Create ANSI art/logos by drawing them in Microsoft Excel. This would make for a fun addition to your cli projects, or a splash screen for a program (provided you know the user's terminal supports truecolor, more on that below).
Microsoft Excel with macros enabled. This was created using a 2019 version of Excel on Windows, but is likely to work on much older versions as well.
To view the code press Alt and F11 to open the VBA editor
- Ensure macros are enabled
- Click
Clear All Cellsto clear the workspace - Enter the character you would like for an empty non-highlighted cell next to "Blank Char", cell
BG1 - Enter the character you would like for an empty highlighted cell next to "Fill Char", cell
AZ1 - Draw your logo/spash screen by highlighting cells and typing characters
- Enter a character into a cell where you would like it to appear. It is recommeneded that each cell contains at most 1 character
- Highlight cells the color you would like the character in that position to be
- Set the width and height of the drawing in cells
AL1andAS1 - Click
Generate Screento generate the logo with included ANSI escape characters - Click
Copy to clipboardto copy the generated logo
| Cell is highlighted | Cell has value | Character and Color Produced |
|---|---|---|
| No | No | "Blank Char" with default color |
| No | Yes | Cell value with default color |
| Yes | No | "Fill Char" with cell highlight color |
| Yes | Yes | Cell value with cell highlight color |
The above drawing produces the following result. Note that the backtick character ` has been input into "Blank Char" which gives the following 'background'. Using a single space instead would give the cleaner looking background shown above. The cells containing the letters R, G and B are colored to make these characters the corresponding color when printed.
The actual escape sequence generated is shown below
Full escape sequence
\e[0m```````````````````````````````````````````\n\e[0m``````\e[38;2;0;112;192m###\e[0m``````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``````\e[38;2;0;112;192m###\e[0m``````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``````\e[38;2;0;112;192m###\e[0m``````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``````\e[38;2;0;112;192m###\e[0m``````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m###\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m`````````\e[38;2;112;173;71m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m``\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m```````\e[38;2;0;112;192m##\e[0m``\e[38;2;255;255;0m##\e[0m````\e[38;2;255;255;0m####\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;173;71m#########\e[0m``\e[38;2;112;48;160m###\e[0m``\n\e[0m```````````````````````````````````````````\n\e[0m```Logo`Generator`with`\e[38;2;255;0;0mR\e[38;2;0;176;80mG\e[38;2;0;112;192mB\e[0m`color`support```\n\e[0m```````````````````````````````````````````\n
Make sure to output the sequence to a terminal with escape characters enabled, i.e. using echo -e in bash instead of just echo
This program makes use of 24-bit color ANSI codes to change the output color, which are of the following form
\e[38;2;R;G;Bm
where \e is the escape character and R, G and B are the RGB values from 0 to 255.
Not all terminals support this format, though many do. Here is a list of terminals that do and do not support true color, including how to detect whether the terminal being outputted to supports it.
The spreadsheet in excel makes for a convenient interface for 'drawing' logos one character at a time, which can then be processed with VBA commands to produce the ANSI sequence.
Placing \ in certain positions in the drawing may cause double backslashes to appear in the output, i.e. \\e[0m which can lead to undesired behaviour such as the actual escape sequence appearing when outputting to a terminal.