pyfiglet
ASCII art text renderer for Python — converts text to large ASCII art using FIGlet fonts. pyfiglet features: figlet_format() for ASCII text rendering, 150+ bundled fonts, Figlet class for reusable rendering, get_fonts_list() for font discovery, renderText() for Figlet instance rendering, width parameter for terminal width, justify parameter (left/center/right), and full FIGlet 2.2 font file compatibility. Generates banner text for CLI tools, scripts, and ASCII art generation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
ASCII art rendering library with no network calls. No security concerns. User-controlled text passed to figlet_format() is rendered as ASCII art — no code execution. Output is pure text.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
CLI tool banners and ASCII art text rendering — pyfiglet's 150+ fonts and simple API make it easy to add visually distinctive headers to agent CLI tools.
Avoid When
Interactive TUI (use textual), colored art (use termcolor + pyfiglet), or web rendering.
Use Cases
- • Agent CLI banner — import pyfiglet; print(pyfiglet.figlet_format('AGENT', font='slant')) — large ASCII art header; agent CLI tool displays styled banner at startup; figlet_format() returns multiline ASCII art string; font='slant' changes letter style
- • Agent version display — from pyfiglet import Figlet; f = Figlet(font='banner', width=80); print(f.renderText(f'v{VERSION}')); print('Agent Control System v2.0') — styled version banner; agent startup shows version prominently; width parameter limits to terminal width
- • Agent completion notice — import pyfiglet; print(pyfiglet.figlet_format('DONE!', font='big')); print(f'Processed {count} items in {elapsed:.1f}s') — ASCII art completion; agent long-running batch job announces completion visually; easy to spot in terminal scrollback
- • Agent error banner — import pyfiglet; print(pyfiglet.figlet_format('ERROR', font='doom')); print(f'Critical failure: {error}') — error banner; agent fatal error gets prominent ASCII display; doom font is dramatic; easy to spot in logs
- • Agent font preview — fonts = pyfiglet.FigletFont.getFonts(); for font in fonts[:5]: print(f'-- {font} --'); print(pyfiglet.figlet_format('Hello', font=font)) — font preview; agent tool builder previews available fonts; getFonts() returns all 150+ installed font names
Not For
- • Complex terminal UI — pyfiglet generates static ASCII art text; for interactive TUI use textual or blessed
- • Color ASCII art — pyfiglet generates monochrome text; combine with termcolor for colored output
- • Web rendering — ASCII art is terminal-specific; for web text art use canvas or SVG
Interface
Authentication
No auth — local text rendering library.
Pricing
pyfiglet is MIT licensed. Free for all use.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ figlet_format() output width varies by font — 'slant' font uses ~6-8 chars per input char; 'banner' uses ~8-10; agent code assuming fixed output width gets truncated text on narrow terminals; set width parameter: figlet_format('text', font='slant', width=shutil.get_terminal_size().columns)
- ⚠ Some fonts have limited character sets — exotic fonts may not support numbers, punctuation, or special chars; CharNotPrinted exception for unsupported characters; agent code using arbitrary user input for figlet text must handle CharNotPrinted or validate characters; safe fonts with full charset: 'standard', 'slant', 'big'
- ⚠ Font names are case-sensitive — pyfiglet.figlet_format('text', font='Slant') raises FontNotFound; must be lowercase: font='slant'; use FigletFont.getFonts() to get exact names; agent code should validate font name from user input against getFonts() list
- ⚠ Reuse Figlet() instance for same font — Figlet(font='slant') loads font file on construction; creating new Figlet() per render is slow; agent banner generator: create Figlet() once at module level, call renderText() multiple times; faster for repeated renders
- ⚠ Output includes trailing newline — figlet_format('text') ends with \n; print(figlet_format('text')) adds extra blank line (print also adds \n); agent code: print(figlet_format('text').rstrip()) to remove trailing whitespace; or print(figlet_format('text'), end='') to suppress extra newline
- ⚠ No built-in color support — pyfiglet generates monochrome ASCII art; for colored ASCII art: from termcolor import colored; colored_art = colored(pyfiglet.figlet_format('text'), 'red'); termcolor applied to entire art block colors all characters; for per-character color must split into lines
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.