Creating ASCII Banners for CLI Tools: Splash Screens and Help Text

ASCII banners are the signature visual element of command-line tools. When someone runs nuxt, deno, or neofetch, the ASCII banner establishes identity before any output appears. Well-designed banners make your CLI tool feel polished and professional; poorly designed ones create alignment issues and encoding headaches.

Why CLI Tools Use ASCII Banners

ASCII banners serve several practical functions in CLI tools:

• Brand recognition — users instantly identify the tool from the banner, even in shared screen recordings
• Version display — banners often incorporate the version number, making bug reports more accurate
• Session framing — a banner marks the boundary between shell commands and tool output
• Onboarding cue — for interactive tools, the banner signals that the program is running and waiting for input

Not every CLI tool needs a banner. Short-lived commands (ls, grep, cat) should print output and exit immediately. Banners make sense for interactive tools, long-running processes, and commands that start a distinct session.

FIGlet and Banner Generators

FIGlet is the original ASCII text banner tool, created in 1991. It reads a font definition and renders input text as large ASCII letters.

# Install FIGlet
apt install figlet     # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install figlet    # macOS

# Generate a banner
figlet -f slant "MyTool"

Output:

   __  __       _
  |  \/  | __ _| |_ ___ _ __
  | |\/| |/ _` | __/ _ \ '__|
  | |  | | (_| | ||  __/ |
  |_|  |_|\__,_|\__\___|_|

FIGlet includes over 300 built-in fonts. Popular choices for CLI tools:

You can browse and preview all FIGlet fonts using our ASCII Art generator tool.

Embedding Banners in Your Tool

For production CLI tools, embed the banner as a string constant rather than depending on FIGlet at runtime:

// banners.js
export const BANNER = `
  ╔════════════════════════════════════╗
  ║   __  __       _                  ║
  ║  |  \\/  | __ _| |_ ___ _ __       ║
  ║  | |\\/| |/ _\` | __/ _ \\ '__|      ║
  ║  | |  | | (_| | ||  __/ |         ║
  ║  |_|  |_|\\__,_|\\__\\___|_|  v1.0   ║
  ╚════════════════════════════════════╝
`

This approach has several advantages:

• Zero dependencies — no FIGlet binary required on the user's machine
• Deterministic output — the banner looks identical on every system
• Fast startup — no font loading or rendering at runtime
• Customizable — you can hand-tweak alignment, add borders, or embed version numbers

Layout and Alignment Techniques

ASCII banners must respect the terminal width. Standard terminals are 80 columns wide; modern setups often use 120–180 columns. Design for the minimum.

Padding: Center the banner with equal left/right margins:

function centerBanner(banner, width = 80) {
  return banner.split('\n').map(line => {
    const padding = Math.max(0, Math.floor((width - line.length) / 2))
    return ' '.repeat(padding) + line
  }).join('\n')
}

Box drawing: Add borders to frame the banner:

┌──────────────────────────┐
│  _   _      _            │
│ | | | | ___| |_ __ ___  │
│ | |_| |/ _ \ | '_ ` _ \ │
│ |  _  |  __/ | | | | | |│
│ |_| |_|\___|_|_| |_| |_|│
└──────────────────────────┘

Color: Use ANSI escape codes for colored banners:

const cyan = '\x1b[36m'
const bold = '\x1b[1m'
const reset = '\x1b[0m'

console.log(`${bold}${cyan}${BANNER}${reset}`)

Always pair colors with the reset code to avoid bleeding color into subsequent output.

Conventions From Popular CLI Tools

Common patterns:

• Version numbers aligned to the right side of the banner
• Single bold color rather than rainbow effects
• Banner appears only on interactive start, not in piped output (isatty check)
• Help commands include a smaller version of the banner

// Only show banner in interactive terminals
if (process.stdout.isTTY) {
  console.log(BANNER)
}

Key Takeaways

• ASCII banners establish brand identity and session framing for CLI tools
• FIGlet generates text banners in many styles — embed the result as a constant rather than depending on FIGlet at runtime
• Design for 80-column terminals and center-align with padding
• Use box-drawing characters for clean borders and ANSI codes for color
• Only display banners in interactive terminals — skip them when output is piped
• Popular tools pair compact ASCII art with a version number and a single accent color

Related Guides

• ASCII Art Guide: Creating Text-Based Visuals
• FIGlet Fonts Explained: How ASCII Text Banners Work
• ASCII Art in Terminal Prompts: Customizing Your Shell Experience

Try It Yourself

Generate ASCII banners for your CLI tools with our free ASCII Art generator. Enter your tool name, preview it in dozens of FIGlet fonts, and copy the result directly into your source code.