Thirty-four small ASCII pictures, each two to four lines tall and at most 13 characters wide: animals, faces, food, weather and everyday things. All are drawn for this page in keyboard characters. No line starts with a space and no two spaces touch.
Read the full guide
Why these survive a message
As text message text art they have one thing going for them: a box that folds spaces finds none to fold. What they cannot control is the font. In a proportional one an i gets less room than an m, so the columns drift a little; the cat page has the full story.
Pick by subject
Six filters: 5 animals, 5 faces, 5 food and drink, 7 sky, weather and plants, 8 things, and 4 with a word to type over. Mini ascii art of cats, dogs, hearts, stars and flowers is on those subjects' own pages, so none is repeated here.
Four pieces say HELLO. Type over it with five characters or fewer, padding with spaces, and the frame stays closed.
For small text art copy and paste on a single line, one-line ASCII art has pictures with no columns to lose.
Two to four lines and 3 to 13 columns. Small snowflake is three lines of three characters, and Small open book is the widest at 13 columns. Three pieces are two lines tall, 21 are three and 10 are four.
Why did a backslash go missing?
A box that reads Markdown treats a backslash before punctuation as an escape and does not print it. 15 of the 34 contain one. The other 19, Small burger and Small key among them, have none to lose.
Can I change the word on the sign?
Yes. Small sign to write on, Small speech bubble, Small pinned note and Small tag with a hole each hold HELLO. Keep your word to five characters and pad a shorter one with spaces so the right-hand edge stays in place.
All 34 pieces
A word to type over 4
Small pinned noteA note held by one pin at the top. Type over HELLO, 5 characters at most. 3 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small sign to write onA sign on a post. Type over HELLO with your own word, 5 characters at most, and keep the frame closed. 4 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small speech bubbleA bubble with its tail at the bottom left. Type over HELLO, 5 characters at most. 3 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small tag with a holeA luggage-style tag, hole on the left. Type over HELLO, 5 characters at most. 3 lines, 10 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Animals 5
Small duck on waterHead and beak on the left, a round body, three waves underneath. 3 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small frogTwo eyes on top of a wide mouth, toes underneath. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small pig faceTwo ears, two eyes and a snout in the middle. 3 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small snailA spiral shell on a flat foot, the head at the right with two eye stalks above it. 2 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small turtleA domed shell, the head poking out on the left and two feet. 3 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Show all 34 pieces (25 more)
Faces and people 5
Small face in sunglassesTwo dark lenses joined by a bridge over a wide grin. 4 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small happy faceA square face with two raised eyes and a smile. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small person in a hatA brimmed hat, a face, two arms and two feet. 4 lines, 5 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small robot headAn antenna, two round eyes and a grille for a mouth. 4 lines, 6 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small sleepy faceEyes shut, mouth open, two z's rising off the corner. 4 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Food and drink 5
Small bowl of soupThree curls of steam over a full bowl. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small burgerA domed bun, two fillings and a flat base. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small donutA ring with a hole in the middle. 3 lines, 6 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small ice popA frozen block on a stick. 3 lines, 5 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small mug of teaSteam over a mug with its handle on the right. 3 lines, 6 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Sky, weather and plants 7
Small plant in a potThree leaves fanning out of a square pot. 2 lines, 5 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small rain cloudA cloud with three bumps and a row of falling drops. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small rainbowThree arcs, one inside the other. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small snowflakeSix arms round a star. 3 lines, 3 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small sunA round sun with eight rays. 3 lines, 5 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small treeA leafy crown, a trunk and a strip of ground. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small umbrella in rainAn open umbrella, its hooked handle, and rain falling round it. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Things 8
Small cameraA shutter button on top and a round lens in front. 3 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small envelopeA sealed envelope with the flap drawn as a V. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small house with a doorA roof, two windows and a door. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small keyA square bow with a hole, a long shaft and one tooth. 3 lines, 10 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small open bookTwo pages of lines either side of the spine. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small pair of glassesTwo round lenses joined by a bridge. 2 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small televisionA set with two aerials and a face on the screen. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small wrapped presentA bow on top of a box tied with ribbon both ways. 3 lines, 5 wide. Keyboard characters only.
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 four early drafts that turned out to be remembered archive pieces (two owls, a frog and a duck) were thrown away. All 34 are 2 to 4 lines tall and at most 13 columns wide, and all are squash-proof: no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. Every character is one of the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E, so a column is one character wide. Most subjects that have a page of their own in this family (cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, horses, dragons, hearts, stars, flowers, skulls and vehicles) are left to those pages. 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, and every piece here is inside it. Licence: own work