ASCII art

Software

• ascii-rain — Comfy rain for your console written in C with Ncurses.

https://github.com/nkleemann/ascii-rain || ascii-rain-git^AUR

• Asciiquarium — An aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art.

https://robobunny.com/projects/asciiquarium/ || asciiquarium

• Banner — Print large banners to ASCII terminals.

https://shh.thathost.com/pub-unix/ || banner

• bash-pipes — An animated pipes terminal screensaver.

https://github.com/pipeseroni/pipes.sh || bash-pipes^AUR

• boxes — Text mode box and comment drawing filter.

https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/ || boxes^AUR

• cbonsai — A bonsai tree generator, written in C using ncurses.

https://gitlab.com/jallbrit/cbonsai || cbonsai^AUR

• catimg — Print images in a terminal with 256 colors support.

https://github.com/posva/catimg || catimg

• cmatrix — Animation that plays in terminal based on the text from "The Matrix".

https://github.com/abishekvashok/cmatrix || cmatrix

• TOIlet — Free replacement for the FIGlet utility.

http://caca.zoy.org/wiki/toilet || toilet^AUR

• tty-clock — A digital clock in ncurses.

https://github.com/xorg62/tty-clock || tty-clock^AUR

For diagrams there is https://asciiflow.com/.

Arch ASCII logos

See the original forum thread.

From 3.6.5-1:

From 0.4.7-1:

From 0.5-2:

ArchWiki's birthday celebration:

                                               ,- " " " -.
                                              /     _     \
                                             :     / |     ;     ,- " " "-.
                                             \     | |     /    /   ____   \
                                              \    |_|    /    ;    |  |    ;
                                                `.. ,, ..´     \    |__|    /
                                                  /✿\           \          /
                                                    )             `. ,, .´
     _             _  __        ___ _    _         (                /✿\
    / \   _ __ ___| |_\ \      / (_) | _(_)         )                (
   / _ \ | '__/ __| '_ \ \ /\ / /| | |/ / |        (                  )
  / ___ \| | | (__| | | \ V  V / | |   <| | ....... ) .*..---...*.....*
 /_/   \_\_|  \___|_| |_|\_/\_/  |_|_|\_\_| ....♫♪հձթթყ ъﻨгէհժձყ eժﻨէﻨon ♫

User art:

                    -@                
                   .##@               
                  .####@              
                  @#####@             
                . *######@            
               .##@o@#####@           
              /############@          
             /##############@         
            @######@**%######@        
           @######`     %#####o       
          @######@       ######%      
        -@#######h       ######@.`    
       /#####h**``       `**%@####@   
      @H@*`                    `*%#@  
     *`                            `* 

by Cyllos

by LnLcFlx

Code page 437 save (e.g. ):

by Hendrikto (modified from the version by LnLcFlx)

Cowsay

Here are some examples of and fortune used together:

Default cow with fortune

• Combined with the program :

$ cowthink $(fortune)
 ________________________________________ 
( The best cure for insomnia is to get a )
( lot of sleep. -W.C. Fields             )
 ---------------------------------------- 
        o   ^__^
         o  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

• Display a potentially offensive fortune:

$ cowsay $(fortune -o)
 _________________________________ 
< Chastity is its own punishment. >
 --------------------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

The ASCII images are generated by text files located in , and all themes can be listed with the . These files can be edited to the user's liking; custom images can also be created from scratch or found on the net. The easiest way create a custom cow file is to use an existing one as a template. To test the custom file:

$ cowsay -f /path/to/file $(fortune)

Random cow with fortune

$ fortune -c | cowthink -f $(find /usr/share/cows -type f | shuf -n 1)
  ___________________________________________
( (computers) % A language that doesn't )
( affect the way you think about                  )
( programming is not worth knowing.       )
  ------------------------------------------------------
         o      (__)
          o     /oo|
           o   (_"_)*+++++++++*
                    //I#\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \   I \
                   I[I|I | | | | |   I I `
                   I`I ' /  /  /  '  '     I I
                   I I                       I I
                  ~ ~                     ~ ~
                        Scowleton

Random custom cow with fortune

Complex commands can be chained to produce detailed ASCII art such as this Futurama example.

• Display a random cow with a random facial expression and wrap long lines of fortune text:

$ fortune -a | fmt -80 -s | $(shuf -n 1 -e cowsay cowthink) -$(shuf -n 1 -e b d g p s t w y) -f $(shuf -n 1 -e $(cowsay -l | tail -n +2)) -n
    ________________________________________ 
( Fry: I must be a robot. Why else would )
( human women refuse to date me?         )
    -------------------------------------------------- 
      o
        o
          o  
             ,'``.._   ,'``.
            :,--._:)\,:,._,.:
            :`--,@@@:`...';\        
             `,'@@@@@@@`---'@@`.     
             /@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:
            /@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@\
          ,'@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:\.___,-.
         `...,---'``````-..._@@@@|:@@@@@@@\
           (                 )@@@;:@@@@)@@@\  _,-.
            `.              (@@@//@@@@@@@@@@`'@@@@\
             :               `.//@@)@@@@@@)@@@@@,@;
             |`.            _,'/@@@@@@@)@@@@)@,'@,'
             :`.`-..____..=:.-':@@@@@.@@@@@_,@@,'
            ,'\ ``--....-)='    `._,@@\    )@@@'``._
           /@_@`.       (@)      /@@@@@)  ; / \ \`-.'
          (@@@`-:`.     `' ___..'@@_,-'   |/   `.)
           `-. `.`.``-----``--,@@.'
             |/`.\`'        ,',');
                 `         (/  (/

Ponysay

For full 256-colored cowsay-like art use (version 3.0 has 422 ponies). The syntax is the same, meaning $ ponysay message to say something and for a complete list of ponies. To select a pony to display, run $ ponysay --pony x "message", where is a pony. To create more ponies use and store them in and for desktop and TTY, respectively.

See also

• Arch Linux artwork
• /etc/issue "2.0" - My ASCII art version with Arch logo and text