The tiny useless art console library

ASCII Printer

Print colorful ASCII arts in the JavaScript console.

Try it Browse catalog

AsciiPrinter.printByName("fox")

ASCII arts

Load one file and start printing

This demo page loads the minified build first, then the page script. Your own page only needs the build file.

Use the minified build

<script src="build/ascii-printer.min.js"></script>

Call the API

AsciiPrinter.printByName("pinkPanther");
AsciiPrinter.printRandom("bird");
AsciiPrinter.printRandomFrom(["heart", "key", "lightBulb"]);
AsciiPrinter.listNames("bird");
AsciiPrinter.version;

Documentation

What's inside?

Print methods write ASCII art to the console. List methods return collections. Get methods return one catalog entry without printing.

ASCII Printer API overview
API	Description
`AsciiPrinter.printById()`	Prints one ASCII by ID.
`AsciiPrinter.printByName()`	Prints one ASCII by exact name.
`AsciiPrinter.printBySearch()`	Prints the first ASCII whose name contains the search text.
`AsciiPrinter.printRandom()`	Prints a random ASCII, optionally filtered by tag.
`AsciiPrinter.printRandomFrom()`	Prints a random ASCII from a list of names.
`AsciiPrinter.listTags()`	Returns the available tags.
`AsciiPrinter.listNames()`	Returns ASCII names, optionally filtered by tag.
`AsciiPrinter.list()`	Returns ASCII metadata with `id`, `name`, and `tags`.
`AsciiPrinter.getById()`	Returns one ASCII by ID without printing it.
`AsciiPrinter.getByName()`	Returns one ASCII by exact name without printing it.
`AsciiPrinter.version`	Returns the library version.
`AsciiPrinter.catalog`	Returns the full ASCII catalog.

Print by name

AsciiPrinter.printByName(name, options)

AsciiPrinter.printByName("bigBird");

Print by ID

AsciiPrinter.printById(id, options)

AsciiPrinter.printById(94);

IDs are catalog indexes and can change when the library is reordered.

Print by search

AsciiPrinter.printBySearch(query, options)

AsciiPrinter.printBySearch("panther");

Search prints the first ASCII whose name contains the query.

Print random

AsciiPrinter.printRandom(tag, options)

AsciiPrinter.printRandom();
AsciiPrinter.printRandom("bird");

The tag parameter is optional. If no ASCII matches the tag, the full catalog is used.

Print random from names

AsciiPrinter.printRandomFrom(names, options)

AsciiPrinter.printRandomFrom([
  "heart",
  "key",
  "lightBulb"
]);

Unknown names are ignored. If nothing matches, ASCII Printer prints a warning.

Print options

All print methods accept the same optional object.

AsciiPrinter.printByName("frog", {
  color: "HotPink"
});

AsciiPrinter.printByName("frog", {
  color: false,
  credits: true
});

color: Overrides the catalog color with any browser-supported CSS color. Use false to keep the console default.
credits: Prints the ASCII author after the art. Unknown authors display as Unknown.

List

List tags

AsciiPrinter.listTags()

AsciiPrinter.listTags();

List names

AsciiPrinter.listNames(tag)

AsciiPrinter.listNames();
AsciiPrinter.listNames("bird");

List metadata

AsciiPrinter.list(tag)

AsciiPrinter.list();
AsciiPrinter.list("bird");

Get

Get by name

AsciiPrinter.getByName(name)

AsciiPrinter.getByName("frog");

Get by ID

AsciiPrinter.getById(id)

AsciiPrinter.getById(59);

Catalog data

Version

AsciiPrinter.version;

Full catalog

AsciiPrinter.catalog;

Each catalog entry contains name, tags, art, color, height, and author.

Project files

Build files

The readable and minified builds are generated manually from source. AsciiPrinter is the only exposed global.

build/ascii-printer.js
build/ascii-printer.min.js

Playground

Pick one and print it

hello

message · 4 lines · Unknown

Catalog

All the arts contained in the file

0 shown

Full ASCII catalog
ID	Name	Tags	Color	Height	Author	Command