~/usecases · where plain text wins

ASCII belongs everywhere text goes

Six places where an image made of characters beats an image made of pixels — no attachments, no rendering engines, no broken links.

$ cat README.md – □ ✕ 
 ████   █████  █████ ██████ ██████
██  ██ ██     ██       ██     ██
██████  ████  ██       ██     ██
██  ██     ██ ██       ██     ██
██  ██ █████   █████ ██████ ██████
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

$ readme banners

Your project logo rendered in every git host on earth, with zero image hosting. Pull requests deserve a marquee too.

github markdown plain text
$ ssh deploy@prod – □ ✕ 
        ░▒▓██▓▒░
       ░▒▓████▓▒░
        ░▒▓██▓▒░

img2ascii deploy console
 v2.4.1 · 3 nodes ready
────────────────────────
$ _

$ cli splash screens

Greet the humans inside your terminals — login MOTDs, build banners, version splashes. The only art form guaranteed to render over ssh.

motd devtools
$ vim api/routes.ts – □ ✕ 
/* ================================== */
/* =                                = */
/* =   ▓▒░  ROUTES · public api     = */
/* =   ▓▒░  keep handlers thin      = */
/* =                                = */
/* ================================== */

$ code comment headers

Section dividers your future self can spot from three screens away. Works in any language that has comments.

source code headers
$ mutt – □ ✕ 
--
  ░▓▓░
  ▓██▓    ── ada @ img2ascii
  ░▓▓░
 ▒▓▓▓▓▒
............................

$ plain-text mail & forums

Signatures, forum posts and newsletters that survive text-only clients untouched. No blocked-image icon, ever.

email usenet energy
$ neofetch – □ ✕ 
  ░▒▓▓▒░
 ▒▓████▓▒    os      img2ascii os
 ▓██▓▓██▓    shell   zsh 5.9
 ▓██████▓    uptime  247 days
 ▒▓████▓▒    memory  64 KiB of pure text
  ░▒▓▓▒░

$ terminal wallpaper

Fetch scripts, prompt art and tmux dashboards — decorate the place you actually live. Your terminal is a room; hang something on the wall.

ricing dotfiles
$ lpr poster.txt – □ ✕ 
████████████████████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
█████████████████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
██████████████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
███████████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
████████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
█████████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
██████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
███▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░
▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░

$ prints & merch

Monospace posters, tees and zine pages — ASCII plots beautifully because it is ink-native. Vector sharpness, typewriter soul.

print risograph safe

Got pixels? Make characters.

Every example on this page came out of the same little engine — feed it your own photo.

Open the tool