ASCII Text Banner Generator

Q: How do I add a colored ASCII banner in a terminal?

Pipe FIGlet output through lolcat for rainbow colors: figlet "Hello" | lolcat . For specific colors, wrap the output in ANSI escape codes in your shell script: echo -e "\033[32m$(figlet 'Hello')\033[0m" prints in green. Most terminal emulators support 256 colors or true color — check with echo $TERM and tput colors .

Create ASCII text banners for terminals, server login messages, CLI tools, and code headers. Generate wide-format banner text in classic terminal fonts.

Generate ASCII Banners for Terminals and CLIs

Type your text to get a wide-format ASCII banner — the classic style for server login messages, CLI startup screens, and source code headers.

Terminal-width fonts: Banner-style fonts designed for 80-column displays
MOTD ready: Output pastes directly into /etc/motd or /etc/issue
CLI branding: Add a startup banner to your command-line tool with one paste
Code header comments: Section markers for large source files

Create ASCII Banner →

Where ASCII Banners Are Used

Server MOTD: The message displayed when SSH-ing into a server — classic sysadmin territory. Edit /etc/motd (static) or /etc/update-motd.d/ (dynamic scripts on Ubuntu/Debian)
CLI tool startup: Display your tool's name when invoked — common in Python CLIs using Click or Typer, Node.js tools, and Rust CLI crates
Docker container logs: Print a banner at container startup to identify the service in log aggregators
GitHub README headers: Large project name banners at the top of README files inside a code block
Source file headers: Module or file-level section markers, especially in C, Go, and assembly codebases

Adding a Banner to Your Terminal

Static MOTD: Paste banner text into /etc/motd — displayed to all users on SSH login
Shell config: Add a figlet or echo command to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to show a banner on every terminal open
Python CLI: Use the pyfiglet library — pyfiglet.figlet_format("MyTool") prints the banner at startup
Node.js: The figlet npm package renders FIGlet-compatible banners in Node CLI tools

Frequently Asked Questions

What width should an ASCII banner be?

The traditional terminal width is 80 columns — Banner-style fonts are designed for this. Modern terminals are often 120+ columns wide, so wider fonts work too. For README files on GitHub, stay under 80 characters wide to avoid horizontal scrolling on smaller screens. Short words (4–8 characters) generally stay within 80 columns with most banner fonts.

How do I add a colored ASCII banner in a terminal?

Pipe FIGlet output through lolcat for rainbow colors: figlet "Hello" | lolcat. For specific colors, wrap the output in ANSI escape codes in your shell script: echo -e "\033[32m$(figlet 'Hello')\033[0m" prints in green. Most terminal emulators support 256 colors or true color — check with echo $TERM and tput colors.

Can I use ASCII banners in Windows terminals?

Yes — Windows Terminal, PowerShell, and WSL all support monospace rendering and ANSI color codes. For Windows PowerShell, use the Write-Host cmdlet with a pre-generated ASCII banner string. In WSL, apt install figlet works the same as on Linux. The banner text itself is just plain characters — it works anywhere monospace text is displayed.