• 28 pictures

Funny Pictures Using Text Symbols

Tap a picture to copy it: small jokes in keyboard characters, most with a stick figure or a sign.

Funny Pictures Using Text Symbols

.-------------. | YOUR TEXT | '------.------' o | /|\--' / \Figure holding a sign6 lines, 15 wideReady to copy

28 pictures. Tap one to copy it.

Stick figures 11

Things going wrong 12

Animals up to something 5

Next step A frame for a longer line of your ownSmall pictures of two to four lines

How it works

Funny pictures using text symbols, drawn for this page: 28 small jokes in keyboard characters. A bird sits on a NO BIRDS sign, a figure pushes a door marked PULL. The first one holds a sign you can type over.

Read the full guide

Three kinds of joke

Stick figures has 11 scenes, from a nap beside KEEP OFF THE GRASS to a line at a door that says BACK IN 5 MIN. Things going wrong has 12 and Animals up to something five. Four pieces fit on one line.

Before you paste

The pictures line up only in a monospaced font, and a box that folds spaces flattens most of them. Seven have no spaces to lose, Exit signs that disagree among them. The cat page has the full story.

  • Type over YOUR TEXT on the first sign with up to 11 characters, and pad a shorter line with spaces.
  • Funny faces that fit on one line are on text faces.

Questions and answers

How are funny text pictures using symbols drawn?

One small scene each, in the 95 characters of a keyboard, a column per character. Nine of the 28 let a word carry the joke, such as FRAGILE on the box under the anvil.

Why did my picture arrive scrambled?

Either the font is not monospaced, so the columns drift, or the box folded each run of spaces into one. Seven pieces survive the second: no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch.

Were these copied from an archive?

No. All 28 were drawn for this page and looked at in a monospaced font. Forty subjects were drafted and twelve thrown away because they did not read without a caption, a snail with a rocket among them.

All 28 pictures

Stick figures 11

  • Asleep on the keyboard A screen filling up with the letter j while a face sleeps on the keys. 6 lines, 20 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Back in five minutes A door with a BACK IN 5 MIN sign and four figures waiting in line. 6 lines, 28 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Carried off by balloons Three balloons lifting a figure clear of the ground. 10 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Cookies on the top shelf A jar of cookies on a high shelf, a ladder that stops short and a figure reaching up. 7 lines, 23 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Far too many boxes A figure holding a stack of four boxes over its head. 7 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Figure holding a sign A stick figure holding up a sign on a pole. Type over YOUR TEXT with up to 11 characters and pad a shorter line with spaces, so the frame stays closed. 6 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Fishing for a boot A figure with a rod, and a boot on the end of the line. 6 lines, 20 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Show all 28 pictures (21 more)

Stick figures, continued

  • Lost at the signpost A signpost with arrows both ways and a question mark, and a figure wondering under it. 7 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Nap on the grass A figure asleep on the lawn beside a sign that says KEEP OFF THE GRASS. 7 lines, 24 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Private rain cloud One figure under its own small rain cloud, two more in the sun with their arms up. 8 lines, 23 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Push the pull door A figure leaning on a door whose sign says PULL. 6 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.

Things going wrong 12

  • Battery at one percent A battery with one bar left and a worried face. 1 line, 21 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Exit signs that disagree Two exit signs side by side, each pointing at the other. 3 lines, 21 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Fragile, at the bottom A box marked FRAGILE under an anvil and a one-ton weight. 7 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Ice cream on the floor A figure, an empty cone and the scoop on the ground. 4 lines, 18 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Kite in a tree A kite caught in the top of a tree, and its owner looking up. 6 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Loading, still at 99 A progress bar one step from full, and whoever was waiting has dozed off. 1 line, 20 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Sign not to be read A notice on a post that says DO NOT READ THIS NOTICE. 5 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Snowman in the sun A sun, and a snowman sinking into its own puddle. 5 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Sock without its pair A washing line with two socks, and a gap with a question mark where the third should hang. 5 lines, 23 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Speaker turned up A speaker blasting sound at a face that winces. 1 line, 18 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • This side up, upside down A box marked THIS SIDE UP with every arrow pointing down. 4 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Umbrella inside out A figure holding an umbrella that the wind has turned into a bowl, rain beside it. 6 lines, 18 wide. Keyboard characters only.

Animals up to something 5

  • Bird on a no-birds sign A bird sitting on top of a sign that says NO BIRDS. 6 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Caterpillar of commas Ten commas for legs and a face at the front. 1 line, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Duck in a top hat A duck on the water wearing a tall hat. 6 lines, 12 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Scarecrow with two friends A scarecrow with a bird perched on each arm. 6 lines, 16 wide. Keyboard characters only.
  • Three birds and one rebel Four birds on a wire, three facing right and one facing left. 2 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.

How this list was compiled: Every piece was drawn for this page on 2026-10-01, rendered in a monospaced font and looked at; none is copied from an archive or another site. Forty subjects were drafted and 28 kept: a draft went out when it did not read as its joke without a caption (a snail with a rocket, a giraffe too tall for its frame, an elephant behind a lamp post and nine more). Every character is one of the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E, so a column is one character wide; no piece is wider than 40 columns, and no piece and no name is on any other page of the site. A piece is marked as fitting a comment box when no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. Licence: own work

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