FIGlet

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FIGlet
Design by Glenn Chappell
Initial release 1991 (as "newban") / 1993 (figlet 2.0)[1]
Latest release 2.2.2[2] / July 2005
Written in C
OS Unix-like
Platform Cross-platform
Genre Typesetting
License AFL v2.1[3]
Website http://www.figlet.org/

FIGlet is a computer program that generates text banners, in a variety of typefaces, comprised of letters made up of conglomerations of smaller ASCII characters (see ASCII Art).

Being free software, FIGlet is commonly included as part of many Unix-like operating system (Linux[4], 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).[5] There are third-party reimplementations of FIGLet in Java[6] (including one embedded in the JavE ASCII Art editor), Javascript[7] and PHP[8]. FIGlet was featured as a Debian Package of the Day in 2007.[9]

Contents

[edit] 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.
  • -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.

[edit] Sample Usage

An example of output generated by FIGlet is shown below.

__        ___ _    _                _ _       
\ \      / (_) | _(_)_ __   ___  __| (_) __ _ 
 \ \ /\ / /| | |/ / | '_ \ / _ \/ _` | |/ _` |
  \ V  V / | |   <| | |_) |  __/ (_| | | (_| |
   \_/\_/  |_|_|\_\_| .__/ \___|\__,_|_|\__,_|
                    |_|

The following code:

 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.

[edit] FIGlet based ASCII typefaces

Eric Olson's 2002 typefaces FIG Script, FIG Sans, and FIG Serif are a series of ASCII-formatted fonts uses FIGlet.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chappell, Glen (1995). "Why does FIGlet exist?" a history of FIGlet. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  2. ^ FIGLet home page. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  3. ^ FIGLet 2.2.2 license. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  4. ^ Stutz, Michael (2001). "Text Fonts", The Linux Cookbook. No Starch Press. ISBN 1886411484. Retrieved on 2008-04-25. 
  5. ^ Official FIGlet FTP site. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  6. ^ Rigaut, Benoît (1996). Figlet Java. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  7. ^ Gillespie, Pat (2006). TAAG. Retrieved on 2008-05-01.
  8. ^ Baltes, Lucas. PHP Figlet. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  9. ^ Tincho (2007-03-25). FIGLET: a totally useless, therefore essential tool. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.

[edit] External links