Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 2, 2026

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. The name derives from "Frank, Ian and Glenn's letters".

Last revised
Jun 2, 2026
Read time
≈ 4 min
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877 w
Citations
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Source
Wikipedia ↗
FIGlet
Original authorsGlenn Chappell, Ian Chai
Initial release1991 (as "newban") / 1993 (figlet 2.0)1
Stable release
2.2.52 / May 2012
Written inC
Operating systemUnix-like
PlatformCross-platform
TypeTypesetting
LicenseNew BSD3
Websitewww.figlet.org
Repository

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

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, Mac, MS-DOS, NeXTSTEP, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, as well as a reimplementation in Perl (Text::FIGlet6).7 There are third-party reimplementations of FIGlet in Java8 (including one embedded in the JavE ASCII art editor), JavaScript,9 PHP,1011 Python,12 and Go.13 DuckDuckgo also has their own Figlet version, to be able to use it you need to type "Figlet [text]" and you can easily Copy & Paste everywhere14

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 7MO
 _____ __  __  ___  
|___  |  \/  |/ _ \ 
   / /| |\/| | | | |
  / / | |  | | |_| |
 /_/  |_|  |_|\___/

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.

Font examples

Invita

 __       __)                          
(, )  |  /  , /)   ,           /) ,    
   | /| /    (/_    __    _  _(/    _  
   |/ |/  _(_/(___(_/_)__(/_(_(__(_(_(_
   /  |          .-/                   
                (_/                    
                                       

#     #                                          
#  #  # # #    # # #####  ###### #####  #   ##   
#  #  # # #   #  # #    # #      #    # #  #  #  
#  #  # # ####   # #    # #####  #    # # #    # 
#  #  # # #  #   # #####  #      #    # # ###### 
#  #  # # #   #  # #      #      #    # # #    # 
 ## ##  # #    # # #      ###### #####  # #    #

Larry3d

 __      __      __                             __                  
/\ \  __/\ \  __/\ \      __                   /\ \  __             
\ \ \/\ \ \ \/\_\ \ \/'\ /\_\  _____      __   \_\ \/\_\     __     
 \ \ \ \ \ \ \/\ \ \ , < \/\ \/\ '__`\  /'__`\ /'_` \/\ \  /'__`\   
  \ \ \_/ \_\ \ \ \ \ \\`\\ \ \ \ \L\ \/\  __//\ \L\ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_ 
   \ `\___x___/\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \_\ \ ,__/\ \____\ \___,_\ \_\ \__/.\_\
    '\/__//__/  \/_/\/_/\/_/\/_/\ \ \/  \/____/\/__,_ /\/_/\/__/\/_/
                                 \ \_\                              
                                  \/_/

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

See also

References

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". Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. 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. frostedKIVI (2020-03-23). "Duckduckgo has a built in FIGlet, how amazing is that? Possibly my favorite easter egg especially since i found it all by myself randomly". r/duckduckgo. Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  15. "TOIlet". Retrieved 2010-01-29.
External links