diegosouzapw ASCII Artist
Create ASCII art with craft. Every character is a pixel. The constraint is the gift.
Philosophy
ASCII art is typography at its limit. The monospace grid is your canvas. Whitespace is not empty — it is structure.
Principles:
- Choose characters for their visual weight, not their meaning
- Respect the grid — alignment is everything
- Less is more — don't fill every space
- Test in monospace — it will look different in proportional fonts
Character Palette
Weight Scale (Light to Heavy)
Light: . · ˙ ' `
Medium: - ~ = + * : ;
Heavy: # @ % & $
Block: ░ ▒ ▓ █
Lines and Structure
Horizontal: - = _ ─ ━
Vertical: | │ ┃
Diagonal: / \
Corners: + ┌ ┐ └ ┘ ╭ ╮ ╰ ╯
T-joins: ├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼
Double: ═ ║ ╔ ╗ ╚ ╝ ╠ ╣ ╦ ╩ ╬
Rounded: ╭ ╮ ╰ ╯
Arrows
Simple: <- -> ^ v
Fancy: ← → ↑ ↓ ↔ ↕
Triangle: ◀ ▶ ▲ ▼
Shapes
Dots: · • ●
Squares: □ ■ ▪ ▫
Circles: ○ ● ◯ ◉
Stars: * ✱ ✳ ★ ☆
Banners
Simple Box Banner
┌─────────────────────┐
│ YOUR TEXT HERE │
└─────────────────────┘
Double Line Banner
╔═════════════════════╗
║ YOUR TEXT HERE ║
╚═════════════════════╝
Rounded Banner
╭─────────────────────╮
│ YOUR TEXT HERE │
╰─────────────────────╯
Shadow Banner
┌─────────────────────┐
│ YOUR TEXT HERE │▒
└─────────────────────┘▒
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
Big Text (Block Letters)
██╗ ██╗███████╗██╗ ██╗ ██████╗
██║ ██║██╔════╝██║ ██║ ██╔═══██╗
███████║█████╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║
██╔══██║██╔══╝ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║
██║ ██║███████╗███████╗███████╗╚██████╔╝
╚═╝ ╚═╝╚══════╝╚══════╝╚══════╝ ╚═════╝
Minimal Big Text
_ _ ___ _ _ ___
| || || __|| | | | / _ \
| __ || _| | |__| |_| (_) |
|_||_||___||____|____\___/
Slant Style
__ __________ __ ____
/ / / / ____/ / / / / __ \
/ /_/ / __/ / / / / / / / /
/ __ / /___/ /___/ /___/ /_/ /
/_/ /_/_____/_____/_____/\____/
Diagrams
Flowchart
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│ Start │────▶│ Process │────▶│ End │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘
│
▼
┌─────────┐
│ Branch │
└─────────┘
Tree Structure
project/
├── src/
│ ├── components/
│ │ ├── Button.tsx
│ │ └── Card.tsx
│ ├── utils/
│ │ └── helpers.ts
│ └── index.ts
├── package.json
└── README.md
Architecture Diagram
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Client │
└──────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ API Gateway │
└───────┬──────────────────────┬───────────┘
│ │
▼ ▼
┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐
│ Service A │ │ Service B │
└───────┬───────┘ └───────┬───────┘
│ │
└──────────┬───────────┘
▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Database │
└───────────────┘
Timeline
──●────────●────────●────────●────────●──▶
│ │ │ │ │
v1.0 v1.1 v2.0 v2.1 v3.0
Jan Mar Jun Sep Dec
Table
┌──────────┬───────────┬─────────┐
│ Name │ Role │ Status │
├──────────┼───────────┼─────────┤
│ Alice │ Engineer │ Active │
│ Bob │ Designer │ Active │
│ Carol │ Manager │ Away │
└──────────┴───────────┴─────────┘
Decorative Elements
Dividers
─────────────────────────────────────────
═════════════════════════════════════════
─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
─────────────────●─────────────────
════════════════════════════════════════
◆ SECTION ◆
════════════════════════════════════════
Frames
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ Content goes here ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ┃
┃ Bold frame ┃
┃ ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Logo Example
╭━━━╮
┃ ◉ ┃ ACME
╰━━━╯ CORP
Patterns
Progress Bar
Loading: [████████████░░░░░░░░] 60%
Progress: ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░ 50%
[==================== ] 67%
Sparklines
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█▇▆▅▄▃▂▁
Checkbox Lists
[x] Task completed
[ ] Task pending
[~] Task in progress
[-] Task cancelled
Status Indicators
● Online ○ Offline ◐ Busy ◑ Away
Rules
- Always use monospace — ASCII art breaks in proportional fonts
- Test your output — render it, don't just imagine it
- Align obsessively — one space off ruins everything
- Use box-drawing characters — they connect cleanly
- Whitespace is structure — don't fight it, use it
- Keep it readable — art that can't be understood is noise
Common Mistakes
- Using proportional fonts to view ASCII art
- Mixing box-drawing styles (single with double)
- Inconsistent spacing
- Too much detail — know when to simplify
- Forgetting the art will be copy-pasted
The constraint is the gift. Make something beautiful.