FIGlet

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Program for making large letters out of ordinary text

title: "FIGlet" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ascii-art", "free-software-programmed-in-c", "free-typesetting-software", "cross-platform-software"] description: "Program for making large letters out of ordinary text" topic_path: "general/ascii-art" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIGlet" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Program for making large letters out of ordinary text ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

FieldValue
nameFIGlet
authorGlenn Chappell, Ian Chai
released1991 (as "newban") / 1993 (figlet 2.0)
latest release version2.2.5
latest release dateMay 2012
programming languageC
operating systemUnix-like
platformCross-platform
genreTypesetting
licenseNew BSD
website
::

| name = FIGlet | logo = | screenshot = | caption = | author = Glenn Chappell, Ian Chai | developer = | released = 1991 (as "newban") / 1993 (figlet 2.0) | latest release version = 2.2.5 | latest release date = May 2012 | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | programming language = C | operating system = Unix-like | platform = Cross-platform | language = | genre = Typesetting | license = New BSD | website =

FIGlet is a computer program that generates text banners, in a variety of typefaces, composed of letters made up of conglomerations of smaller ASCII characters (see ASCII art). The name derives from "Frank, Ian and Glenn's letters".

Being free software, FIGlet is commonly included as part of many Unix-like operating systems (Linux, BSD, etc.) distributions, but it has been ported to other platforms as well. The official FIGlet FTP site includes precompiled ports for the Acorn, Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, BeOS, Mac, MS-DOS, NeXTSTEP, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, as well as a reimplementation in Perl (Text::FIGlet). There are third-party reimplementations of FIGlet in Java (including one embedded in the JavE ASCII art editor), JavaScript, PHP, Python, and Go. DuckDuckgo also has their own Figlet version, to be able to use it you need to type "Figlet [text]" and you can easily Copy & Paste everywhere

Behavior

FIGlet can read from standard input or accept a message as part of the command line. It prints to standard output. Some common arguments (options) are:

  • -f to select a font file. (font files are available here)
  • -d to change the directory for fonts.
  • -c centers the output.
  • -l left-aligns the output.
  • -r right-aligns the output.
  • -t sets the output width to the terminal width.
  • -w specifies a custom output width.
  • -k enables kerning, printing each letter of the message individually, instead of merged into the adjacent letters.

Sample usage

An example of output generated by FIGlet is shown below. ::code[lang=cobol] [user@hostname ~]$ figlet 7MO

|___ | / |/ _ \ / /| |/| | | | | / / | | | | || | // || ||___/

::

The following command:

::code[lang=Shell-session] [user@hostname ~]$ figlet -ct -f roman Wikipedia

generates this output:

oooooo   oooooo     oooo  o8o  oooo         o8o                             .o8   o8o            
 `888.    `888.     .8'   `"'  `888         `"'                            "888   `"'            
  `888.   .8888.   .8'   oooo   888  oooo  oooo  oo.ooooo.   .ooooo.   .oooo888  oooo   .oooo.   
   `888  .8'`888. .8'    `888   888 .8P'   `888   888' `88b d88' `88b d88' `888  `888  `P  )88b  
    `888.8'  `888.8'      888   888888.     888   888   888 888ooo888 888   888   888   .oP"888  
     `888'    `888'       888   888 `88b.   888   888   888 888    .o 888   888   888  d8(  888  
      `8'      `8'       o888o o888o o888o o888o  888bod8P' `Y8bod8P' `Y8bod88P" o888o `Y888""8o 
                                                  888                                            
                                                 o888o

The -ct options centers the text and makes it take up the full width of the terminal. The -f roman option specifies the 'roman' font file.

==Font examples== ===Invita===

 __       __)                          
(, )  |  /  , /)   ,           /) ,    
   | /| /    (/_    __    _  _(/    _  
   |/ |/  _(_/(___(_/_)__(/_(_(__(_(_(_
   /  |          .-/                   
                (_/

===Banner (same as [[Banner (Unix)|banner]] utility)===

#     #                                          
#  #  # # #    # # #####  ###### #####  #   ##   
#  #  # # #   #  # #    # #      #    # #  #  #  
#  #  # # ####   # #    # #####  #    # # #    # 
#  #  # # #  #   # #####  #      #    # # ###### 
#  #  # # #   #  # #      #      #    # # #    # 
 ## ##  # #    # # #      ###### #####  # #    #

===Larry3d===

 __      __      __                             __                  
/\ \  __/\ \  __/\ \      __                   /\ \  __             
\ \ \/\ \ \ \/\_\ \ \/'\ /\_\  _____      __   \_\ \/\_\     __     
 \ \ \ \ \ \ \/\ \ \ , < \/\ \/\ '__`\  /'__`\ /'_` \/\ \  /'__`\   
  \ \ \_/ \_\ \ \ \ \ \\`\\ \ \ \ \L\ \/\  __//\ \L\ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_ 
   \ `\___x___/\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \ ,__/\ \____\ \___,_\ \_\ \__/.\_\
    '\/__//__/  \/_/\/_/\/_/\/_/\ \ \/  \/____/\/__,_ /\/_/\/__/\/_/
                                 \ \_\                              
                                  \/_/

==FIGlet-based ASCII typefaces== Eric Olson's 2002 [[FIG Script|FIG]] typeface family is a series of [[OpenType]] fonts similar to the output of FIGlet.

TOIlet seeks to extend FIGlet to use colour text.{{cite web|url=http://caca.zoy.org/wiki/toilet|title=TOIlet|access-date=2010-01-29}} FIGlet supports TOIlet fonts as of version 2.2.4.

==See also== {{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

  • [[Banner (Unix)]]
  • [[Cowsay]]

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links==

  • {{official website}}
  • [http://www.jave.de/figlet/figfont.html FIGfont] Documentation version 2 FIGfont and FIGdriver Standard ** [http://www.jave.de/figlet/fonts.html Fonts library]
  • [http://pear.php.net/package/Text_Figlet PHP library] at PHP
  • [https://www.nuget.org/packages/FIGLet Nuget package] for .NET *Online FIGlet ASCII art generators **[http://textart.io/figlet Text Art Figlet Generator] at TextArt.io **[http://www.patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=display&f=Graffiti&t=Type%20Something%20 TAAG (Text Ascii Art Generator)] at Pat or JK **[http://www.kammerl.de/ascii/AsciiSignature.php ASCII signature] at Julius Kammerl **[http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ ASCII generator] at Network Science

[[Category:ASCII art]] [[Category:Free software programmed in C]] [[Category:Free typesetting software]] [[Category:Cross-platform software]] ::

References

  1. Chappell, Glen. (1995). ""Why does FIGlet exist?" a history of FIGlet".
  2. "FIGLet home page".
  3. ""Why does FIGlet exist?" a history of FIGlet".
  4. "FIGlet FAQ".
  5. Stutz, Michael. (2001). "The Linux Cookbook". No Starch Press.
  6. [https://metacpan.org/module/Text::FIGlet Text::FIGlet]
  7. "Official FIGlet FTP site".
  8. Rigaut, Benoît. (1996). "Figlet Java".
  9. Gillespie, Pat. (2006). "TAAG".
  10. Baltes, Lucas. "PHP Figlet".
  11. "Zend Framework – Zend_Text_Figlet Component".
  12. Jones, Christopher. (2007). "pyfiglet".
  13. (13 December 2018). "GitHub - lukesampson/figlet: Figlet in Go.".
  14. frostedKIVI. (2020-03-23). "Duckduckgo has a built in FIGlet, how amazing is that? Possibly my favorite easter egg especially since i found it all by myself randomly".
  15. "TOIlet".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

ascii-artfree-software-programmed-in-cfree-typesetting-softwarecross-platform-software