How to use the text art tool
- Choose a category: kaomoji, lenny faces, dividers or small text pictures.
- Tap any piece to copy it.
- Paste it into your chat, bio, notes or server.
- For anything longer than one line, check how it looks on a phone before you post (more on that below).
Kaomoji vs emoji vs ASCII art
All of these are "text art", but they work in different ways:
| Type | Example | Made from | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emoticon | :-) | Keyboard punctuation, read sideways | One line |
| Kaomoji | (◕‿◕) | Symbols from many scripts, read upright | One line |
| Lenny face | ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) | Symbols plus combining marks | One line |
| Emoji | 😊 | A single picture character drawn by your phone | One character |
| ASCII and text pictures | Cats, hearts, banners | Many characters arranged in rows | Several lines |
Kaomoji (Japanese emoticons) grew out of Japanese online culture. "Kao" means face and "moji" means character. Unlike the Western :-), you read them upright, and they use characters from many alphabets to draw eyes, mouths, arms and even tables. Strictly speaking, ASCII art uses only the basic keyboard characters, but people now use the name for any picture made from text.
Kaomoji have one big advantage over emoji: they are built from ordinary text characters, so they look much the same on every phone and computer, while emoji change with each brand's designs. They also work in places that don't show emoji well, such as some older apps and plain-text notes.
Popular kinds of text faces
The tool groups its pieces into kaomoji, lenny faces, dividers and small pictures. Within those, these are the moods people reach for most:
- Happy and excited: smiling faces, cheering arms and sparkly eyes.
- Love and shy: blushing faces and hugs.
- Sad and crying: for when an emoji feels too loud.
- Angry and table flips: the famous (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ and its calmer cousin, putting the table back.
- Animals: bears like ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ, cats, dogs and bunnies.
- Shrugs and lenny faces: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and friends.
- Dividers and borders: lines of dashes, dots, stars and flowers.
- Small pictures: short multi-line art such as hearts and cute animals.
Windows has a kaomoji picker built in too: press Win + . and open the kaomoji tab.
Why multi-line text art breaks (and how to fix it)
A one-line kaomoji is safe almost anywhere. Bigger ASCII art is fragile, for three reasons:
- Proportional fonts. Most apps use fonts where an "i" is much narrower than a "W". Art drawn for equal-width letters slides out of line.
- Narrow screens. A line that fits on a computer wraps onto two lines on a phone, and the picture falls apart.
- Squashed spaces. Some apps and websites merge several spaces into one or trim spaces at the start of a line.
The fixes are simple. Keep each line short, roughly 30 characters or less, so it won't wrap on a phone. On Discord, put the art inside a code block: three backticks (```) on the line before and the line after. Code blocks use an equal-width font and keep every space, so the art stays lined up. You can read more about Discord formatting on our Discord fonts page. Elsewhere, test in a draft or send it to yourself first.
Text dividers for bios and notes
Dividers are the most useful text art of all. A short line of dashes with a ✦ in the middle neatly splits an Instagram bio into sections, separates rules in a Discord server, or makes school notes easier to scan. Pair a divider with a small heading such as 【 ʀᴜʟᴇꜱ 】 or ✧･ﾟ: * ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ * :･ﾟ✧. For more single characters to build your own, visit the symbols page, and for sparkly frames see the glitter text generator. Wide letters from the vaporwave text page also suit retro dividers.
Emoticon etiquette
- Know your audience. The lenny face can come across as cheeky or sly. It is fine with friends, but skip it with teachers, at work or with family elders.
- Don't flood chats. Big text pictures take over a group chat or channel, and many Discord servers remove them or use slow mode.
- Think of screen readers. A screen reader reads each symbol by name, so one kaomoji can become a long list of odd words. Say what you mean in words as well.
- Keep it kind. Text art is for fun. Don't use it to mock someone.
Prefer colourful pictures to symbols? Try our emoji combos, or go back to the main fancy font generator for letter styles.
Frequently asked questions
What is a kaomoji?
A kaomoji is a Japanese-style face made from text characters, such as (◕‿◕). You read it upright, and it can show a whole mood or action, which a sideways :-) can't.
How do I type a lenny face?
It uses special combining marks that aren't on any keyboard, so copying it is the easy way. Tap it in the lenny faces category, then paste.
Why does my shrug lose its arm on Discord?
Discord treats the backslash as a formatting escape and underscores as italics, so the left arm of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ can vanish and the middle may turn italic. Use Discord's built-in /shrug command, or put the shrug inside backticks.
Why does my ASCII art look broken?
The app is using a font where letters have different widths, or the screen is too narrow and lines are wrapping. Use shorter lines, or a code block on Discord.
Is text art the same as ASCII art?
ASCII art is one kind of text art that uses only basic keyboard characters. Text art is the wider name and includes kaomoji, Unicode symbols and dividers.
Can I use text art in my username or game name?
A tiny piece might fit in a display name, but most username fields refuse the symbols, and multi-line art never works there. For decorated names, try the stylish name generator.