The eight fonts
All eight fonts come with FIGlet, a program Glenn Chappell first wrote in 1991:
- Standard: the familiar shape made of
_,|,/and\. - Big: taller, with more room inside each letter.
- Slant: the same style leaning to the right.
- Small: compact, good for chat.
- Shadow: open letters drawn with a shadow edge.
- Banner: tall letters made of
#. - Block: letters built from
_|blocks. - Script: slanted, handwriting-style letters.
The number beside each font name is its width in characters. As a rule of thumb from the Hello example, Small is about half as wide as Banner or Block, so for a long word on a phone start with Small, Standard or Shadow.
Getting a clean paste
Ticking the code block box adds a line of three backticks above and below the letters. That is Markdown’s fence for a code block, which apps that follow Markdown show in a fixed-width font with the spacing untouched. Where no such formatting exists, the share link is the fallback: it opens this page with the same words already drawn in your chosen font.
For long phrases, the Line width setting splits the text between words so that no row is longer than 40, 60 or 80 characters, which keeps the letters from wrapping mid-shape on narrow screens.
Where it helps
Headers in README files and code comments, a big “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” in a group chat, a sign-off in a forum post, or a title for a plain-text newsletter. For ready-made pictures to go with the words, switch to the Pictures tab or open the cat text art.