• 24 pieces

ASCII Hedgehog Text Art

Tap a piece to copy every line of it: hedgehogs drawn for this page, from one line to ten.

ASCII Hedgehog Text Art

.------------. | YOUR WORDS | '-----..-----' || .\|/\|/\|/. || .\|/\|/\|/\|/\ || <'o \|/\|/\|/\|) ~~~~ `"--"----"--"'Hedgehog with a sign7 lines, 28 wideReady to copy

24 pieces. Tap one to copy it.

One line 4

Small, 2 to 4 lines 9

Medium, 5 to 9 lines 10

Large, 10 lines 1

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How it works

Twenty-four pieces of ASCII hedgehog art, drawn for this page and not lifted from an archive: a hedgehog with an apple, under an umbrella, in a teacup, asleep. They run from one line to ten, all in plain keyboard characters.

Read the full guide

What makes it a hedgehog

Most pieces are built from the same parts: a nose made of < and an apostrophe, an o for the eye, and fans of \|/ for the spines. The feet are double quotes. Repeat the \|/ fan and a hedgehog grows longer.

Two you can write on

Hedgehog with a sign takes ten characters where it says YOUR WORDS, and Hedgehog says hello takes seven in its speech bubble. Keep to the same count, padding with spaces, and the frame stays closed.

  • Four taller pieces have no leading space and no two spaces together, so a box that squashes spaces cannot bend them: see Squash-proof.
  • Spines out of line mean the font is not monospaced. The cat page explains that and the other ways a piece arrives broken.

Questions and answers

What is the shortest ASCII hedgehog?

Hedgehog ball on a line, at 14 characters, all spines and no face. With a nose and an eye, Hedgehog on a walk is 17 characters on one line.

Are these all plain keyboard characters?

Yes. All 24 use only the 95 printable ASCII characters, so no font can be missing one. Every piece has backslashes in it, which matters where backslashes are treated as escapes.

Can I make the hedgehog face the other way?

Yes, by hand: reverse each line, then swap every slanted or bracketed character for its mirror, < for >, ( for ) and / for the backslash. Two hedgehogs meet has one facing each way.

All 24 pieces

One line 4

  • Hedgehog ball on a line A hedgehog rolled up tight, all spines and no face. 1 line, 14 wide.
  • Hedgehog on a walk One hedgehog on one line: nose, eye, then a back of spines. 1 line, 17 wide.
  • Hedgehog rolling away A hedgehog walks, tucks in and rolls off to the right. 1 line, 35 wide.
  • Two hedgehogs meet Two hedgehogs nose to nose on one line. 1 line, 28 wide.

Small, 2 to 4 lines 9

  • Hedgehog and a flower A hedgehog stopping at a flower on a stalk. 4 lines, 21 wide.
  • Hedgehog curled up A ball of spines seen from the side, the hedgehog's answer to trouble. 4 lines, 13 wide.
  • Hedgehog family One large hedgehog and two small ones following in a line. 4 lines, 34 wide.
  • Hedgehog in autumn leaves A hedgehog half buried in a drift of leaves. 4 lines, 22 wide.
  • Hedgehog in the grass A hedgehog nosing through a line of grass. 3 lines, 15 wide.
  • Hedgehog with a heart A heart floating in front of a hedgehog's nose. 4 lines, 24 wide.
  • Hedgehog with no spaces The side view with every gap closed up, so squashed spaces cannot move it. 3 lines, 15 wide.
  • Little hedgehog The plain side view: snout to the left, spines fanned over the back, three feet showing. 3 lines, 14 wide.
  • Spiky ball of spines A rolled-up hedgehog drawn as a solid block of spines. 3 lines, 12 wide.
Show all 24 pieces (11 more)

Medium, 5 to 9 lines 10

  • Hedgehog and a mushroom A hedgehog nose to stalk with a mushroom taller than it is. 5 lines, 24 wide.
  • Hedgehog in a frame A hedgehog boxed in a plain frame, with no gaps to lose. 5 lines, 18 wide.
  • Hedgehog in a teacup A hedgehog sitting in a cup, spines over the rim. 6 lines, 22 wide.
  • Hedgehog on a log A hedgehog walking along a fallen log. 5 lines, 22 wide.
  • Hedgehog says hello A speech bubble over a hedgehog. Type over HELLO with your own word, 7 characters at most. 7 lines, 15 wide.
  • Hedgehog under an umbrella A hedgehog holding an umbrella over its spines. 7 lines, 18 wide.
  • Hedgehog with a balloon A balloon on a string tied to the hedgehog's back. 7 lines, 19 wide.
  • Hedgehog with a sign A hedgehog walking up to a signpost. Type over YOUR WORDS with your own, 10 characters at most. 7 lines, 28 wide.
  • Hedgehog with an apple An apple stuck on the spines, the way picture books draw it. 5 lines, 14 wide.
  • Sleeping hedgehog Eye shut and a trail of z's drifting off to the right. 5 lines, 16 wide.

Large, 10 lines 1

  • Big hedgehog A large side view: a dome of spines, a pointed face and four feet. 10 lines, 31 wide.

How this list was compiled: Every piece was drawn for this page on 2026-09-30 and looked at in a monospaced font; none is copied from an archive or another site, and no character from a game, film or book is drawn. All of them share one construction of this site's own: a nose of < and an apostrophe, an o for the eye, fans of backslash, bar and slash for the spines and double quotes for feet. Every character is one of the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E. Squash-proof means no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. The comment box badge means at most 8 lines and 30 columns: a rule of thumb of this site, not a promise about any app. Licence: own work

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