How to make ASCII art text
- Type your text into Text. Each line becomes its own row of big letters.
- Pick a Font and the letter spacing. Turn on wrapping if the result has to fit a terminal or a code comment.
- Copy the ASCII art or download it as a text file, and paste it somewhere that uses a monospace font.
Where ASCII art text is used
Big ASCII letters are a quick way to label things where only plain text works: the banner a command-line tool prints when it starts, a section header in a long config file or source file, a server’s login message (the message of the day), or the top of a README. Because it’s plain text, it shows up anywhere text does and can be copied and pasted like any other text.
Choosing a font
Small, Mini and Calvin S keep the height down to two to four lines, which suits code comments. Standard, Slant and Big are the classic FIGlet looks and read well at any size. ANSI Shadow uses solid block and box-drawing characters for a heavier look; it needs a font with those characters, which nearly every terminal has. Wide spacing gives each letter its full width, while Tight pushes letters together until they touch.