• 20 pieces
  • Checked October 2026

ASCII Turtle

Tap a turtle to copy every line of it; the first has a shell you can type your words on.

ASCII Turtle

.---------------. __ .' YOUR WORDS '._/o \ (_____________________)___/ |_| |_|Turtle, blank shell4 lines, 30 wideReady to copy

20 pieces. Tap one to copy it.

Your own words 1

One line 3

Small, 2 to 4 lines 5

Medium, 5 to 9 lines 10

Large, 10 lines and up 1

Next step Next: fish and other sea life

How it works

Turtle text art in keyboard characters, drawn for this page: 20 pieces, walking, asleep, swimming, hiding in the shell, on a log and seen from above, plus a tortoise with a domed shell.

Read the full guide

How these turtles are built

The shell is a dome with a row of diamonds on it, slashes that meet point to point. The head sits at the right-hand end with one eye, and two feet stand below. Turtle walking, side view is five lines by 23 columns; Big turtle, side view stacks three rows of lattice and is 10 lines by 35.

Write on the shell

Turtle, blank shell takes 10 characters where it says YOUR WORDS, or 17 if you type over the padding. Keep the line the same length so the shell stays closed.

  • Squash-proof has six pieces with no run of spaces: three one-liners, a turtle from the side, one from above and a shell.
  • The turtle emoji and more one-line text turtles are on turtle emoji.
  • Fish, a whale and a seahorse are on fish ASCII art.

Questions and answers

What is a simple ASCII turtle to type?

Turtle on one line: a comma for the tail, (_/\/\/\_) for the shell and (o> for the head, 14 characters in all. Little turtle, three lines adds a dome and two feet.

Is there turtle ASCII art seen from above?

Three pieces: Turtle seen from above, 9 lines with a flipper at each corner; Turtle shell, top view, the plates alone; and Squash-proof turtle, above, five rows of seven characters.

What is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise?

Tortoises are the land-dwelling turtles, by Wikipedia's Turtle article, and the front limbs of sea turtles are flippers. Tortoise, domed shell stands on two stout legs; Turtle swimming, side view has flippers.

What is the biggest turtle here?

Big turtle, side view: 10 lines by 35 columns, with three rows of lattice on the shell and grass along the ground. It needs a monospaced font and a box at least 35 characters wide.

All 20 pieces

Your own words 1

  • Turtle, blank shell The words sit on the shell itself. Type over YOUR WORDS, 10 characters, or 17 with the padding. 4 lines, 30 wide.

One line 3

  • Turtle hiding, one line Only the zigzag shell: head, tail and legs pulled in. 1 line, 10 wide.
  • Turtle on one line From the left: a comma for the tail, a zigzag shell in parentheses, and a head with a beak. 1 line, 14 wide.
  • Turtle plodding, one line The one-line animal with four periods of trail behind it. 1 line, 22 wide.

Small, 2 to 4 lines 5

  • Little turtle, three lines A low dome with a zigzag band, a head on the right and two feet. 3 lines, 10 wide.
  • Squash-proof turtle The side view with no gap in it: shell, head and two feet joined by hyphens. 3 lines, 10 wide.
  • Squash-proof turtle shell A boxed shell with two rows of zigzag plates. 4 lines, 7 wide.
  • Three turtles in a row The three-line animal three times, nose to tail. 3 lines, 34 wide.
  • Turtle hiding in its shell No head and no legs: two eyes look out of the opening at the right-hand end. 4 lines, 19 wide.
Show all 20 pieces (11 more)

Medium, 5 to 9 lines 10

  • Squash-proof turtle, above Seen from above: a head, four flippers written as parentheses, and a v for the tail. 5 lines, 7 wide.
  • Tortoise, domed shell A taller dome crossed by a lattice of slashes, on two stout legs. 6 lines, 26 wide.
  • Turtle and its little one The walking pose with the three-line animal a step behind it. 5 lines, 34 wide.
  • Turtle asleep, side view The walking pose with the eye shut and three letters z over the head. 5 lines, 25 wide.
  • Turtle in a party hat The walking pose with a pointed hat on its head. 6 lines, 23 wide.
  • Turtle on a log The little one sits on a floating log, with a line of water under it. 6 lines, 23 wide.
  • Turtle seen from above Head at the top, a flipper at each corner, a shell with a ring on it and a small v for the tail. 9 lines, 14 wide.
  • Turtle shell, top view The shell alone: a six-sided plate in the middle with smaller plates around the rim. 7 lines, 17 wide.
  • Turtle swimming, side view Two flippers sweep back under the shell and two bubbles rise behind. 6 lines, 26 wide.
  • Turtle walking, side view Heading right: a dome with a row of diamonds on it, a short tail, two legs and a head with one eye. 5 lines, 23 wide.

Large, 10 lines and up 1

  • Big turtle, side view The largest: three rows of lattice on the shell, thick legs, a head held up on a long neck and grass along the ground. 10 lines, 35 wide.

How this list was compiled: Own work: every piece was drawn for this page on 2026-10-02, rendered in a monospaced font and looked at; none is copied from an archive or another site, and nothing from a named show, book or game is drawn. The turtles share one construction of this site's own: a domed shell with a row of diamonds or a zigzag band on it, a head with one eye on the right, and feet below. Read on 2026-10-02 in Wikipedia's article Turtle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle, CC BY-SA 4.0): the upper part of the shell is the domed carapace; tortoises are land-dwelling turtles; the front limbs of sea turtles have evolved into flippers. 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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