+	"""
+	Creates a plain image and draws text on it.
+	"""
+	# TODO: make font type and size non-fixed
+	width = len(image_ascii[:image_ascii.index("\n")]) * 8
+	height = (image_ascii.count("\n")+1) * 12 + 4
+
+	font = ImageFont.truetype("LiberationMono-Regular.ttf", 14)
+	image = Image.new("RGB", (width, height), (255,255,255))
+	draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)
+	draw.text((0,0), image_ascii, (0,0,0), font=font, spacing=0)
+	return image
+
+
+def handle_gif(image, output, reverse=False):
+	"""
+	Handle gifs seperately.
+	"""
+	image = open_image(args.imagePath)
+	ascii_seq = []
+	new_image = ascii_to_image(image_to_ascii(image, reverse))
+	image.seek(1)
+	while True:
+		try:
+			im = ascii_to_image(image_to_ascii(image, reverse))
+			ascii_seq.append(im)
+			image.seek(image.tell()+1)
+		except EOFError:
+			break # end of sequence
+
+	#new_image.save(output, save_all=True, append_images=ascii_seq,
+	#	duration=60, loop=0, optimize=True)
+	ascii_seq = [new_image] + ascii_seq
+	np_ascii_seq = [np.array(im) for im in ascii_seq]
+	with open(output, "wb") as file:
+		numpngw.write_apng(file, np_ascii_seq)
+
+
+if __name__=='__main__':
+	import argparse
+
+	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+		description="Converts an image file to ascii art.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"imagePath",
+		help="The full path to the image file.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"-r",
+		"--reverse",
+		action="store_true",
+		help="Reverses the ascii scale.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"-o",
+		"--output",
+		help="Outputs the ascii art into a file at the specified path.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"-i",
+		"--image",
+		action="store_true",
+		help="Outputs the ascii art as an image rather than plain text. \
+		Requires --output.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"-a",
+		"--animated",
+		action="store_true",
+		help="Handles animated GIFs. Includes --image.")
+	parser.add_argument(
+		"-c",
+		"--color",
+		type=str,
+		help="Colorizes the ascii matrix.")
+	parser.set_defaults(reverse=False, image=False, animated=False)
+	args = parser.parse_args()
+
+	if args.animated:	# --animated includes --image
+		args.image = True
+	if args.image:		# --image requires --output
+		if not args.output:
+			parser.error("--image requires --output")
+
+	image = open_image(args.imagePath)
+	if args.animated:
+		handle_gif(image, args.output, args.reverse)
+		exit()
+
+	image_ascii = image_to_ascii(image, args.reverse, args.color)
+	if args.image:
+		image = ascii_to_image(image_ascii)
+		image.save(args.output, "PNG")
+	elif args.output:
+		with open(args.output, "w+") as file:
+			file.write(image_ascii)
+	else:
+		print(image_ascii)