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FIGletising is a process whereby you enter some text, and what comes out is a block of characters which, when viewed in a monospaced font, resemble the input text, but bigger. This output is produced by separately rendering each character of the input as a block of characters (a FIGcharacter). The FIGcharacters for all the input characters supported comprise a font (a FIGfont). (It's actually more subtle than that, because some FIGfonts are designed to make the output look good when its FIGcharacters overlap.)
There are several programs which FIGletise and come with built-in FIGfonts:
Here are my FIGfonts:
Some sample DANC4:
\O/ |_O |_O_| \O/ \O/# \O \O/ \O/ \O \O/ \O/ \O/#
Y _|> _| .___Y Y .___| Y___, Y .___| Y_ Y___, Y
/ \ _| \ _| \ | / \ | | / \ | / | | / \
./ \, |_ |_ |_ ./ \, |_ _| ./ \, |_ ./ |_ _| ./ \,
'\ /` \O/# \O/ \O/ \O/ '\ /` '\ /` \O/ O/# '\ /` \O/ '\ /`
\ / _Y Y Y Y \ / \ / Y _| \ / _Y \ /
X _| | / \ / \ / \ X X | _| \ Y _| | Y
/O\ |_ _| |_ ./ \, ./ \, /O\# /O\ _|_ \, /O |_ O\
The cipher ignores punctuation, and marks a space by a flag held by the dancing man for the last letter before the space. The last figure of an entire message carries no flag, as there is no need for one. In this implementation of the cipher, figures with no flags represent lowercase letters; those with flags, uppercase letters. Thus, when FIGletising, you should type only the letters, and uppercase the last letter of every word except the last. For example, to render the message
"Elsie, prepare to meet thy God!"
you must FIGletise the string
elsiEpreparEtOmeeTthYgod
That will produce the dancing men shown above.
The messages in dancing-men cipher in DANC didn't use the letters FJKQUWXZ. What's more, editions of DANC vary in what mistakes they make in the cipher, though they are consistent in using the same figure for P & V. To resolve this problem and supply the missing figures, I follow the TrueType font DancingM designed in 1994 by Martin Bergman of Sweden.
The positions of the flags have been altered to keep this a 4-line FIGfont.
Some sample Georgia11:
qp qp _,o9
"" "" ,' 6o._ ,, ,, ,A. ,mm.
db `7MM"""Yp, .g8"""bgd `7MM"""Yb. `7MM"""YMM `. *MM `7MM ,' `. ,gM""bg ,.-==-. 6' `A.
;MM: MM Yb .dP' `M MM `Yb. MM `7 MM MM __, 8MI ,8 ,pd' `g. 6M .M'
,V^MM. MM dP AMMMMMV' ` MM `Mb MM d ,6"Yb. MM,dMMb. ,p6"bo ,M""bMM .gP"Ya ,pP""Yq.`7MM pd*"*b. pd""b. WMp," ,P ,dMb.A Y. MM MMb.
,M `MM MM"""bg. MM mMMmm MM MMmmMM 8) MM MM `Mb 6M' OO ,AP MM ,M' Yb 6W' `Wb MM (O) j8 (O) `8b ,gPMN. jM"',P dP ,MP j8 MM Yb
AbmmmqMA MM `Y AMMMV' MM ,MP MM Y , ,pm9MM MM M8 8M 8MI MM 8M"""""" 8M M8 MM ,;j9 ,89 ,M. YMp.M' 8: dM' dM d' MM b8
A' VML MM ,9 `Mb. ,' MM ,dP' MM ,M ,, 8M MM MM. ,M9 YM. , `Mb MM YM. , ,, YA. ,A9 MM ,-=' ""Yb. ,, 8Mp ,MMp Wb YML.dML..d' MM p9
.AMA. .AMMA..JMMmmmd9 `"bmmmd' .JMMmmmdP' .JMMmmmmMMM dg `Moo9^Yo.P^YbmdP' YMbmd' `Wbmd"MML.`Mbmmd' db `Ybmmd9'.JMML.Ammmmmmm 88 db `YMbmm'``MMm. Wb ``""^`"' .MM mmd9'
,j bog (O) .M' `M.. .,!
,' od bmmmd' `Ybmmd'
,,.. ,,,..
`7MM"""YMM db .p8"""8q. db MMMMMMMMMM ,MF'``A. dM'``OO MM
MM `7 ;MM: 6M' `Mp ;MM: P' `7 6M .M' `YMb. MM
MM ,V^MM. 6MP L J YMb ,V^MM. ' L J ` ,p"q.,M7 MM mmb.`7MMq OO ,g"YMM. ,p6"bo ,pW"Wmmmm ,6""bo ,p8"MM"8q. ,p' .g"8b.
MM ,M `MM 8MI MMMMM IM8 ,M `MM MMMMMM 6W' `;W' MM Yb VAq ,MP 6W' `Wb 8' OO 6W' `Wb 6W OO ,MP MM YM. ,MP MM `Mq
MM A' `MA YMb F 7 dM9 A' `MA . F 7 , 8M AW MM b8 VA. pd 8M M8 >mm 8M M8 8M 8M MM M8 8M: MM M8
MM A' VML YM. ,M9 A' VML L. ,J YA. ,AP MM. p9 VA.V YA. ,A9 8I ,YA. ,A9 YM. `Mb MM JM' `Mb MM JM'
.JMML. AMMMMMMMMMMA `Mbmmmd"'.AMA. .AMMA.MMMMMMMMMM `Ybd9`YboMM`bmd9' WW `Ybmd9' `Mbmd' `Ybmd9' `"MMMq. `YbmMMmdP' `YbmMMmd'
MM MM ;8 MM MM
MM YP "=--' MM MM
69 69
`--' , ,...,, ,... ,...,,
`7MM"""YMM `7MP""MMF' o8b. `7MMF' ,d8o MgY""Yb.`7MMF' `7MMF' ,dMMMP' .d' db .d' "".d' 7MM
MM `7 M MM `Yb MM 6P' M' M8 MM ,AMM dP dM` dM` dM` MM
MM P MM Y. MM ,9 ' ,M' MM ,A'MM M,dW"Wb.`7MM""Yq.`7MM"""M VM""MMF'OQ. `MM' ,QO mMMmmmmMM mMMmmmmMMmm MM
MM"""bg. ;' MM >bmMMmd< ""Yg. MM AV MM MW' `Wb MM j8 MM ` ,9 MM b MM P MM MM MM MM MM
MM `Y ,9 MM ,dP' MM `YM. `MM MM,V' MM MM M8 MM""Yq. MM d' MM >mMMm< MM MM MM MM MM
MM ,9 ,9 MM dM' MM `Mb QQ dM MMV' MM YA. ,A9 MM j8 MM ,9 MM ,d' MM `b. MM MM MM MM MM
.JMMmmmd9 gMmmmmmmMMmm .dM .JMML. `Mba.`Ybmmmd" .JMML. .JMML. `Ybmd9'.JMMmmm9'.JMML. gMmmmmMMm.ed .MM. `ba. .JMML..JMML. .JMML..JMML..JMML.
MV VM V V
V V
Some sample Georgi16:
68b 68b
Y89 Y89
_ ________ ____ ___ ___ __
dM. `MMMMMMMb. 6MMMMb/ o._ MM `MM _.o 6MMb
,MMb MM `Mb 8P YM ``-. MM MM ,-'' 6M' `b ,88888888b
d'YM. MM MM 6M Y ___ MM____ ____ ____MM ____ ____ ____ 8M ,9 68 `b
,P `Mb MM .M9 MMMMMMM/ 6MMMMb MMMMMMb 6MMMMb. 6MMMMMM 6MMMMb 6MMMMb 6MMMMb 68b YM.,9 ___ ,P o68b69 Yb
d' YM. MMMMMMM( MM 8M' `Mb MM' `Mb 6M' Mb 6M' `MM 6M' `Mb MM' `Mb MM' `Mb Y89 `Mb `M' 6' M' ,M' 8
,P `Mb MM `Mb MM ,oMM MM MM MM `' MM MM MM MM ,MM MM ,M'MM P M dP dP 8
d' YM. MM MM MMMMM/ ,6MM9'MM MM MM MM MM MM MMMMMMMM ,MM' .M9 MM YM. 7 M ,M' ,M' 8
,MMMMMMMMb MM MM YM 6 MM' MM MM MM MM MM MM MM ,M' MMMM MM `Mb M dP dP ,8
d' YM. MM .M9 8b d9 68b MM. ,MM MM. ,M9 YM. d9 YM. ,MM YM. d9 68b ,M' `Mb 68b YM. 7MM M Yb ,M' d8'
_dM_ _dMM__MMMMMMM9' YMMMM9 Y89 `YMMM9'Yb._MYMMMM9 YMMMM9 YMMMMMM_ YMMMM9 Y89 MMMMMMMM MM Y89 YMMM9 YM_Y YMM9Yoo6'
9 bo. MM `b
/ 8 MM. ,M9 `Y888888'
o6' YMMMM9
These samples are better viewed in Netscape 7 than IE 5 or Opera 7, because the latter browsers ignore the font size information in the samples.
I tested these FIGfonts using FIGWin, a Windows app which reimplements FIGlet and has a GUI.
I designed Georgia11 with the help of JavE's GIF-to-ASCII converter. However, the resulting ASCII art needed to be diddled extensively, for example to align FIGcharacters' heavy downstrokes on subcharacter boundaries.
FIGlet is one subgenre of creating artwork from text. If that text uses only ASCII characters to be viewed in a monospaced font (no non-ASCII characters, proportionally-spaced fonts, animation, or specifications of colour or font size, etc.), then it is ASCII art, which has its own Usenet newsgroup. This newsgroup's FAQ file contains a bit more about FIGlet.
This web site is maintained by Richard Sabey. Copyright © Richard Sabey 2003. All rights reserved. Last updated 13 October 2003.