FIGlet

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".[4]

FIGlet
Original author(s)Glenn Chappell, Ian Chai
Initial release1991 (as "newban") / 1993 (figlet 2.0)[1]
Stable release
2.2.5[2] / May 2012
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemUnix-like
PlatformCross-platform
TypeTypesetting
LicenseNew BSD[3]
Websitewww.figlet.org

Being free software, FIGlet is commonly included as part of many Unix-like operating systems (Linux,[5] 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, Macintosh, MS-DOS, NeXTSTEP, OS/2, and Windows platforms, as well as a reimplementation in Perl (Text::FIGlet[6]).[7] There are third-party reimplementations of FIGlet in Java[8] (including one embedded in the JavE ASCII art editor), JavaScript,[9] PHP,[10][11] Python,[12] and Go.[13] FIGlet was featured as a Debian Package of the Day in 2007.[14]

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.

[user@hostname ~]$ figlet Wikipedia
__        ___ _    _                _ _       
\ \      / (_) | _(_)_ __   ___  __| (_) __ _ 
 \ \ /\ / /| | |/ / | '_ \ / _ \/ _` | |/ _` |
  \ V  V / | |   <| | |_) |  __/ (_| | | (_| |
   \_/\_/  |_|_|\_\_| .__/ \___|\__,_|_|\__,_|
                    |_|

The following command:

[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.

FIGlet-based ASCII typefaces

Eric Olson's 2002 FIG typeface family is a series of OpenType fonts similar to the output of FIGlet.

TOIlet seeks to extend FIGlet to use colour text.[15] FIGlet supports TOIlet fonts as of version 2.2.4.

See also

References
  1. Chappell, Glen (1995). ""Why does FIGlet exist?" a history of FIGlet". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  2. "FIGLet home page". Retrieved 2012-06-18.
  3. ""Why does FIGlet exist?" a history of FIGlet". Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  4. "FIGlet FAQ". Retrieved 2013-09-19.
  5. Stutz, Michael (2001). "Text Fonts". The Linux Cookbook. No Starch Press. ISBN 1-886411-48-4. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  6. Text::FIGlet
  7. "Official FIGlet FTP site". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  8. Rigaut, Benoît (1996). "Figlet Java". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  9. Gillespie, Pat (2006). "TAAG". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  10. Baltes, Lucas. "PHP Figlet". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  11. "Zend Framework – Zend_Text_Figlet Component". Archived from the original on 2012-08-22. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  12. Jones, Christopher (2007). "pyfiglet". Retrieved 2014-11-27.
  13. Sampson, Luke (13 December 2018). "GitHub - lukesampson/figlet: Figlet in Go". Github. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  14. Tincho (2007-03-25). "FIGLET: a totally useless, therefore essential tool". Archived from the original on March 30, 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  15. "TOIlet". Retrieved 2010-01-29.
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