ASCII Art: History and Modern Uses
How ASCII art originated on early computers and terminals — and how it's used in CLI tools today.
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ASCII Art: History and Modern Uses Part of our complete guide to this topic — see the full series. ASCII art turns printable text characters into visual art. It predates computers, survived the graphical interface era, and remains embedded in CLI culture today. --- All the tools discussed here are available for free at theproductguy.in — client-side, no sign-up required. What is Pre-Computer Origins: Typewriter Art? The artistic impulse behind ASCII art appeared on typewriters long before computers. In the late 19th and early 20th century, typists discovered that overtyping characters (striking the same position multiple times) could create shading effects. Julia Moore and others produced elaborate portraits using only typewriter symbols. When early computing used teletypes and line…
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ASCII art?
ASCII art is visual artwork created using only the printable characters of the ASCII character set. By carefully arranging characters with different visual densities (like |, -, ., #, @, and space), artists create images, diagrams, borders, and text banners that display correctly on any terminal or text medium.
When did ASCII art start?
ASCII art predates the ASCII standard itself. Typewriter art — creating images by overtyping characters — appeared in the 1890s. When ASCII was standardized in 1963 and teletypes and early terminals became common in the 1960s–1970s, text-based graphics became widespread. The 1970s–1980s BBS era elevated ASCII art to a subculture, with dedicated artists producing elaborate scene artwork.
What is ANSI art?
ANSI art extends ASCII art by using ANSI escape codes — special character sequences that control text color, background color, and cursor position on compatible terminals. ANSI art became popular on bulletin board systems (BBS) in the late 1980s and early 1990s when IBM PC terminals supported 16 foreground and 8 background colors. The ANSI Artists Group and artists groups like ACiD Productions and iCE produced thousands of ANSI artworks.
How is ASCII art used in modern CLI tools?
ASCII art survives in modern CLI tools as startup banners (figlet/toilet), progress indicators, box-drawing in TUIs (terminal user interfaces), diagram rendering (drawille, asciinema), and documentation decorations. Libraries like blessed (Node.js), rich (Python), and bubbletea (Go) use Unicode box-drawing characters extensively. Cowsay, neofetch, and htop all use text-based graphics.
What is figlet?
FIGlet (Frank, Ian and Glenn's Letters) is a program that generates text banners from ASCII/Unicode characters, creating large decorative text using arrangements of smaller characters. It supports hundreds of 'fonts' — each defining how the banner letters are drawn. FIGlet and its successor toilet are used in terminal welcome messages, CLI help text, and README files.
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