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About this tool
Turns typed text into large ASCII banner letters from a 5 by 7 bitmap font, with a choice of ink character, letter spacing and drop shadow.
The Text to ASCII Art converts typed text into big ASCII banner letters — the block lettering you see at the top of a README, in a terminal login message or in an old BBS signature. Each character is drawn from a 5 by 7 bitmap font, the same glyph-cell proportion used by classic character LCD modules, which is why the letters stay readable at banner size. Because the letters come from a bitmap rather than fixed pre-drawn art, one font produces every style: change the ink character, or overlay an offset copy for a drop shadow.
Open Text to ASCII Art on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Type up to 200 characters into the "Text" field, which starts on HELLO - letters, digits and 26 punctuation marks have glyphs.
Choose an "Ink character" (Hash #, Solid block █, Medium shade ▓, Star *, At @, Dollar $, Letter O or a custom one), a Style of Solid or Drop shadow, and the "Space between letters" and "Wrap after" values.
The banner redraws from the 5 × 7 bitmap font as you type; check the "Output size" readout in characters, then press "Copy result" to put the art on the clipboard.
Solid and drop-shadow styles both come from the same 5 × 7 bitmap.
Render with #, █, ▓, *, @, $ or any single character you type.
Fixed-width cells and optional trailing-space trimming keep the art aligned in monospaced text.
Type the word, choose an ink character and copy the result. Each letter is drawn on a 5-column by 7-row grid, so a five-letter word with one column of letter spacing comes out 29 characters wide and 7 rows tall. Paste it somewhere that uses a monospaced font — a proportional font will shear the alignment.
All 26 letters, the digits 0 to 9, the space, and 26 punctuation marks including . , ! ? ' " - + = : ; / \ ( ) [ ] < > # $ % & @ * and the underscore. Lower-case input is drawn with the upper-case glyph. Anything else is replaced by a question mark and reported.
Almost always because the destination uses a proportional font, where an 'i' is narrower than an 'm'. ASCII art only lines up in a monospaced font such as the one in a code block, a terminal or a code editor. Wrapping is the other cause — turn off soft wrap or reduce the wrap width setting.
The whole font and renderer run in JavaScript in your browser, so no text leaves the page and no request is made. Input is capped at 200 characters and output at 400 columns per line to keep the render instant.