Questionably Useful Thing: Really Big Source Text

Update (11th August 2007): We now have numbers! View-source. You’ve gotta love it. But it’s a bit boring sometimes – line after line of hypertext, with the only highlight being nice indentation if you’re lucky.

Engineering Ludicrous Desk Published February 2, 2007

Last reviewed Thursday, October 8, 2026

Description

I thought I’d liven things up a bit by putting some nice messages into the source of my web pages. For example:

 _____   ______   _____   _       _____   ______   _____   _____   _____   _____
|  _  | |  __  | |  ___| | |     |  ___| |  __  | |  _  | |_   _| |  ___| |  _  |
| |_| | | |  | | | |__   | |     | |     | |  | | | |_| |   | |   | |__   | |_| |
|    _| | |  | | |  __|  | |     | |     | |  | | |  ___|   | |   |  __|  |    _|
| |\ \  | |__| | | |     | |___  | |___  | |__| | | |       | |   | |___  | |\ \
|_| \_\ |______| |_|     |_____| |_____| |______| |_|       |_|   |_____| |_| \_\

That would surely cheer up any source code haxor. So I decided to spread the love and create a really big source code text generator. Give it a go below.

Instructions

You can use the generator below to create really big source code text for your own website. Type the text you want to show up really big in your source code into the box below. It will show up in the larger text area underneath. Numbers and several punctuation characters work too, you’ll have to try them.

What Now?

Copy and paste the text out of the big text area and whack it into your source! You can paste it into a JavaScript tag as long as you keep the /* and */ in place, but don’t forget to put it between  if you’re just going to whack it into your source. View-source this page if you want to see a huge source text message out in the wild.

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From the original thread

17 replies

17 replies were left on this page between 2007 and 2008, kept as they were written. The avatars, profile links and reply form of the software that collected them are not part of this archive, and the addresses readers pasted are kept as text rather than as links.

fluffleFebruary 20, 2007
```
 _   __
| | / /
| |/ /
|   -
| |\ \
|_| \_\
```
(yeah it’s not perfect, but without it spelling words such as “COCK” is remarkably difficult)
LudicrousFebruary 20, 2007
Thanks fluffle, we now have a ‘K’!

john smytheMarch 20, 2007

Might I suggest another K?

 _   __ 
| | / / 
| |/ /  
|   \   
| |\ \   
|_| \_\

LudicrousMarch 22, 2007
We now have a new and improved ‘K’ based on John Smythe’s suggestion :-)
humJune 2, 2007
i prefer this one

|Â¯| /Â¯/
| |/ /
| (
| |\ \
|_| \_\
mmmhJune 2, 2007
|Â¯| /Â¯/
| |/ /
| (
| |\ \
|_| \_\

hubyJune 13, 2007

 _       ______   _       _       _   _____   ______   _____  
| |     |  __  | | |     | |     | | |  _  | |  __  | |  _  | 
| |     | |  | | | |     | |     | | | |_| | | |  | | | |_| | 
| |     | |  | | | |     | |     | | |  ___| | |  | | |  ___| 
| |___  | |__| | | |___  | |___  | | | |     | |__| | | |     
|_____| |______| |_____| |_____| |_| |_|     |______| |_|

hubyJune 13, 2007

 _____   ______   _____  
|  _  | |  __  | |  _  | 
| |_| | | |  | | | |_| | 
|  ___| | |  | | |  ___| 
| |     | |__| | | |     
|_|     |______| |_|

Jack JenningsOctober 2, 2007
This K looks pretty good, in my opinion: don’t know about the \ that doesn’t “connect” quite right.
```
 _   __ 
| | / / 
| |/ /  
|   <   
| |\ \  
|_| \_\ 
```

robert g,November 13, 2007

/*
            _      _   ______   _   _____        _    _   ______   _       _____   _____  
    /\     \ \    / / |  __  | | | |  __ \      | |  | | |  __  | | |     |  ___| |  ___| 
   /  \     \ \  / /  | |  | | | | | |  \ \     | |  | | | |  | | | |     | |     | |     
  / /\ \     \ \/ /   | |  | | | | | |  | |     | |  | | | |  | | | |     | |     | |     
 /  __  \     \  /    | |__| | | | | |__/ /  _  | |__| | | |  | | | |  _  | |___  | |___  
/__/  \__\     \/     |______| |_| |_____/  |_| |______| |_|  |_| |_| |_| |_____| |_____| 

*/

nice gadget :P

GarvinMay 30, 2008

Lovin it. Thanks!

 _   __  _____              _   __             _____   ______             
| | / / |  _  |     /\     | | / /     /\     |_   _| |  __  |     /\     
| |/ /  | |_| |    /  \    | |/ /     /  \      | |   | |  | |    /  \    
|   \   |    _|   / /\ \   |   \     / /\ \     | |   | |  | |   / /\ \   
| |\ \  | |\ \   /  __  \  | |\ \   /  __  \    | |   | |__| |  /  __  \  
|_| \_\ |_| \_\ /__/  \__\ |_| \_\ /__/  \__\   |_|   |______| /__/  \__\

LukeAugust 8, 2008

/*
 _          _   _____   _____   _  
\ \        / / |_   _| |  ___| | | 
 \ \  /\  / /    | |   | |__   | | 
  \ \/  \/ /     | |   |  __|  |_| 
   \  /\  /      | |   | |      _  
    \/  \/       |_|   |_|     |_| 

*/

hmm, doesnt look right in preview box ??

LudicrousAugust 8, 2008
Luke: You need to wrap it in a <pre> tag so it gets displayed in a fixed-width font :)

ericAugust 15, 2008

/*
 _          _              ______       _   _____   _____       ______   _____   _____              _____  
\ \        / /     /\     |  __  |     | | |_   _| |  ___|     |  ____| |  _  | |  ___|     /\     |_   _| 
 \ \  /\  / /     /  \    | |  | |     | |   | |   | |___      | |  __  | |_| | | |__      /  \      | |   
  \ \/  \/ /     / /\ \   | |  | |     | |   | |   |___  |     | | |_ | |    _| |  __|    / /\ \     | |   
   \  /\  /     /  __  \  | |__| |     | |   | |    ___| |     | |__| | | |\ \  | |___   /  __  \    | |   
    \/  \/     /__/  \__\ |______|     |_|   |_|   |_____|     |______| |_| \_\ |_____| /__/  \__\   |_|   

*/

ericAugust 15, 2008

/*
 _       ______   _      _   _____       _   _____  
| |     |  __  | \ \    / / |  ___|     | | |_   _| 
| |     | |  | |  \ \  / /  | |__       | |   | |   
| |     | |  | |   \ \/ /   |  __|      | |   | |   
| |___  | |__| |    \  /    | |___      | |   | |   
|_____| |______|     \/     |_____|     |_|   |_|   

*/

JasonDecember 24, 2008
Another K fix, use a left curly bracket
```
/*
 _   __ 
| | / / 
| |/ /  
|   {   
| |\ \  
|_| \_\ 

*/
```
JasonDecember 24, 2008
pre tags didn’t work for me.

Update: Fixed.

Questionably Useful Thing: Really Big Source Text

Description

Instructions

What Now?

From the original thread

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