Before I read the post I thought it was going to be about trying different fonts for ASCII art. I still like my version. I can imagine making the same one line text art using endless varieties of fonts and then picking the best from them. It would make an interesting project, maybe just a bit too time consuming.
Ideas
Fonts for Readers and Artists
Input is a typeface for code, designed by David Jonathan Ross and released by Font Bureau.
Source: Input: Fonts for Code
Why do we use fonts not designed for readers? Fancy fonts are nice for creating images with text or using as titles and headers. Think about the fonts book publishers have been using for generations of books and people.
It seems a better reading font is required.
Mashable: Why your Email Font is Ruining your Life
Fast Co: There’s Finally a Modern Typeface for Programmers
I’m hoping this brings back the ASCII art fonts, or better versions of them. My favourite is still FixedSys partly because I know how it will work and partly because it shows up bold rather than thin and faded.
Two WordPress Plugins to Add ASCII Art to Source Code
Adding ASCII art to the source code (the HTML files) may not interest people who don’t look at source code.
The source code is an easy place to add ASCII art because those files open in plain text, no formatting or fancy fonts. So, the ASCII art shows up without much extra work, almost none in fact.
If you access your HTML files you can add ASCII art yourself, without the plugins. But, not everyone wants to do that.
WP Figlet
WP Figlet is all about adding text created in ASCII art fonts (figlets). It even lets you choose which figlet fonts you want to use. The auto suggestions creates a figlet in your source code.
It does work.
Source Code ASCII Art
(No longer available as of 2018).
Source Code (although not updated in 4 years, also works). If you are timid about mucking around in the HTML files then either of these plugins will work for you. Source Code lets you choose to have the ASCII art in your header or footer. However, I found it did need the extra HTML code for keeping the formatting after I saved my text image.
One thing I dislike about Source Code is the lack of artist credit (artist initials). I checked several of the ASCII images available with the plugin and none had artist credits. I used my own ASCII image with my initials.
In the end… DIY.
Don’t be bashful about getting into your own source code. Skip the plugins and just do it yourself. Once you access the file it’s very simple to add the ASCII art with the code for notes.