cfonts

What is cfonts?

The cfonts npm package is used to generate ASCII art text with various fonts and styles in the terminal. It allows for customization of font, color, background, and alignment, making it useful for creating visually appealing text outputs in command-line applications.

What are cfonts's main functionalities?

Basic Text Rendering

This feature allows you to render basic text in the terminal using a specified font and alignment. The example code renders 'Hello, World!' using the 'block' font, left-aligned, and with system colors.

const cfonts = require('cfonts');
cfonts.say('Hello, World!', { font: 'block', align: 'left', colors: ['system'] });

Custom Colors

This feature allows you to customize the colors of the text. The example code renders 'Colorful Text' using the 'console' font, center-aligned, and with a gradient of red, yellow, and blue colors.

const cfonts = require('cfonts');
cfonts.say('Colorful Text', { font: 'console', align: 'center', colors: ['red', 'yellow', 'blue'] });

Background Colors

This feature allows you to set a background color for the text. The example code renders 'Background Color' using the 'chrome' font, right-aligned, with a black background and white text color.

const cfonts = require('cfonts');
cfonts.say('Background Color', { font: 'chrome', align: 'right', background: 'black', colors: ['white'] });

Multiple Lines

This feature allows you to render multiple lines of text. The example code renders three lines of text using the 'simple' font, center-aligned, and with cyan color.

const cfonts = require('cfonts');
cfonts.say('Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3', { font: 'simple', align: 'center', colors: ['cyan'] });

Other packages similar to cfonts

figlet

Figlet is a package that generates text banners in various fonts. It is similar to cfonts in that it allows for ASCII art text generation, but it has fewer customization options for colors and backgrounds.

ascii-art

Ascii-art is a package that provides a wide range of ASCII art functionalities, including text, images, and tables. It offers more comprehensive ASCII art features compared to cfonts but may be more complex to use for simple text rendering.

chalk

Chalk is a package that allows you to style terminal strings with colors and other attributes. While it does not generate ASCII art text, it can be used in conjunction with other packages like figlet to add color and style to text outputs.

README

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    ██║      ██╔══╝   ██║   ██║ ██║╚██╗██║    ██║    ╚════██║
    ╚██████╗ ██║      ╚██████╔╝ ██║ ╚████║    ██║    ███████║
     ╚═════╝ ╚═╝       ╚═════╝  ╚═╝  ╚═══╝    ╚═╝    ╚══════╝

This is a silly little command line tool for sexy fonts in the console. Give your cli some love.

Installing

To install the CLI app, simply NPM install it globally.

$ npm install cfonts -g

To use it in your shell:

$ cfonts "Hello|World\!"

Remember to escape the ! character with \ in the shell

Or use it in your project:

const CFonts = require('cfonts');

CFonts.say('Hello|world!', {
	font: 'block',              // define the font face
	align: 'left',              // define text alignment
	colors: ['system'],         // define all colors
	background: 'transparent',  // define the background color, you can also use `backgroundColor` here as key
	letterSpacing: 1,           // define letter spacing
	lineHeight: 1,              // define the line height
	space: true,                // define if the output text should have empty lines on top and on the bottom
	maxLength: '0',             // define how many character can be on one line
	gradient: false,            // define your two gradient colors
	independentGradient: false, // define if you want to recalculate the gradient for each new line
	transitionGradient: false,  // define if this is a transition between colors directly
	env: 'node'                 // define the environment CFonts is being executed in
});

All settings are optional and shown here with their default

You can use CFonts in your project without the direct output to the console:

const CFonts = require('cfonts');

const prettyFont = CFonts.render('Hello|world!', {/* same settings object as above */});

prettyFont.string  // the ansi string for sexy console font
prettyFont.array   // returns the array for the output
prettyFont.lines   // returns the lines used
prettyFont.options // returns the options used

Usage

Using the CLI is easy.

Usage: cfonts  "<value>" [option1] <input1> [option2] <input1>,<input2> [option3] etc...

At any point you can run the help command to get a full list of commands and how to use them.

$ cfonts --help

Supported Characters

A	P	4	$
B	Q	5	%
C	R	6	&
D	S	7	(
E	T	8	)
F	U	9	/
G	V	!	:
H	W	?	;
I	X	.	,
J	Y	+	'
K	Z	-	"
L	0	_	(space)
M	1	=
N	2	@
O	3	#

The | character will be replaced with a line break

Options

-h, --help

Type: <command>
Default value: none

This shows a list of all available options.

$ cfonts --help

-V, --version

Type: <command>
Default value: none

This shows the installed version.

$ cfonts --version

text

Type: <string>
Default value: ""

This is the "text input" to be converted into a nice font.
The | character will be replaced with a line break.

$ cfonts "Hello world"

-f, --font

Type: <string>
Default value: "block"

This is the font face you want to use. So far this plugin ships with with following font faces:

$ cfonts "text" --font "chrome"

• block [colors: 2] (default)
• slick [colors: 2]
• tiny [colors: 1]
• grid [colors: 2]
• pallet [colors: 2]
• shade [colors: 2]
• chrome [colors: 3]
• simple [colors: 1]
• simpleBlock [colors: 1]
• 3d [colors: 2]
• simple3d [colors: 1]
• huge [colors: 2]
• console [colors: 1]

-a, --align

Type: <string>
Default value: "left"

You can align your text in the terminal with this option. Use the keywords below:

• left (default)
• center
• right
• top (Will be ignored if used with the spaceless option)
• bottom (Will be ignored if used with the spaceless option)

$ cfonts "text" --align "center"

-c, --colors

Type: <string list>
Default value: ['system']

With this setting you can set the colors for your font. Use the below color strings built in by chalk or a hex color.
Provide colors in a comma-separated string, eg: red,blue. (no spaces)
If you use a hex color make sure you include the # prefix. (In the terminal wrap the hex in quotes)
The system color falls back to the system color of your terminal.

• system (default)
• black
• red
• green
• yellow
• blue
• magenta
• cyan
• white
• gray
• redBright
• greenBright
• yellowBright
• blueBright
• magentaBright
• cyanBright
• whiteBright
• #ff8800 (any valid hex color)
• #f80 (short form is supported as well)

$ cfonts "text" --colors white,"#f80"

-g, --gradient

Type: <string list>
Default value: false

With this setting you can set a gradient over your output.
This setting supersedes the color open.
The gradient requires two colors, a start color and an end color from left to right.
(If you want to set your own colors for the gradient, use the transition option.)
CFonts will then generate a gradient through as many colors as it can find to make the output most impressive.
Provide two colors in a comma-separated string, eg: red,blue. (no spaces)
If you use a hex color make sure you include the # prefix. (In the terminal wrap the hex in quotes)

• black
• red
• green
• yellow
• blue
• magenta
• cyan
• white
• gray
• grey
• #ff8800 (any valid hex color)
• #f80 (short form is supported as well)

$ cfonts "text" --gradient red,"#f80"

-i, --independent-gradient

Type: <boolean>
Default value: false

Set this option to re-calculate the gradient colors for each new line.
Only works in combination with the gradient option.

$ cfonts "text|next line" --gradient red,"#f80" --independent-gradient

-t, --transition-gradient

Type: <boolean>
Default value: false

Set this option to generate your own gradients. Each color set in the gradient option will then be transitioned to directly. This option allows you to specify more than just two colors for your gradient.
Only works in combination with the gradient option.

$ cfonts "text" --gradient red,"#f80",green,blue --transition-gradient

-b, --background

Type: <string>
Default value: "transparent"

With this setting you can set the background colors for the output. Use the below color strings built in by chalk. Provide the background color from the below supported list, eg: 'white'

• transparent (default)
• black
• red
• green
• yellow
• blue
• magenta
• cyan
• white
• blackBright
• redBright
• greenBright
• yellowBright
• blueBright
• magentaBright
• cyanBright
• whiteBright

$ cfonts "text" --background "Green"

-l, --letter-spacing

Type: <integer>
Default value: 1

Set this option to widen the space between characters.

$ cfonts "text" --letter-spacing 2

-z, --line-height

Type: <integer>
Default value: 1

Set this option to widen the space between lines.

$ cfonts "text" --line-height 2

-s, --spaceless

Type: <boolean>
Default value: true

Set this option to false if you don't want the plugin to insert two empty lines on top and on the bottom of the output.

$ cfonts "text" --spaceless

-m, --max-length

Type: <integer>
Default value: 0

This option sets the maximum characters that will be printed on one line.
CFonts detects the size of your terminal but you can opt out and determine your own max width.
0 means no max width and the text will break at the edge of the terminal window.

$ cfonts "text" --max-length 15

-e, --env

Type: <string>
Default value: node

This option let's you use CFonts to generate HTML instead of ANSI code.
Note that max-length won't be automatically detected anymore and you will have to supply it if you want the text to wrap. Best used in a node script.

const CFonts = require('cfonts');
const path = require('path');
const fs = require('fs');

const output = CFonts.render('My text', {
	colors: ['white'],
	gradient: ['cyan', 'red'],
	background: 'black',
	space: false,
	env: 'browser',
});

fs.writeFileSync(
	path.normalize(`${ __dirname }/test.html`),
	output.string,
	{
		encoding: 'utf8',
	}
);

Consistency

Chalk detects what colors are supported on your platform. It sets a level of support automatically. In CFonts you can override this by passing in the FORCE_COLOR environment variable.

FORCE_COLOR=3 cfonts "hello world" -c "#0088ff"

Contributing

To build the repo install dependencies via:
(Since we ship a yarn.lock file please use yarn for development.)

yarn

and run the watch to continuously transpile the code.

yarn watch

Please look at the coding style and work with it, not against it ;)

Tests

This package is tested on the below platform and node combinations as part of our CI.

Platform	Node
Linux	v10
Linux	v12
Linux	latest
OSX	v10
OSX	v12
OSX	latest
Windows	v10
Windows	v12
Windows	latest

Unit tests

The package comes with a bunch of unit tests that aim to cover 100% of the code base. For more details about the code coverage check out coveralls.

npm run test:unit

Type tests

Since the code base uses JSDocs we use typescript to test the inferred types from those comments. Typescript supports JSDocs and we use it in our test.

npm run test:types

Font file test

There is also a test suite for font files.

npm run test:fonts

This tool checks:

• the existence of the font
• all attributes of a font
• each character for:
  • existence
  • consistent width
  • consistent lines

All tests

Run all tests via:

npm run test

Release History

• 2.9.1 - bumped dependencies
• 2.9.0 - added top and bottom align options
• 2.8.6 - bumped dependencies
• 2.8.5 - renamed branches
• 2.8.4 - fixed block double quote
• 2.8.3 - bumped dependencies
• 2.8.2 - bumped dependencies, added linting, fixed #22 (again)
• 2.8.1 - bumped dependencies
• 2.8.0 - added environment support, added font tiny
• 2.7.0 - added font slick, grid and pallet, added double quote to all fonts
• 2.6.1 - fixed console maxLength, gradient and lineHeight, added more end-to-end tests
• 2.6.0 - added transition gradients and sets
• 2.5.2 - fixed jsDocs, added typescript type test
• 2.5.1 - fixed array output to include everything including colors
• 2.5.0 - added gradient option, separated code into files, added 100% unit testing coverage
• 2.4.8 - removed ansi-styles from direct dependencies
• 2.4.7 - fixed bug from adopting chalk v3 and hex colors
• 2.4.6 - bumped dependencies, removed change-case dependency, added UpperCaseFirst with tests
• 2.4.5 - bumped dependencies, moved to relative links for fonts for webpack support (#22)
• 2.4.4 - bumped dependencies
• 2.4.3 - bumped dependencies
• 2.4.2 - bumped dependencies
• 2.4.1 - updated to babel 7, removed runtime from dependencies
• 2.4.0 - added font shade, added hex color support
• 2.3.1 - added tests, fixed options, updated dependencies
• 2.3.0 - added apostrophe support in all fonts
• 2.2.3 - bumped dependencies
• 2.2.2 - bumped dependencies
• 2.2.1 - bumped dependencies
• 2.2.0 - inside the API you can use line breaks as well as the pipe
• 2.1.3 - refactored some loops
• 2.1.2 - made WinSize more robust
• 2.1.1 - fixed size detection in non-tty environments
• 2.1.0 - rebuilt cfonts with pure functions, made colors case-insensitive
• 2.0.1 - fixed terminal width detection
• 2.0.0 - added tests, split into more pure functions
• 1.2.0 - added transparent and system as default background and color option, added backgroundColor as alias for background, upgraded deps
• 1.1.3 - fixed help text, removing old -t option
• 1.1.2 - fixed issue with older commander version #3, updated docs
• 1.1.1 - moved from babel-polyfill to babel-plugin-transform-runtime, added files to package.json, added images to docs, fixed dependencies
• 1.1.0 - transpiled code to support node 0.12.15 and up
• 1.0.2 - fixed background in console font, added comma, added font huge, added render method, added candy color
• 1.0.1 - added chrome font, fonttest
• 1.0.0 - refactor, added alignment and line height option, new cli commands, added simpleBlock
• 0.0.13 - fixed simple3d
• 0.0.12 - fixed simple3d and added to grunt test
• 0.0.11 - added simple3d font
• 0.0.10 - added npmignore, added to docs
• 0.0.9 - added console font
• 0.0.8 - fixed bugs, docs
• 0.0.7 - changed to settings object
• 0.0.6 - added 3d font
• 0.0.5 - added grunt test
• 0.0.4 - fixed simple font
• 0.0.3 - fixes, added simple font
• 0.0.2 - fixed paths
• 0.0.1 - alpha test

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Dominik Wilkowski. Licensed under the GNU GPLv2.