bit

Bit - Terminal ANSI Logo Designer & Font Library

Bit is a terminal-based ANSI logo designer and bitmap-font utility for creating, previewing, and exporting stylized text directly from your console. It features an interactive multi-panel TUI, a streamlined CLI, and a standalone Go library. Bit renders ANSI text with custom typography, multi-directional gradients, and textured shadows, exporting the results as images or code for popular programming languages.

Features

Feature	Description
100+ Font Styles	Classic terminal, retro gaming, modern pixel, decorative, and monospace fonts. All free for commercial and personal use.
Multi-Format Export	Export to PNG, TXT, Go, JavaScript, Python, Rust, and Bash. PNG exports with transparent background.
Advanced Text Effects	Color gradient effects (horizontal & vertical), shadow effects (horizontal & vertical), and text scaling (0.5×–4×).
Rich Color Support	14 vibrant predefined UI colors that can be combined with gradients. The library and CLI also accept any hex color for unlimited possibilities.
Alignment & Spacing	Adjust character, word, line spacing, and per-character manual kerning. Align text left, center, or right.
Smart Typography	Automatic and custom kerning options, descender detection and alignment.
Powerful CLI Tool	Render text quickly with extended options for fonts, colors, spacing, and effects.
Standalone Go Library	A simple, self-contained API with type-safe enums for effortless programmatic ANSI text rendering.

Quick Start

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/paulilaaso/bit
cd bit

# 2. Install dependencies
go mod tidy

# 3. Build the interactive UI
go build -o bit ./cmd/bit

# 4. Start creating!
./bit

Installation

Quick Install (Linux/macOS)

curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paulilaaso/bit/main/install.sh | sh

This installs bit to /usr/local/bin. The binary works in two modes:

Interactive UI: Run bit with no arguments
CLI mode: Run bit [options] <text> to render directly

Manual Installation

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

Available for:

Linux (x86_64, arm64)
macOS (x86_64, arm64)
Windows (x86_64, arm64)

Extract and install:

# Linux/macOS
tar -xzf bit_*_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv bit /usr/local/bin/

# Windows (PowerShell)
Expand-Archive bit_*_Windows_x86_64.zip
# Move bit.exe to your PATH

Build from Source

Prerequisites: Go 1.25+

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/paulilaaso/bit
cd bit

# Build the binary
make build

# Or manually
go build -o bit ./cmd/bit

Note

Fonts are embedded using go:embed, ensuring the binaries are fully self-contained.

Usage

Running Bit

# Start interactive UI
bit

# CLI mode - quick render
bit "Hello World"

# CLI mode - with options
bit -font ithaca -color 31 "Red Text"

# List all fonts
bit -list

# Load custom font or directory of fonts (along with built-in fonts)
bit -load ./myfont.bit
bit -load ./fonts/

# Show help
bit -help

Interactive UI - Keyboard Controls

Key Binding	Action Description
`← →` / `h l`	Navigate between the 6 main control panels
`↑ ↓` / `k j`	Adjust values in the currently selected panel or navigate text rows in multi-line mode
`Tab`	Access sub-modes within panels
`Enter`	Activate/deactivate text input mode for editing
`r`	Randomize font, colors, and gradient settings for instant inspiration
`e`	Enter export mode to save your creation in various formats
`Esc`	Quit the application and return to terminal

Control Panels

The UI features 6 main control panels with sub-modes accessible via Tab key:

1. 🔴 Text Input Panel (3 modes)

Text Input Mode: Enter and edit text with multi-line support
- Press ↓ to create new row
- Press ↑↓ to navigate between rows
- Cursor positions are tracked per-row
- The row count is shown in label when editing multiple rows
Text Kerning Mode: Fine-tune letter spacing at the cursor position
- Press ←→ or h/l to move the cursor through the current row
- Press ↑↓ or k/j to increase/decrease spacing by one pixel
- The current manual kerning value is shown in the label as +1, -2, etc.
Text Alignment Mode: Choose Left, Center, or Right alignment

2. 🟢 Font Selection Panel

Browse through 100+ available bitmap fonts
Shows "Font X/XXX" in label
Fonts are lazy loaded on first use for memory efficiency

3. 🔵 Spacing Panel (3 modes)

Character Spacing: 0 to 10 pixels between characters
Word Spacing: 0 to 20 pixels for multi-word lines
Line Spacing: 0 to 10 pixels for multi-line text layout

4. 🟡 Color Panel (3 modes)

Text Color 1: Primary text color (14 ANSI colors)
Text Color 2: Gradient end color
- Gradient auto-enables when different from Text Color 1
- Shows "None" when same as Text Color 1
Gradient Direction: Up-Down, Down-Up, Left-Right, Right-Left

5. 🟣 Text Scale Panel

Four scale options: 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x
Uses ANSI-aware scaling algorithm
Handles half-pixel characters correctly

6. ⚫ Shadow Panel (3 modes)

Horizontal Shadow: -5 to 5 pixels (← or →)
- Shows "Off" at 0 position
Vertical Shadow: -5 to 5 pixels (↑ or ↓)
- Shows "Off" at 0 position
Shadow Style: Light (░), Medium (▒), Dark (▓)
- Visual preview shows actual ANSI character repeated

Warning

If shadows are enabled with half-pixel characters, a warning appears in the title bar. The library automatically disables shadows in this case to prevent visual artifacts.

CLI Mode

The bit binary includes a powerful CLI mode for quick text rendering:

Basic Commands

# Render text with default settings
bit "Hello"

# List all available fonts
bit -list

# Use specific font and color (ANSI code)
bit -font ithaca -color 31 "Red"

# Use specific font and color (hex code)
bit -font ithaca -color "#FF0000" "Red"

# Gradient text with ANSI codes
bit -font dogica -color 31 -gradient 34 -direction right "Gradient"

# Gradient text with hex codes
bit -font dogica -color "#FF0000" -gradient "#0000FF" "Gradient"

# Text with shadow
bit -font larceny -color 94 -shadow -shadow-h 2 -shadow-v 1 "Shadow"

# Scaled text
bit -font pressstart -color 32 -scale 1 "2X"

# Aligned text
bit -font gohufontb -color 93 -align right "Go\nRight"

# Inline custom kerning: \+ adds space, \- removes space
bit "H\+el\+lo W\-orld"

CLI Options

Flag	Description	Values
`-font`	Font name to use	Any available font name (default: first font)
`-color`	Text color	ANSI codes (30-37, 90-96) or hex (#FF0000)
`-gradient`	Gradient end color	ANSI codes (30-37, 90-96) or hex (#0000FF)
`-direction`	Gradient direction	down, up, right, left
`-char-spacing`	Character spacing	0 to 10
`-word-spacing`	Word spacing	0 to 20
`-line-spacing`	Line spacing	0 to 10
`-scale`	Text scale factor	-1 (0.5x), 0 (1x), 1 (2x), 2 (4x)
`-shadow`	Enable shadow effect	true/false
`-shadow-h`	Shadow horizontal offset	-5 to 5
`-shadow-v`	Shadow vertical offset	-5 to 5
`-shadow-style`	Shadow style	0 (light), 1 (medium), 2 (dark)
`-align`	Text alignment	left, center, right
`-list`	List all available fonts	-

Available Colors

Code	Color	Code	Color
30	Black	90	Gray
31	Red	91	Bright Red
32	Green	92	Bright Green
33	Yellow	93	Bright Yellow
34	Blue	94	Bright Blue
35	Magenta	95	Bright Magenta
36	Cyan	96	Bright Cyan
37	White	97	Bright White

Tip

The CLI and library support any hex color (e.g., -color "#FF5733"), providing unlimited color possibilities beyond the ANSI palette.

Library

Bit includes a powerful standalone Go library (ansifonts) that's completely independent of the TUI. The library can be imported into any Go project without any TUI dependencies.

Quick Library Example

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"github.com/paulilaaso/bit/ansifonts"
)

func main() {
	// Load a font
	font, err := ansifonts.LoadFont("ithaca")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	// Advanced rendering with options
	options := ansifonts.RenderOptions{
		CharSpacing:            3,
		WordSpacing:            3,
		LineSpacing:            1,
		TextColor:              "#FF0000",
		GradientColor:          "#0000FF",
		UseGradient:            true,
		GradientDirection:      ansifonts.LeftRight,
		Alignment:              ansifonts.CenterAlign,
		ScaleFactor:            1.0,
		ShadowEnabled:          true,
		ShadowHorizontalOffset: 2,
		ShadowVerticalOffset:   1,
		ShadowStyle:            ansifonts.MediumShade,
	}

	// Validate options before rendering (optional - render functions validate automatically)
	if err := options.Validate(); err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("Invalid options: %v\n", err)
		return
	}

	rendered := ansifonts.RenderTextWithOptions("Hello", font, options)
	for _, line := range rendered {
		fmt.Println(line)
	}
}

Tip

See the ansifonts library documentation for detailed API reference and examples.

Font Collection

The project includes 100+ carefully curated bitmap fonts embedded in the binary.

Fonts are stored as .bit files (JSON format) containing:

{
  "name": "Font Name",
  "author": "Author Name",
  "license": "License Type",
  "characters": {
    "A": ["line1", "line2", ...],
    "B": ["line1", "line2", ...],
    ...
  }
}

Note

Each font file contains a license field indicating its specific license terms. All fonts are under permissive open-source licenses, which allow free usage, modification, and distribution for both personal and commercial purposes.

Export Formats

The interactive UI supports exporting your creations to:

Format	Extension	Description
PNG	`.png`	PNG image with transparent background
TXT	`.txt`	Plain text with ANSI codes stripped
Go	`.go`	Go source code with embedded ANSI strings
JavaScript	`.js`	JavaScript array with console.log display function
Python	`.py`	Python list with print function
Rust	`.rs`	Rust vector with println! macro
Bash	`.sh`	Bash script with echo -e for ANSI support

All exports include:

Properly escaped ANSI sequences
Language-specific string literals
Ready-to-run code

PNG exports preserve the exact appearance of your terminal art with transparent backgrounds.

Acknowledgments

Font Authors: Thank you to all the original font creators whose work is included.
Charm: For the excellent TUI framework.
Go Community: For the robust standard library and tooling.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Bit - Terminal ANSI Logo Designer & Font Library

Features

Quick Start

Installation

Quick Install (Linux/macOS)

Manual Installation

Build from Source

Usage

Running Bit

Interactive UI - Keyboard Controls

Control Panels

1. 🔴 Text Input Panel (3 modes)

2. 🟢 Font Selection Panel

3. 🔵 Spacing Panel (3 modes)

4. 🟡 Color Panel (3 modes)

5. 🟣 Text Scale Panel

6. ⚫ Shadow Panel (3 modes)

CLI Mode

Basic Commands

CLI Options

Available Colors

Library

Quick Library Example

Font Collection

Export Formats

Acknowledgments

License

asciimare

wechit

thorn

meine

bit

Bit - Terminal ANSI Logo Designer & Font Library

Features

Quick Start

Installation

Quick Install (Linux/macOS)

Manual Installation

Build from Source

Usage

Running Bit

Interactive UI - Keyboard Controls

Control Panels

1. 🔴 Text Input Panel (3 modes)

2. 🟢 Font Selection Panel

3. 🔵 Spacing Panel (3 modes)

4. 🟡 Color Panel (3 modes)

5. 🟣 Text Scale Panel

6. ⚫ Shadow Panel (3 modes)

CLI Mode

Basic Commands

CLI Options

Available Colors

Library

Quick Library Example

Font Collection

Export Formats

Acknowledgments

License

asciimare

wechit

thorn

meine

search