How to Create ASCII Text Banners in Terminal?

Have you ever wanted to add a touch of creativity and fun to your terminal experience? One way to do so is by creating ASCII text banners in your terminal. ASCII art has been around since the early days of computers and can add a unique and personal touch to your command line interface.

In this article, we'll explore how to create ASCII text banners in your terminal using a tool called FIGlet. We'll cover how to install and use FIGlet to generate customized ASCII banners with different fonts, sizes, and styles. Whether you're a seasoned command line user or just starting out, creating ASCII text banners is a fun and easy way to add some personality to your terminal.

Installing FIGlet

FIGlet is a command-line utility that generates text banners and ASCII art from input text. To use FIGlet, first make sure it is installed on your system. You can install it using your distribution's package manager.

For Debian/Ubuntu systems, use the following command

sudo apt-get install figlet

The installation will produce output similar to this

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  fonts-figlet
Suggested packages:
  figlet-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  figlet fonts-figlet
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 261 kB of archives.
After this operation, 929 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Basic Usage

After installing FIGlet, you can create ASCII text banners by providing the text as an argument to the command. For example, to create an ASCII banner for the text "Hello"

figlet Hello

This will generate the following ASCII banner

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

Advanced FIGlet Options

Set Output Justification

The -a option sets the output justification of the ASCII banner text. You can align text to the left, center, or right of the output window

figlet -a <left/center/right> <text>

For example, to center-align "Hello, World!"

figlet -a center "Hello, World!"

Change Output Font

Use the -f option to specify different font styles. Here are some popular font examples

Banner Font

figlet -f banner Hello

#     #                                  
#     # ###### #      #      #####  
#     # #      #      #      #    # 
####### #####  #      #      #    # 
#     # #      #      #      #    # 
#     # #      #      #      #    # 
#     # ###### ###### ###### ##### 

Block Font

figlet -f block Hello

_|    _|          _| _|          
_|    _|    _|_|  _| _|    _|_|  
_|_|_|_|  _|_|_|  _| _|  _|    _|
_|    _|  _|      _| _|  _|    _|
_|    _|    _|_|  _| _|    _|_|  

Slant Font

figlet -f slant Hello

    __  __     ____    
   / / / /__  / / /___ 
  / /_/ / _ \/ / / __ \
 / __  /  __/ / / /_/ /
/_/ /_/\___/_/_/\____/ 

To see all available fonts, use

figlet -list

Read Input from a File

You can read text from a file to create complex banners. First, create a text file with your content

echo "Welcome to ASCII banners!" > my_banner.txt

Then use input redirection to create the banner

figlet -f banner -c -w 80 < my_banner.txt

The options used are

• -f banner Sets the font to "banner"

• -c Centers the text horizontally

• -w 80 Sets output width to 80 characters

Add Space Between Characters

Use the -k option to add spacing between output characters

figlet -k Hello

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

Define Output Width

Control the output width using the -w option

figlet -f slant -w 60 "Welcome!"

 _      __     __                    __
| | /| / /__  / /______  __ _  ___  / /
| |/ |/ / _ \/ / __/ _ \/  ' \/ -_)_/_/ 
|__/|__/\___/_/\__/\___/_/_/_/\__/(_)  

Practical Applications

ASCII banners are useful for

• Script headers Add visual appeal to shell scripts

• System messages Create eye-catching login messages

• Documentation Highlight important sections in text files

• Terminal customization Personalize your command line experience

Conclusion

Creating ASCII text banners with FIGlet is a simple yet effective way to add visual flair to your terminal output. With various fonts, alignment options, and customization features, you can create professional-looking banners for scripts, documentation, or personal use. Experiment with different fonts and options to find the style that best suits your needs and adds personality to your command line experience.