ASCII Art Generator
Convert text into large ASCII text banners in 6 fonts. Add a border, align or mirror the result, then copy it or download it as plain text, HTML, Markdown or SVG for terminals, README files and code comments.
Quick Generate
Type up to 20 characters to see them in the Standard font. Use the full generator below for other fonts, borders and downloads.
Convert Text to ASCII Art Banners
This generator turns short text into large letters built from keyboard characters, the kind of banner you see at the top of a README, in a command-line tool's start-up screen or above a section of code. Type your text, pick one of 6 fonts and copy the result.
It makes text banners only. It doesn't convert photos or images into ASCII art.
How to Use the ASCII Art Generator
- Type your text. Up to 100 characters; press Enter to start a new line. Short words work best: about 10–12 characters per line fit an 80-column terminal in most fonts, and about twice as many in Small.
- Choose a font and, for multi-line text, an alignment (left, centre or right).
- Optional: open Advanced Options to add a border, add extra space between letters or lines, or mirror the banner horizontally.
- Generate, then click Copy or download the art as a .txt, .html, .md or .svg file. Use Compare All 6 Fonts to see your text in every font at once.
Need just a fast look? The Quick Generate box shows up to 20 characters in the Standard font.
Example: "Orbit" in the Standard Font
Typing Orbit with the Standard font and default options gives:
___ _ _ _ / _ \ _ __ | |__ (_)| |_ | | | || '__|| '_ \ | || __| | |_| || | | |_) || || |_ \___/ |_| |_.__/ |_| \__|
That is 5 rows by 28 columns. The result panel shows the width (columns) and height (rows) of every banner you make, so you can check it fits before pasting.
The 6 Fonts and the Characters They Support
All fonts include the English letters A–Z (upper and lower case), the digits 0–9 and most common punctuation. Characters a font doesn't include, such as accented letters, emoji or non-Latin scripts, are left as blank space, and the result panel lists which ones were skipped.
| Font | Look | Rows | Characters used | Not supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Classic outline letters drawn with _ | / \ | 6 | ASCII only | None — all printable ASCII |
| Banner | Letters drawn with # signs | 8 | ASCII only | " ' : ; < = > [ ] _ ` { | } ~ |
| Block | Solid, heavy letters | 7 | Uses █ (Unicode) | " ' : ; < = > [ ] _ ` { | } ~ |
| Small | Compact outline letters | 5 | ASCII only | " ' : ; < = > [ ] _ ` { | } ~ |
| Script | Standard-style letters on a staggered baseline | 6 | ASCII only | " # $ % & ' : ; < = > @ [ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~ |
| Graffiti | Heavy shapes with rounded tops | 7 | Uses █ and ▄ (Unicode) | " ' : ; < = > [ ] _ ` { | } ~ |
Standard, Banner, Small and Script produce plain ASCII, which displays correctly almost anywhere. Block and Graffiti use Unicode block characters, which need a UTF-8 terminal or file and a font that includes them. The lettering follows the style popularised by FIGlet, the banner program first released in 1991; the fonts here are built into Orbit2x rather than loaded from FIGlet font files.
What the Options Do
- Alignment
- Lines up each line of a multi-line banner on the left, in the centre or on the right of the widest line. With a single line of text it has no visible effect.
- Border
- Draws a frame around the art. Single, Double, Rounded and Thick use Unicode box-drawing characters (
┌─┐,╔═╗and similar). Choose Plain ASCII for a+--+frame that works in any environment. - Letter and line spacing
- Adds 0–5 extra columns between letters, or extra blank rows between lines of text.
- Mirror horizontally
- Flips the banner left to right and swaps direction-sensitive characters such as
/and\so the shapes stay joined. Words will read backwards.
Using ASCII Art in Terminals, READMEs, Code and Chat
ASCII art only lines up in a monospaced font, where every character is the same width. Most problems after pasting come from a proportional font or from whitespace being trimmed.
GitHub and Markdown READMEs
Put the art in a fenced code block (three backticks, optionally followed by text) so spacing is preserved. The Markdown download does this for you.
Terminals and CLI tools
Classic terminals are 80 columns wide, so check the width shown in the result panel. Print the banner from a text file or a multi-line string, and remember that backslashes may need escaping in your programming language's string literals.
Code comments
Start each line with your language's comment marker, or wrap the block in a multi-line comment. If your style guide asks for ASCII-only source files, use an ASCII-only font and the Plain ASCII border.
Discord, Slack and other chat apps
Wrap the art in a code block (three backticks) so it's shown in a monospaced font. Apps that show posts in a proportional font without code blocks, including many social networks, will misalign it.
Screen readers read ASCII art character by character, so don't use a banner as the only place an important heading or message appears.
How Your Text Is Handled
When you click Generate, your text and options are sent to Orbit2x's server, which builds the banner and sends it back. The generator doesn't save your text. Copying and downloading happen in your browser. See the privacy policy for how the site handles data generally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my ASCII art look broken when I paste it?
The destination is probably using a proportional font or removing repeated spaces. Word processors, email editors and many social apps do both. Paste into a plain-text editor or a code block, and use a monospaced font such as Consolas, Menlo or Courier New.
Some of my characters disappeared. Why?
That font doesn't include them, so they were left blank. The result panel names the skipped characters, and the font table above shows what each font supports. Standard has the widest coverage of punctuation.
What's the difference between ASCII art and Unicode art?
ASCII art uses only the 95 printable ASCII characters (letters, digits, punctuation and space). Unicode art also uses characters like block elements and box-drawing lines. Here, Block, Graffiti and every border except Plain ASCII use Unicode characters; the other fonts are pure ASCII.
Can I add color?
The generator outputs plain, uncolored text. In a terminal you can color it with ANSI escape codes. For example, in Bash printf '\033[36m%s\033[0m\n' "$(cat ascii-art.txt)" prints the downloaded file in cyan. Markdown and most chat apps can't color text inside code blocks.
Can I convert an image to ASCII art?
Not with this tool; it only works with text. Image-to-ASCII converters such as ascii-image-converter (an open-source command-line program) handle photos and pictures.
Are more fonts available?
This generator has 6. If you need a specific FIGlet font, the Text to ASCII Art Generator (TAAG) offers a much larger catalogue, and the FIGlet program itself can be installed on most systems.