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FIGLET(6)							     FIGLET(6)

NAME
       FIGlet - display large characters made up of ordinary screen characters

SYNOPSIS
       figlet [ -cklnoprstvxDELNRSWX ] [ -d fontdirectory ]
	      [ -f fontfile ] [ -m layoutmode ]
	      [ -w outputwidth ] [ -C controlfile ]
	      [ -I infocode ] [ message ]

DESCRIPTION
       FIGlet  prints  its  input  using large characters (called ``FIGcharac‐
       ters'')made up of  ordinary  screen  characters	(called	 ``sub-charac‐
       ters'').	  FIGlet output is generally reminiscent of the sort of ``sig‐
       natures'' many people like to put at the end of e-mail and UseNet  mes‐
       sages.	It  is also reminiscent of the output of some banner programs,
       although it is oriented normally, not sideways.

       FIGlet can print in a variety of fonts, both left-to-right  and	right-
       to-left, with adjacent FIGcharacters kerned and ``smushed'' together in
       various ways.  FIGlet fonts are stored in separate files, which can  be
       identified  by  the  suffix  ``.flf''.	In  systems with UTF-8 support
       FIGlet may also support TOIlet ``.tlf'' fonts.  Most FIGlet font	 files
       will be stored in FIGlet's default font directory.

       FIGlet  can  also  use  ``control files'', which tell it to map certain
       input characters to certain other characters, similar to	 the  Unix  tr
       command.	 Control files can be identified by the suffix ``.flc''.  Most
       FIGlet control files will be stored in FIGlet's default font directory.

       You can store FIGlet fonts and control files in compressed  form.   See
       COMPRESSED FONTS.

USAGE
       Just start up FIGlet (type ``figlet'') and then type whatever you want.
       Alternatively, pipe a file or the output	 of  another  command  through
       FIGlet,	or put input on the command line after the options.  See EXAM‐
       PLES for other things to do.

OPTIONS
       FIGlet reads command line options from left to right, and only the last
       option  that  affects  a parameter has any effect.  Almost every option
       has an inverse, so that, for example, if FIGlet is  customized  with  a
       shell alias, all the options are usually still available.

       Commonly-used options are -f, -c, -k, -t, -p and -v.

       -f fontfile
	      Select  the  font.  The .flf suffix may be left off of fontfile,
	      in which case FIGlet automatically appends it.  FIGlet looks for
	      the  file	 first	in  the default font directory and then in the
	      current directory, or, if fontfile was given as a full pathname,
	      in  the  given  directory.   If  the -f option is not specified,
	      FIGlet uses the font that was specified when  it	was  compiled.
	      To find out which font this is, use the -I3 option.

       -d fontdirectory
	      Change the default font directory.  FIGlet looks for fonts first
	      in the default directory and then in the current directory.   If
	      the  -d  option is not specified, FIGlet uses the directory that
	      was specified when it was compiled.  To find out which directory
	      this is, use the -I2 option.

       -c
       -l
       -r
       -x     These  options  handle  the  justification of FIGlet output.  -c
	      centers the output horizontally.	-l  makes  the	output	flush-
	      left.   -r makes it flush-right.	-x (default) sets the justifi‐
	      cation according to whether left-to-right or right-to-left  text
	      is  selected.   Left-to-right  text  will	 be  flush-left, while
	      right-to-left text will be flush-right.	(Left-to-right	versus
	      right-to-left text is controlled by -L, -R and -X.)

       -t
       -w outputwidth
	      These  options  control  the  outputwidth,  or  the screen width
	      FIGlet assumes when formatting its output.  FIGlet uses the out‐
	      putwidth	to determine when to break lines and how to center the
	      output.  Normally, FIGlet assumes 80 columns so that people with
	      wide  terminals won't annoy the people they e-mail FIGlet output
	      to.  -t sets the outputwidth to the terminal width.  If the ter‐
	      minal  width  cannot  be determined, the previous outputwidth is
	      retained.	 -w sets the outputwidth to  the  given	 integer.   An
	      outputwidth  of  1 is a special value that tells FIGlet to print
	      each non-space FIGcharacter, in  its  entirety,  on  a  separate
	      line, no matter how wide it is.

       -p
       -n     These  options  control  how  FIGlet  handles newlines.  -p puts
	      FIGlet into ``paragraph mode'', which eliminates	some  unneces‐
	      sary  line  breaks when piping a multi-line file through FIGlet.
	      In paragraph mode, FIGlet treats line breaks within a  paragraph
	      as  if they were merely blanks between words.  (Specifically, -p
	      causes FIGlet to convert any newline which is not preceded by  a
	      newline and not followed by a space character into a blank.)  -n
	      (default) puts FIGlet back to normal,  in	 which	every  newline
	      FIGlet reads causes it to produce a line break.

       -D
       -E     -D  switches  to	the  German (ISO 646-DE) character set.	 Turns
	      `[', `\' and `]' into umlauted A, O and U,  respectively.	  `{',
	      `|'  and	`}'  turn  into	 the respective lower case versions of
	      these.  `~' turns into s-z.  -E turns off -D processing.	 These
	      options  are  deprecated,	 which	means  they  probably will not
	      appear in the next version of FIGlet.

       -C controlfile
       -N     These options deal with FIGlet controlfiles.  A controlfile is a
	      file  containing	a  list	 of commands that FIGlet executes each
	      time it reads a character.  These commands can map certain input
	      characters  to  other characters, similar to the Unix tr command
	      or the FIGlet -D	option.	  FIGlet  maintains  a	list  of  con‐
	      trolfiles,  which	 is  empty when FIGlet starts up.  -C adds the
	      given controlfile to the list.  -N clears the controlfile	 list,
	      cancelling  the  effect of any previous -C.  FIGlet executes the
	      commands in all controlfiles in the list.	  See  the  file  fig‐
	      font.txt,	 provided  with	 FIGlet, for details on how to write a
	      controlfile.

       -s
       -S
       -k
       -W

       -o     These options control how FIGlet spaces the  FIGcharacters  that
	      it  outputs.   -s	 (default)  and	 -S  cause  ``smushing''.  The
	      FIGcharacters are displayed as close together as	possible,  and
	      overlapping sub-characters are removed.  Exactly which sub-char‐
	      acters count as ``overlapping'' depends on  the  font's  layout‐
	      mode,  which is defined by the font's author.  -k causes ``kern‐
	      ing''.  As many blanks as possible are removed between  FIGchar‐
	      acters,  so  that	 they  touch,  but  the	 FIGcharacters are not
	      smushed.	-W makes FIGlet display	 all  FIGcharacters  at	 their
	      full  width,  which  may	be fixed or variable, depending on the
	      font.

	      The difference between -s and -S is that -s  will	 not  smush  a
	      font whose author specified kerning or full width as the default
	      layoutmode, whereas -S will attempt to do so.

	      If there is no information in the font about how to smush, or if
	      the  -o  option is specified, then the FIGcharacters are ``over‐
	      lapped''.	 This means that after kerning, the first subcharacter
	      of  each	FIGcharacter  is  removed.   (This  is	not  done if a
	      FIGcharacter contains only one subcharacter.)

       -m layoutmode
	      Specifies an explicit layoutmode between 1 and  63.   Smushmodes
	      are  explained  in  figfont.txt,	which  also  provides complete
	      information on the format of a FIGlet font.   For	 the  sake  of
	      backward	compatibility  with versions of FIGlet before 2.2, -m0
	      is equivalent to -k, -m-1 is  equivalent	to  -W,	 and  -m-2  is
	      equivalent  to  -s.  The -m switch is normally used only by font
	      designers testing the various layoutmodes with a new font.

       -v
       -I infocode
	      These options print various information about FIGlet, then exit.
	      If  several of these options are given on the command line, only
	      the last is executed, and	 only  after  all  other  command-line
	      options have been dealt with.

	      -v  prints  version  and	copyright  information,	 as  well as a
	      ``Usage: ...''  line.  -I prints the  information	 corresponding
	      to  the  given infocode in a consistent, reliable (i.e., guaran‐
	      teed to be the same in future releases) format.  -I is primarily
	      intended	to  be used by programs that use FIGlet.  infocode can
	      be any of the following.

	      -1 Normal operation (default).
		     This infocode indicates that FIGlet should	 operate  nor‐
		     mally,  not  giving  any informational printout, printing
		     its input in the selected font.

	      0 Version and copyright.
		     This is identical to -v.

	      1 Version (integer).
		     This will print the version of your copy of FIGlet	 as  a
		     decimal  integer.	 The main version number is multiplied
		     by 10000, the sub-version number is  multiplied  by  100,
		     and the sub-sub-version number is multiplied by 1.	 These
		     are added together, and the result is printed  out.   For
		     example,  FIGlet 2.2 will print ``20200'' , version 2.2.1
		     will print ``20201''.   Similarly,	 version  3.7.2	 would
		     print  ``30702''.	 These	numbers	 are  guaranteed to be
		     ascending, with later  versions  having  higher  numbers.
		     Note that the first major release of FIGlet, version 2.0,
		     did not have the -I option.

	      2 Default font directory.
		     This will	print  the  default  font  directory.	It  is
		     affected by the -d option.

	      3 Font.
		     This  will	 print	the name of the font FIGlet would use.
		     It is affected by the -f option.  This is not a filename;
		     the ``.flf'' suffix is not printed.

	      4 Output width.
		     This  will	 print	the  value  FIGlet  would use for out‐
		     putwidth, the number of columns wide FIGlet  assumes  the
		     screen is.	 It is affected by the -w and -t options.

	      5 Supported font formats.
		     This will list font formats supported by FIGlet .	Possi‐
		     ble formats are ``flf2'' for FIGfont Version 2 .flf files
		     and ``tlf2'' for TOIlet .tlf files.

	      If infocode is any other positive value, FIGlet will simply exit
	      without printing anything.

       -L
       -R
       -X     These options control whether  FIGlet  prints  left-to-right  or
	      right-to-left.   -L  selects left-to-right printing.  -R selects
	      right-to-left printing.  -X (default) makes FIGlet use whichever
	      is specified in the font file.

	      Once  the	 options are read, if there are any remaining words on
	      the command line, they are used instead of standard input as the
	      source  of  text.	 This feature allows shell scripts to generate
	      large letters without having to dummy up standard input files.

	      An empty argument, obtained by two sequential quotes, results in
	      a line break.

EXAMPLES
       To use FIGlet with its default settings, simply type

	      example% figlet

       and then type whatever you like.

       To change the font, use the -f option, for example,

	      example% figlet -f script

       Use the -c option if you would prefer centered output:

	      example% figlet -c

       We  have	 found	that  the most common use of FIGlet is making up large
       text to be placed in e-mail messages.  For this reason, FIGlet defaults
       to 80 column output.  If you are using a wider terminal, and would like
       FIGlet to use the full width of your terminal, use the -t option:

	      example% figlet -t

       If you don't want FIGlet to smush FIGcharacters into  each  other,  use
       the -k option:

	      example% figlet -k

       If  figlet  gets	 its input from a file, it is often a good idea to use
       -p:

	      example% figlet -p < myfile

       Of course, the above can be combined:

	      example% figlet -ptk -f shadow < anotherfile
	      example% figlet -cf slant

       Finally, if you want to have FIGlet take the  input  from  the  command
       line instead of a file:

	      example% figlet Hello world

   Other Things to Try
       On many systems nice effects can be obtained from the lean font by pip‐
       ing it through tr.  Some you might want to try are the following:

	      example% figlet -f lean | tr ' _/' ' ()'
	      example% figlet -f lean | tr ' _/' './\\'
	      example% figlet -f lean | tr ' _/' ' //'
	      example% figlet -f lean | tr ' _/' '/  '

       Similar things can be done with the block font and many	of  the	 other
       FIGlet fonts.

COMPRESSED FONTS
       You  can	 compress  the	fonts and controlfiles using the zip archiving
       program.	 Place only one font  or  controlfile  in  each	 archive,  and
       rename the archive file (which will have a name ending in .zip) back to
       .flf or .flc as the case may be.	 If you don't rename the  file	appro‐
       priately, FIGlet won't be able to find it.

       FIGlet  does not care what the filename within the .zip archive is, and
       will process only the first file.

       The .zip format was chosen because tools to create  and	manipulate  it
       are widely available for free on many platforms.

THE STANDARD FONTS
       Here are a few notes about some of the fonts provided with FIGlet.  You
       can get many other font from the Web site
       http://www.figlet.org/	This location should also contain  the	latest
       version of FIGlet and other related utilities.

       The  font standard is the basic FIGlet font, used when no other font is
       specified.  (This default can be changed when  FIGlet  is  compiled  on
       your  system.)  The controlfiles 8859-2, 8859-3, 8859-4, and 8859-9 are
       provided for interpreting those	character  sets,  also	known  as  ISO
       Latin-2	through	 Latin-5  respectively.	 The character set 8859-1 (ISO
       Latin-1) is FIGlet's default and requires no special controlfile.

       Closely related are the fonts slant, shadow, small, smslant (both small
       and  slanted),  smshadow,  (both	 small	and shadowed), and big.	 These
       fonts support only Latin-1, except that big supports  Greek  FIGcharac‐
       ters  as well; the controlfiles frango (for Greek text written in Latin
       characters,  so-called  ``frangovlakhika''),  and  8859-7  (for	 mixed
       Latin/Greek text) are provided.

       The  ivrit font is a right-to-left font including both Latin and Hebrew
       FIGcharacters; the Latin characters are those  of  the  standard	 font.
       The available controlfiles are ilhebrew, which maps the letters you get
       by typing on a U.S. keyboard as if it were a Hebrew keyboard; ushebrew,
       which makes a reasonable mapping from Latin letters to Hebrew ones; and
       8859-8,	which  supports	 mixed	Latin/Hebrew  text.   Warning:	FIGlet
       doesn't	support bidirectional text, so everything will come out right-
       to-left, even Latin letters.

       The fonts terminal, digital, and bubble output the input character with
       some  decoration around it (or no decoration, in the case of terminal).
       The characters coded 128 to 159, which  have  varying  interpretations,
       are  output as-is.  You can use the appropriate controlfiles to process
       Latin-2, Latin-3, or Latin-4 (but not Latin-5) text, provided your out‐
       put  device  has screen or printer fonts that are appropriate for these
       character sets.

       Two script fonts are available: script, which is larger than  standard,
       and smscript, which is smaller.

       The font lean is made up solely of `/' and `_' sub-characters; block is
       a straight (non-leaning) version of it.

       The font mini is very small, and especially suitable for e-mail	signa‐
       tures.

       The  font  banner  looks like the output of the banner program; it is a
       capitals and small capitals font that doesn't support the  ISO  Latin-1
       extensions  to  plain  ASCII.   It  does, however, support the Japanese
       katakana syllabary; the controlfile  uskata  maps  the  upper-case  and
       lower-case Latin letters into the 48 basic katakana characters, and the
       controlfile jis0201 handles  JIS	 0201X	(JIS-Roman)  mixed  Latin  and
       katakana	 text.	 Furthermore,  the  banner font also supports Cyrillic
       (Russian) FIGcharacters; the controlfile 8859-5	supports  mixed	 Latin
       and  Cyrillic  text,  the controlfile koi8r supports the popular KOI8-R
       mapping of mixed text, and the controlfile moscow supports  a  sensible
       mapping	from  Latin  to Cyrillic, compatible with the moscow font (not
       supplied).

       The fonts mnemonic and safemnem support the mnemonic character set doc‐
       umented	in  RFC	 1345.	They implement a large subset of Unicode (over
       1800 characters) very crudely, using  ASCII-based  mnemonic  sequences,
       and are good for getting a quick look at UTF-8 unicode files, using the
       controlfile utf8.

ENVIRONMENT
       FIGLET_FONTDIR
	      If $FIGLET_FONTDIR is set, its value is used as a path to search
	      for font files.

FILES
       file.flf		   FIGlet font file
       file.flc		   FIGlet control file

DIAGNOSTICS
       FIGlet's	 diagnostics  are  intended  to be self-explanatory.  Possible
       messages are

	      Usage: ...
	      Out of memory
	      Unable to open font file
	      Not a FIGlet 2 font file
	      Unable to open control file
	      Not a FIGlet 2 control file
	      "-t" is disabled, since ioctl is not fully implemented.

       This last message is printed when the -t option is given, but the oper‐
       ating  system  in  use  does not include the system call FIGlet uses to
       determine the terminal width.

       FIGlet also prints an explanatory message if the -F option is given  on
       the  command  line.  The earlier version of FIGlet, version 2.0, listed
       the available fonts when the -F option was given.  This option has been
       removed	from  FIGlet 2.1.  It has been replaced by the figlist script,
       which is part of the standard FIGlet package.

ORIGIN
       ``FIGlet'' stands for ``Frank, Ian and Glenn's LETters''.  Inspired  by
       Frank's .sig, Glenn wrote (most of) it, and Ian helped.

       Most  of the standard FIGlet fonts were inspired by signatures on vari‐
       ous UseNet articles.  Since typically hundreds of people use  the  same
       style of letters in their signatures, it was often not deemed necessary
       to give credit to any one font designer.

BUGS
       Very little error checking is done on font and  control	files.	 While
       FIGlet  tries  to  be forgiving of errors, and should (hopefully) never
       actually crash, using an improperly-formatted  file  with  FIGlet  will
       produce unpredictable output.

       FIGlet  does not handle format characters in a very intelligent way.  A
       tab character is converted to a blank, and vertical-tab, form-feed  and
       carriage-return are each converted to a newline.	 On many systems, tabs
       can be handled better by piping	files  through	expand	before	piping
       through FIGlet.

       FIGlet  output  is  quite  ugly if it is displayed in a proportionally-
       spaced font.  I suppose this is to be expected.

       Please report any errors you find in this man page or  the  program  to
       <info@figlet.org>

WEBSITE AND MAILING LIST
       You  can	 get many fonts which are not in the basic FIGlet package from
       the Web site http://www.figlet.org/   It should also contain the latest
       version of FIGlet and other utilities related to FIGlet.

       There is a mailing list for FIGlet for general discussions about FIGlet
       and a place where you can ask  questions	 or  share  ideas  with	 other
       FIGlet users. It is also the place where we will publish news about new
       fonts, new software updates etc.

       To subscribe or unsubscribe from the FIGlet mailing list,  please  send
       email  to  figlet-subscribe@figlet.org or figlet-unsubscribe@figlet.org
       or  visit   the	 following   web   page:   http://www.figlet.org/mail‐
       man/listinfo/figlet

AUTHORS
       Glenn  Chappell did most of the work.  You can e-mail him but he is not
       an e-mail fanatic; people who e-mail Glenn will probably	 get  answers,
       but if you e-mail his best friend:

       Ian Chai, who is an e-mail fanatic, you'll get answers, endless conver‐
       sation about the mysteries of life, invitations to join some 473	 mail‐
       ing lists and a free toaster.  (Well, ok, maybe not the free toaster.)

       Frank  inspired this whole project with his .sig, but don't e-mail him;
       he's decidedly an un-e-mail-fanatic.

       Gilbert "The Mad Programmer" Healton added the -A  option  for  version
       2.1.1.	This option specified input from the command line; it is still
       allowed, but has no effect.

       John Cowan added the -o, -s, -k, -S, and -W options,  and  the  support
       for Unicode mapping tables, ISO 2022/HZ/Shift-JIS/UTF-8 input, and com‐
       pressed fonts and control files.	 He also revised  this	documentation,
       with a lot of input from Paul Burton.

       Claudio Matsuoka added the support for .tlf files for version 2.2.4 and
       performs random hacks and bugfixes.

       As a fan of FIGlet, Christiaan Keet revised the official	 FIGlet	 docu‐
       mentation  and  set up the new FIGlet website at http://www.figlet.org/
       (and the corresponding ftp://ftp.figlet.org/pub/figlet/)

SEE ALSO
       figlist(6), chkfont(6), showfigfonts(6), toilet(1)

v2.2.4				26 January 2011			     FIGLET(6)
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