ConvertTo-AsciiArt

Overview

The ConvertTo-AsciiArt PowerShell function transforms input text into ASCII art, supporting uppercase letters, numbers, and a variety of special characters. This utility is excellent for embellishing console outputs, creating text-based art, or simply for entertainment and educational purposes.

Features

• Broad Character Support: Handles letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and common special characters, offering a wide range of artistic expression.
• Pipeline Compatibility: Accepts input via pipeline, enabling seamless integration with other PowerShell commands and scripts.
• Customizable Art Maps: Easily extendable character mappings allow for customization and addition of new ASCII art representations.

Prerequisites

• PowerShell 5.1 or higher is required to ensure compatibility and full functionality.

Installation

No specific installation process is needed. You can integrate the ConvertTo-AsciiArt function into your scripts or PowerShell session by simply copying the function definition.

Usage

Converting Text to ASCII Art

To convert a simple text string to ASCII art:

ConvertTo-AsciiArt -InputObject "Hello"

Output will be the ASCII art representation of "Hello":

H   H EEEE  L     L      OOO
H   H E     L     L     O   O
HHHHH EEE   L     L     O   O
H   H E     L     L     O   O
H   H EEEE  LLLL  LLLL   OOO

Using Pipeline for Conversion

You can also pipe a string directly into the function:

"PowerShell" | ConvertTo-AsciiArt

This will output the ASCII art representation of "PowerShell":

PPP    OOO  W   W EEEE  RRR    SSS  H   H EEEE  L     L
P  P  O   O W   W E     R  R  S     H   H E     L     L
PPP   O   O W W W EEE   RRR    SSS  HHHHH EEE   L     L
P     O   O WW WW E     R R       S H   H E     L     L
P      OOO  W   W EEEE  R  R  SSSS  H   H EEEE  LLLL  LLLL

Extended Character Support

Demonstrates converting a string with mixed characters:

"13375P34K!?" | ConvertTo-AsciiArt

Displays ASCII art for each character, including spaces and exclamation marks:

  1   3333  3333  77777 55555 PPP   3333  4  4  K  K   !!!   ???
 11       3     3    7  5     P  P      3 4  4  K K    !!!  ?   ?
  1    333   333    7   5555  PPP    333  44444 KK     !!!     ?
  1       3     3  7        5 P         3    4  K K
11111 3333  3333  7     5555  P     3333     4  K  K   !!!    ?

Full special characters list

• ! Exclamation mark
• @ At symbol
• # Hash (Pound) symbol
• $ Dollar sign
• % Percent sign
• ^ Caret (Circumflex accent)
• & Ampersand
• * Asterisk
• ( Open parenthesis
• ) Close parenthesis
• - Hyphen-minus
• + Plus sign
• = Equal sign
• [ Open square bracket
• ] Close square bracket
• { Open curly bracket
• } Close curly bracket
• | Vertical bar
• ; Semicolon
• : Colon
• " Double quotation mark
• ' Single quotation mark (Apostrophe)
• , Comma
• . Period (Full stop)
• / Slash (Forward slash)
• \ Backslash
• ? Question mark
• < Less-than sign
• > Greater-than sign
• _ Underscore
• ` Grave accent (Backtick)
• ~ Tilde

Contributing

Your contributions to enhance functionality, extend character support, or improve documentation are highly appreciated. Feel free to fork the project, implement your changes, and submit a pull request for review.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the COPYING file for more details.