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ASCII art history

ASCII art predates computers - typewriter art dates to the 1860s. In computing, ASCII art emerged in the 1960s on line printers and teletype machines, flourished on BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) in the 1980s-90s, and survived into the internet era through email signatures, Usenet, and IRC channels.

FIGlet fonts

FIGlet ("Frank, Ian and Glenn's Letters") is an open-source program created in 1991 that generates ASCII text banners. The standard FIGlet font format (.flf) supports hundreds of styles and is still widely used in CLI tools, README files, and splash screens.

Uses today

README headers on GitHub
Terminal splash screens and MOTD (Message of the Day)
Source code "section" dividers in large files
Creative design in plain-text emails and retro aesthetic projects

Popular FIGlet font styles

Here is the word HELLO rendered in a few common FIGlet font styles so you can preview before generating:

Standard:

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

Big:

 _    _  ____  _      _        ___
| |  | ||  __|| |    | |      / _ \
| |__| || |__ | |    | |     | | | |
|  __  ||  __|| |    | |     | | | |
| |  | || |___| |___ | |___  | |_| |
|_|  |_||_____||_____||_____|  \___/

Block (compact):

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

Using ASCII art in code and documents

README.md on GitHub: Wrap your ASCII art in a fenced code block (```) to preserve exact spacing. GitHub renders it in a monospace font.
Terminal scripts: Use echo with ANSI color codes to add color to ASCII art banners in shell scripts.
Source code banners: Many developers add a text banner at the top of their main entry-point file as a visual identifier.