figlet

Install

# RHEL / Alma / Rocky (EPEL often required)
sudo dnf install epel-release
sudo dnf install figlet

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install figlet

# openSUSE
sudo zypper install figlet

# Arch
sudo pacman -S figlet

What it does

figlet prints text in large ASCII art letters. It uses FIGlet font files to render each character and is commonly used for terminal headings, scripts, MOTD/login banners, and playful output formatting.

How it works (mechanical)

• Loads a FIGlet font (usually from /usr/share/figlet or similar).
• Maps each character in your input to an ASCII-art glyph from the font.
• Outputs the composed banner to stdout (so it’s easy to pipe or redirect).

Quick Start

# Basic banner
figlet Hello

# Centered banner
figlet -c "System Ready"

# Choose a font
figlet -f slant "Linux"

10 Practical Examples

1. Basic usage

   figlet "Welcome"

2. Centered output

   figlet -c "Binghamton"

3. Specify a font

   figlet -f standard "CLARUS"

4. List fonts (by browsing the font directory)

   ls /usr/share/figlet

   Font path varies by distro; try locate *.flf or dpkg -L figlet (Debian) / rpm -ql figlet (RHEL).

5. Set width (wrap control)

   figlet -w 80 "Wide Banner"

6. Read from stdin

   echo "Maintenance Window" | figlet

7. Right-justify

   figlet -r "Right Side"

8. Left-justify explicitly

   figlet -l "Left Side"

9. Combine with cowsay

   figlet "Hello" | cowsay

10. Use in a login script (bash)

    # Add to ~/.bashrc (or MOTD script)
    figlet -f slant "Welcome"

Notes & Gotchas

• Font files typically end in .flf. Install extra font packages if you want more styles.
• Terminal width matters. If output wraps badly, reduce text length, change font, or adjust width with -w.
• Color: figlet outputs plain text. Use lolcat or terminal coloring if you want colorized banners.
• Unicode: classic FIGlet fonts are ASCII-focused. For richer effects/filters, consider toilet.

Historical Context

FIGlet originated in the early 1990s as a way to produce large letter banners in plain text terminals. It became a staple “fun utility” on UNIX-like systems and remains widely packaged and used today.

Modern Equivalent

toilet is a common modern companion that remains FIGlet-compatible while adding filters and styling. For more elaborate startup dashboards, people also use shell prompt frameworks and MOTD generators—but figlet is still the simplest banner tool.

Related Commands

• toilet — FIGlet-compatible banners with filters.
• cowsay — speech bubbles for banners.
• fortune — quote source for greetings.
• lolcat — colorize banner output.