diff --git a/neofetch b/neofetch
index 785836ea..32d48286 100755
--- a/neofetch
+++ b/neofetch
@@ -3862,6 +3862,26 @@ image_backend() {
     [[ "$image_backend" != "off" ]] && printf '\e[%sA\e[9999999D' "${lines:-0}"
 }
 
+# From pull request #1220, this is a fast way to strip character codes
+strip_escape_codes() {
+    local input="${1//\"/\\\"}" output="" i char within_code=0
+    for ((i=0; i < ${#input}; ++i)); do
+        char="${input:i:1}"
+        if (( within_code == 1 )); then
+            case "${char}" in
+                [a-zA-Z]) within_code=0 ;;
+            esac
+            continue
+        fi
+        if [[ "${char}" == $'\e' ]]; then
+            within_code=1
+            continue
+        fi
+        output+="${char}"
+    done
+    eval "$2=\"${output}\""
+}
+
 print_ascii() {
     if [[ -f "$image_source" && ! "$image_source" =~ (png|jpg|jpeg|jpe|svg|gif) ]]; then
         ascii_data="$(< "$image_source")"
@@ -3876,9 +3896,10 @@ print_ascii() {
 
     # Calculate size of ascii file in line length / line count.
     while IFS=$'\n' read -r line; do
-        line=${line//\\\\/\\}
         line=${line//█/ }
-        # Use patterns to replace color codes
+        # This method to strip escape codes doesn't always work but is faster in some cases if run first
+        strip_escape_codes "${line}" line
+        # Use patterns to replace color codes that the above line did not catch
         line=${line//\\033\[*([0-9;])[JKmsu]/}
         line=${line//\[*([0-9;])[JKmsu]/}
         ((++lines,${#line}>ascii_len)) && ascii_len="${#line}"