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What Is ASCII Art?
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses printable characters from the ASCII standard to create visual representations of text, images, and patterns. The tradition dates back to the earliest computer terminals of the 1960s when graphical displays were unavailable, and users composed images entirely from keyboard characters.
FIGlet (Frank, Ian & Glenn's Letters) brought ASCII art banners to a new level in 1991 by introducing font files that define how each character maps to a multi-line text pattern. With hundreds of available fonts — from simple block letters to elaborate decorative styles — FIGlet-style text banners remain a beloved element of developer culture, appearing in terminal startup messages, code comments, and README files.
How Text-to-ASCII-Art Generation Works
A FIGlet-style generator transforms plain text into large, styled ASCII banners by looking up each character in a font definition file and assembling the results.
- Font files (.flf) — each font defines a multi-line representation for every printable ASCII character, including width, height, and spacing metadata
- Character mapping — the generator looks up each input character in the font, retrieves its multi-line glyph, and places it sequentially to form the output
- Layout modes — smushing and kerning rules control how adjacent characters overlap or connect; full-width mode preserves all character spacing while smushing merges overlapping lines for a tighter look
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Create ASCII Art →Creative Uses for ASCII Art
ASCII art banners serve both practical and aesthetic purposes across software development and digital communication.
- Terminal banners — startup messages for CLI tools and server applications use ASCII art to display the tool name, version, or welcome message in a visually distinctive way
- Code comments — section separators in source code use ASCII banners to mark major sections, making them easy to spot when scrolling through large files
- README decoration — GitHub READMEs and documentation use ASCII art headers to add visual personality to projects, standing out in plain-text rendering environments
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between ASCII art and Unicode art?
Traditional ASCII art uses only the 128 characters defined in the original ASCII standard (letters, digits, punctuation, and a few special characters). Unicode art extends this palette with thousands of additional characters including box-drawing characters, block elements, Braille patterns, and emoji, enabling much more detailed and varied visual compositions. Most modern terminals support Unicode, making both forms widely usable.
Can I create custom FIGlet fonts?
Yes. FIGlet fonts are plain-text files (.flf) with a defined header format and character definitions. You can create a font from scratch by defining each character's multi-line representation, or modify existing fonts. The FIGlet font format specification is well-documented, and font editors exist to simplify the process. The figlet library used by this tool supports any standard .flf font file.
How do I use ASCII art in code comments without breaking my code?
Wrap ASCII art in your language's block comment syntax. In JavaScript/TypeScript use /* ... */, in Python use triple quotes or # line comments, in HTML use <!-- ... -->. Keep the banner width under 80 characters to avoid horizontal scrolling. Many code formatters (Prettier, Black) will leave block comments untouched, but verify with your specific tool configuration.