ascii-art

name	ascii-art
description	Generate ASCII art text banners, box art, and decorative text using pyfiglet, cowsay, and boxes CLI tools
category	creative
version	1.0.0
origin	aiden
license	Apache-2.0
tags	ascii, art, banner, text, figlet, cowsay, terminal, decoration, cli, creative

ASCII Art Generation

Create ASCII art text banners, speech bubbles, box decorations, and large display text using pyfiglet, cowsay, and boxes — all CLI/Python tools.

When to Use

• User wants a stylized text banner for a terminal script or README
• User wants a fun cowsay/fortune-style message
• User wants decorative box borders around text
• User wants large ASCII letters for display purposes
• User wants ASCII art for CLI tool headers or splash screens

How to Use

1. Install tools

pip install pyfiglet
pip install cowsay

# boxes (optional, for border art)
# Windows: winget install info-zip.unzip  # then download boxes binary

2. Generate a text banner with pyfiglet

import pyfiglet

# Default font (Standard)
print(pyfiglet.figlet_format("Hello World"))

# Specific font
print(pyfiglet.figlet_format("DevOS", font="banner3-D"))

# List all available fonts
fonts = pyfiglet.FigletFont.getFonts()
print(f"Available fonts: {len(fonts)}")
print(fonts[:20])

3. Sample popular pyfiglet fonts

import pyfiglet

text = "AIDEN"
for font in ["banner3", "big", "block", "colossal", "doom", "epic", "isometric1", "larry3d", "ogre", "slant", "speed", "starwars"]:
  print(f"\n--- {font} ---")
  print(pyfiglet.figlet_format(text, font=font))

4. Generate cowsay messages

import cowsay

# Default cow
cowsay.cow("Hello from Aiden!")

# Different characters
cowsay.tux("Linux penguin says hi")
cowsay.dragon("Deploy to production!")
cowsay.cheese("It is time to cheese")

# List available characters
print(cowsay.char_names)

5. Create a custom cowsay-style speech bubble

def speech_bubble(text, speaker="Aiden"):
  width  = max(len(line) for line in text.split("\n")) + 4
  border = "─" * width
  lines  = [f"│ {line.ljust(width-2)} │" for line in text.split("\n")]
  bubble = [f"┌{border}┐"] + lines + [f"└{border}┘"]
  bubble.append(f"  {speaker}")
  print("\n".join(bubble))

speech_bubble("Task complete.\n3 files created.\nAll tests passing.", speaker="🤖 Aiden")

6. Create ASCII box borders

def boxed(text, style="double"):
  styles = {
    "single": ("┌","─","┐","│","└","┘"),
    "double": ("╔","═","╗","║","╚","╝"),
    "round":  ("╭","─","╮","│","╰","╯"),
  }
  tl,h,tr,v,bl,br = styles.get(style, styles["single"])
  lines  = text.split("\n")
  width  = max(len(l) for l in lines) + 2
  border = h * width
  print(f"{tl}{border}{tr}")
  for line in lines:
    print(f"{v} {line.ljust(width-1)}{v}")
  print(f"{bl}{border}{br}")

boxed("System Status: OK\nUptime: 99.9%\nTasks: 0 pending", style="double")

7. Color the output

import pyfiglet

CYAN  = "\033[96m"
RESET = "\033[0m"
banner = pyfiglet.figlet_format("DEVOS", font="slant")
print(CYAN + banner + RESET)

Examples

"Create a banner saying 'AIDEN' for the CLI startup screen" → Use step 2 with font slant or doom, then step 7 to add cyan color.

"Make a cowsay message that says 'Deployment successful'" → Use step 4: cowsay.tux("Deployment successful!").

"Add a decorative box around my summary output" → Use step 6 with style="double" for a professional-looking double-line box.

Cautions

• pyfiglet output width depends on font — some fonts produce very wide output; use short text (< 12 chars) for block fonts
• Terminal color codes (ANSI) may not render correctly in all terminals — test before using in production scripts
• cowsay requires pip install cowsay (Python port) — the Unix cowsay binary is separate
• Some pyfiglet fonts are available only if pyfiglet[all] is installed — run pip install pyfiglet[all] for the full set