Ascii Artist

Arrows

Simple:   <- -> ^ v
Fancy:    ← → ↑ ↓ ↔ ↕
Triangle: ◀ ▶ ▲ ▼

Shapes

Dots:     · • ●
Squares:  □ ■ ▪ ▫
Circles:  ○ ● ◯ ◉
Stars:    * ✱ ✳ ★ ☆

Banners

Simple Box Banner

┌─────────────────────┐
│   YOUR TEXT HERE    │
└─────────────────────┘

Double Line Banner

╔═════════════════════╗
║   YOUR TEXT HERE    ║
╚═════════════════════╝

Rounded Banner

╭─────────────────────╮
│   YOUR TEXT HERE    │
╰─────────────────────╯

Shadow Banner

┌─────────────────────┐
│   YOUR TEXT HERE    │▒
└─────────────────────┘▒
 ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

Big Text (Block Letters)

██╗  ██╗███████╗██╗     ██╗      ██████╗
██║  ██║██╔════╝██║     ██║     ██╔═══██╗
███████║█████╗  ██║     ██║     ██║   ██║
██╔══██║██╔══╝  ██║     ██║     ██║   ██║
██║  ██║███████╗███████╗███████╗╚██████╔╝
╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝╚══════╝╚══════╝ ╚═════╝

Minimal Big Text

 _  _  ___  _    _    ___
| || || __|| |  | |  / _ \
| __ || _| | |__| |_| (_) |
|_||_||___||____|____\___/

Slant Style

    __  __________    __    ____
   / / / / ____/ /   / /   / __ \
  / /_/ / __/ / /   / /   / / / /
 / __  / /___/ /___/ /___/ /_/ /
/_/ /_/_____/_____/_____/\____/

Diagrams

Flowchart

┌─────────┐     ┌─────────┐     ┌─────────┐
│  Start  │────▶│ Process │────▶│   End   │
└─────────┘     └─────────┘     └─────────┘
                     │
                     ▼
               ┌─────────┐
               │ Branch  │
               └─────────┘

Tree Structure

project/
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── Button.tsx
│   │   └── Card.tsx
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── helpers.ts
│   └── index.ts
├── package.json
└── README.md

Architecture Diagram

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 Client                    │
└──────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                   │
                   ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              API Gateway                  │
└───────┬──────────────────────┬───────────┘
        │                      │
        ▼                      ▼
┌───────────────┐      ┌───────────────┐
│   Service A   │      │   Service B   │
└───────┬───────┘      └───────┬───────┘
        │                      │
        └──────────┬───────────┘
                   ▼
          ┌───────────────┐
          │   Database    │
          └───────────────┘

Timeline

──●────────●────────●────────●────────●──▶
  │        │        │        │        │
  v1.0     v1.1     v2.0     v2.1     v3.0
  Jan      Mar      Jun      Sep      Dec

Table

┌──────────┬───────────┬─────────┐
│  Name    │   Role    │  Status │
├──────────┼───────────┼─────────┤
│  Alice   │  Engineer │  Active │
│  Bob     │  Designer │  Active │
│  Carol   │  Manager  │  Away   │
└──────────┴───────────┴─────────┘

Decorative Elements

Dividers

─────────────────────────────────────────

═════════════════════════════════════════

─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

─────────────────●─────────────────

════════════════════════════════════════
            ◆ SECTION ◆
════════════════════════════════════════

Frames

╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║                                      ║
║    Content goes here                 ║
║                                      ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃                                      ┃
┃    Bold frame                        ┃
┃                                      ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

Logo Example

    ╭━━━╮
    ┃ ◉ ┃  ACME
    ╰━━━╯  CORP

Patterns

Progress Bar

Loading: [████████████░░░░░░░░] 60%

Progress: ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░ 50%

[====================          ] 67%

Sparklines

▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█▇▆▅▄▃▂▁

Checkbox Lists

[x] Task completed
[ ] Task pending
[~] Task in progress
[-] Task cancelled

Status Indicators

● Online    ○ Offline    ◐ Busy    ◑ Away

Rules

1. Always use monospace — ASCII art breaks in proportional fonts
2. Test your output — render it, don't just imagine it
3. Align obsessively — one space off ruins everything
4. Use box-drawing characters — they connect cleanly
5. Whitespace is structure — don't fight it, use it
6. Keep it readable — art that can't be understood is noise

Common Mistakes

• Using proportional fonts to view ASCII art
• Mixing box-drawing styles (single with double)
• Inconsistent spacing
• Too much detail — know when to simplify
• Forgetting the art will be copy-pasted

The constraint is the gift. Make something beautiful.