PureTools

ASCII Art Generator: Turn Text into Creative Art

PureTools Team· 5 min read
ASCII Art Generator: Turn Text into Creative Art

What Is ASCII Art?

ASCII art is a graphic design technique that creates images and text using only the 95 printable characters from the ASCII standard. Born from the limitations of early computer terminals, it has evolved into a creative art form that's still widely used today.

Types of ASCII Art

  • Text banners: Large text rendered with ASCII characters (FIGlet style)
  • Line art: Simple drawings using characters like /, \, |, -, +
  • Block art: Using block characters to create images
  • Image conversion: Converting photos to ASCII representations

Where ASCII Art Is Still Used

  • CLI tools: Welcome banners in terminal applications (npm, neofetch)
  • Source code: Easter eggs in HTML source (view-source on many major websites)
  • Email signatures: Creative signatures that work in plain text
  • README files: Project logos in terminal-based Git interfaces
  • SSH banners: Server welcome messages (/etc/motd)
  • Gaming: Roguelike games and MUDs use ASCII for graphics

FIGlet: The Standard for Text Banners

FIGlet (Frank, Ian, and Glen's letters) is the most popular tool for generating ASCII text banners. It supports hundreds of fonts:

 _   _      _ _       
| | | | ___| | | ___  
| |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \ 
|  _  |  __/ | | (_) |
|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___/ 

(Standard font)

.__    __.  _______  __       __        ______  
|  |  |  | |   ____||  |     |  |      /  __  \ 
|  |__|  | |  |__   |  |     |  |     |  |  |  |
|   __   | |   __|  |  |     |  |     |  |  |  |
|  |  |  | |  |____ |  `----.|  `----.|  `--'  |
|__|  |__| |_______||_______||_______| \______/ 

(Big font)

Programmatic Generation

// Simple horizontal text-to-ASCII in JavaScript
// Using a character map approach
const charMap = {
  'A': [' # ', '# #', '###', '# #', '# #'],
  'B': ['## ', '# #', '## ', '# #', '## '],
  // ... etc
};

function toAscii(text) {
  const chars = text.toUpperCase().split('');
  const lines = Array(5).fill('');
  chars.forEach(c => {
    const art = charMap[c] || ['   ','   ','   ','   ','   '];
    art.forEach((row, i) => lines[i] += row + ' ');
  });
  return lines.join('\n');
}

Generate ASCII art text instantly with the PureTools ASCII Art Generator. Choose from multiple fonts and styles, preview in real-time, and copy to clipboard.

← Back to blog
ASCII Art Generator: Turn Text into Creative Art — PureTools — PureTools