Guides
Make better text art.
A few practical tips make ASCII and ANSI art easier to read, paste, and share.
1. Keep banners short
Large glyphs work best with short words. For long phrases, try Tiny, Small Caps, Fullwidth, or Box Sign styles.
2. Choose fill characters intentionally
# feels classic, █ feels solid, * feels playful, and . or · can feel lighter.
3. Use ANSI color sparingly
Color is most effective when it supports hierarchy. Cyan and green are great for terminals; amber feels retro; red should be reserved for alerts.
4. Test where you will publish
Terminals, Markdown renderers, Discord, and web pages may use different fonts and spacing. Always preview the final destination.
5. Prefer clarity over size
The best ASCII art is legible at a glance. If it feels noisy, reduce spacing, switch styles, or shorten the text.
Common mistakes to avoid
A common mistake is choosing a very wide style for a long sentence. The result may look fine in a desktop preview but wrap badly in a README, phone browser, or narrow terminal pane. Another mistake is relying on ANSI color in places that do not support escape sequences. If the destination is Markdown, documentation, or a website comment box, use plain ASCII or Unicode styles instead.
Recommended workflow
- Start with a short word or title.
- Choose a readable font before choosing a decorative one.
- Preview the result in the destination app.
- Copy a plain fallback if you also use ANSI color.
- Keep surrounding whitespace so the art does not collide with regular text.
Font categories
Block fonts are best for headings. Box fonts are best for labels. Unicode fonts are best for compact social text. Encoding styles such as Morse, binary, and hex are best for playful technical references. Glitch, cyber, chrome, and neon styles work well for visual themes but should be used sparingly in documentation.
Decision table
| Publishing destination | Use this approach | Avoid this |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal output | Short block or box art with optional ANSI color. | Very wide banners in scripts that may run in small panes. |
| Markdown documentation | Plain ASCII inside fenced code blocks with a normal heading nearby. | Raw ANSI escape codes and essential instructions hidden in art. |
| Social profiles | Compact Unicode styles such as Small Caps or Fullwidth. | Five-line banners that profile layouts may clip or collapse. |
| Generated logs | Simple labels that mark start, success, warning, and failure states. | Decoration that makes logs harder for humans or parsers to scan. |
Accessibility and readability
ASCII art should support the surrounding content, not replace it. Use normal headings, labels, and sentences around decorative output so screen readers, search tools, and people skimming quickly can still understand the page. If the art communicates a warning or success state, repeat that state in ordinary text.
Reusable workflow
Draft the plain message
Write the exact word or phrase first. Short, concrete text almost always produces better art than a sentence.
Pick the destination
Decide whether the output is for a terminal, repository, profile, or documentation page before choosing a style.
Generate a fallback
Keep a plain version alongside any ANSI or Unicode version so the message survives strict renderers.