ascii-art

name ascii-art description ASCII art: pyfiglet, cowsay, boxes, image-to-ascii. version 4.0.0 author 0xbyt4, Hermes Agent license MIT dependencies [] platforms ["linux","macos","windows"] metadata {"hermes":{"tags":["ASCII","Art","Banners","Creative","Unicode","Text-Art","pyfiglet","figlet","cowsay","boxes"],"related_skills":["excalidraw"]}} ASCII Art Skill Multiple tools for different ASCII art needs. All tools are local CLI programs or free REST APIs — no API keys required. Tool 1: Text Banners (pyfiglet — local) Render text as large ASCII art banners. 571 built-in fonts. Setup pip install pyfiglet --break-system-packages -q Usage python -m pyfiglet "YOUR TEXT" -f slant python -m pyfiglet "TEXT" -f doom -w 80 # Set width python -m pyfiglet --list_fonts # List all 571 fonts Recommended fonts Style Font Best for Clean & modern slant Project names, headers Bold & blocky doom Titles, logos Big & readable big Banners Classic banner banner3 Wide displays Compact small Subtitles Cyberpunk cyberlarge Tech themes 3D effect 3-d Splash screens Gothic gothic Dramatic text Tips Preview 2-3 fonts and let the user pick their favorite Short text (1-8 chars) works best with detailed fonts like doom or block Long text works better with compact fonts like small or mini Tool 2: Text Banners (asciified API — remote, no install) Free REST API that converts text to ASCII art. 250+ FIGlet fonts. Returns plain text directly — no parsing needed. Use this when pyfiglet is not installed or as a quick alternative. Usage (via terminal curl) # Basic text banner (default font) curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello+World" # With a specific font curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello&font=Slant" curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello&font=Doom" curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello&font=Star+Wars" curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello&font=3-D" curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=Hello&font=Banner3" # List all available fonts (returns JSON array) curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/fonts" Tips URL-encode spaces as + in the text parameter The response is plain text ASCII art — no JSON wrapping, ready to display Font names are case-sensitive; use the fonts endpoint to get exact names Works from any terminal with curl — no Python or pip needed Tool 3: Cowsay (Message Art) Classic tool that wraps text in a speech bubble with an ASCII character. Setup sudo apt install cowsay -y # Debian/Ubuntu # brew install cowsay # macOS Usage cowsay "Hello World" cowsay -f tux "Linux rules" # Tux the penguin cowsay -f dragon "Rawr!" # Dragon cowsay -f stegosaurus "Roar!" # Stegosaurus cowthink "Hmm..." # Thought bubble cowsay -l # List all characters Available characters (50+) beavis.zen , bong , bunny , cheese , daemon , default , dragon , dragon-and-cow , elephant , eyes , flaming-skull , ghostbusters , hellokitty , kiss , kitty , koala , luke-koala , mech-and-cow , meow , moofasa , moose , ren , sheep , skeleton , small , stegosaurus , stimpy , supermilker , surgery , three-eyes , turkey , turtle , tux , udder , vader , vader-koala , www Eye/tongue modifiers cowsay -b "Borg" # =_= eyes cowsay -d "Dead" # x_x eyes cowsay -g "Greedy" # $_$ eyes cowsay -p "Paranoid" # @_@ eyes cowsay -s "Stoned" # *_* eyes cowsay -w "Wired" # O_O eyes cowsay -e "OO" "Msg" # Custom eyes cowsay -T "U " "Msg" # Custom tongue Tool 4: Boxes (Decorative Borders) Draw decorative ASCII art borders/frames around any text. 70+ built-in designs. Setup sudo apt install boxes -y # Debian/Ubuntu # brew install boxes # macOS Usage echo "Hello World" | boxes # Default box echo "Hello World" | boxes -d stone # Stone border echo "Hello World" | boxes -d parchment # Parchment scroll echo "Hello World" | boxes -d cat # Cat border echo "Hello World" | boxes -d dog # Dog border echo "Hello World" | boxes -d unicornsay # Unicorn echo "Hello World" | boxes -d diamonds # Diamond pattern echo "Hello World" | boxes -d c-cmt # C-style comment echo "Hello World" | boxes -d html-cmt # HTML comment echo "Hello World" | boxes -a c # Center text boxes -l # List all 70+ designs Combine with pyfiglet or asciified python -m pyfiglet "HERMES" -f slant | boxes -d stone # Or without pyfiglet installed: curl -s "https://asciified.thelicato.io/api/v2/ascii?text=HERMES&font=Slant" | boxes -d stone Tool 5: TOIlet (Colored Text Art) Like pyfiglet but with ANSI color effects and visual filters. Great for terminal eye candy. Setup sudo apt install toilet toilet-fonts -y # Debian/Ubuntu # brew install toilet # macOS Usage toilet "Hello World" # Basic text art toilet -f bigmono12 "Hello" # Specific font toilet --gay "Rainbow!" # Rainbow coloring toilet --metal "Metal!" # Metallic effect toilet -F border "Bordered" # Add border toilet -F border --gay "Fancy!" # Combined effects toilet -f pagga "Block" # Block-style font (unique to toilet) toilet -F list # List available filters Filters crop , gay (rainbow), metal , flip , flop , 180 , left , right , border Note : toilet outputs ANSI escape codes for colors — works in terminals but may not render in all contexts (e.g., plain text files, some chat platforms). Tool 6: Image to ASCII Art Convert images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WEBP) to ASCII art. Option A: ascii-image-converter (recommended, modern) # Install sudo snap install ascii-image-converter # OR: go install github.com/TheZoraiz/ascii-image-converter@latest ascii-image-converter image.png # Basic ascii-image-converter image.png -C # Color output ascii-image-converter image.png -d 60,30 # Set dimensions ascii-image-converter image.png -b # Braille characters ascii-image-converter image.png -n # Negative/inverted ascii-image-converter https://url/image.jpg # Direct URL ascii-image-converter image.png --save-txt out # Save as text Option B: jp2a (lightweight, JPEG only) sudo apt install jp2a -y jp2a --width=80 image.jpg jp2a --colors image.jpg # Colorized Tool 7: Search Pre-Made ASCII Art Search curated ASCII art from the web. Use terminal with curl . Source A: ascii.co.uk (recommended for pre-made art) Large collection of classic ASCII art organized by subject. Art is inside HTML <pre> tags. Fetch the page with curl, then extract art with a small Python snippet. URL pattern: https://ascii.co.uk/art/{subject} Step 1 — Fetch the page: curl -s 'https://ascii.co.uk/art/cat' -o /tmp/ascii_art.html Step 2 — Extract art from pre tags: import re, html with open ( '/tmp/ascii_art.html' ) as f: text = f.read() arts = re.findall( r'<pre[^>]*>(.*?)</pre>' , text, re.DOTALL) for art in arts: clean = re.sub( r'<[^>]+>' , '' , art) clean = html.unescape(clean).strip() if len (clean) > 30 : print (clean) print ( '\n---\n' ) Available subjects (use as URL path): Animals: cat , dog , horse , bird , fish , dragon , snake , rabbit , elephant , dolphin , butterfly , owl , wolf , bear , penguin , turtle Objects: car , ship , airplane , rocket , guitar , computer , coffee , beer , cake , house , castle , sword , crown , key Nature: tree , flower , sun , moon , star , mountain , ocean , rainbow Characters: skull , robot , angel , wizard , pirate , ninja , alien Holidays: christmas , halloween , valentine Tips: Preserve artist signatures/initials — important etiquette Multiple art pieces per page — pick the best one for the user Works reliably via curl, no JavaScript needed Source B: GitHub Octocat API (fun easter egg) Returns a random GitHub Octocat with a wise quote. No auth needed. curl -s https://api.github.com/octocat Tool 8: Fun ASCII Utilities (via curl) These free services return ASCII art directly — great for fun extras. QR Codes as ASCII Art curl -s "qrenco.de/Hello+World" curl -s "qrenco.de/https://example.com" Weather as ASCII Art curl -s "wttr.in/London" # Full weather report with ASCII graphics curl -s "wttr.in/Moon" # Moon phase in ASCII art curl -s "v2.wttr.in/London" # Detailed version Tool 9: LLM-Generated Custom Art (Fallback) When tools above don't have what's needed, generate ASCII art directly using these Unicode characters: Character Palette Box Drawing: ╔ ╗ ╚ ╝ ║ ═ ╠ ╣ ╦ ╩ ╬ ┌ ┐ └ ┘ │ ─ ├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼ ╭ ╮ ╰ ╯ Block Elements: ░ ▒ ▓ █ ▄ ▀ ▌ ▐ ▖ ▗ ▘ ▝ ▚ ▞ Geometric & Symbols: ◆ ◇ ◈ ● ○ ◉ ■ □ ▲ △ ▼ ▽ ★ ☆ ✦ ✧ ◀ ▶ ◁ ▷ ⬡ ⬢ ⌂ Rules Max width: 60 characters per line (terminal-safe) Max height: 15 lines for banners, 25 for scenes Monospace only: output must render correctly in fixed-width fonts Decision Flow Text as a banner → pyfiglet if installed, otherwise asciified API via curl Wrap a message in fun character art → cowsay Add decorative border/frame → boxes (can combine with pyfiglet/asciified) Art of a specific thing (cat, rocket, dragon) → ascii.co.uk via curl + parsing Convert an image to ASCII → ascii-image-converter or jp2a QR code → qrenco.de via curl Weather/moon art → wttr.in via curl Something custom/creative → LLM generation with Unicode palette Any tool not installed → install it, or fall back to next option