Dream ASCII Art Generator

Project Overview

Created a script that generates ASCII art banners with decorative borders using the asciified API and boxes utility.

Files Created

• dream_ascii_art.sh: Bash script that fetches ASCII art for “DREAMSCAPE” in slant font and wraps it in a scroll box.
• dream_art.txt: Output file containing the generated ASCII art.

How It Works

1. Uses the asciified.thelicato.io API to convert text “DREAMSCAPE” into ASCII art using the ‘slant’ font.
2. Pipes the output through the boxes command with the ‘scroll’ decoration to add a decorative border.
3. Displays the result in the terminal and saves it to dream_art.txt.

Sample Output

The script produces a decorative ASCII banner resembling a dreamy landscape with a scroll-like border.

Running the Script

chmod +x dream_ascii_art.sh
./dream_ascii_art.sh

Requirements

• curl (for API request)
• boxes (for decorative borders, optional - falls back to plain ASCII art if not installed)

Notes

• The script is designed to be run nightly as part of the Dreamcode project, generating a unique ASCII art piece each night.
• Tonight’s theme: “Dreamscape” - exploring the boundary between digital and dreamlike aesthetics.

Terminal capture of the overnight run is embedded above.

Source

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Dream ASCII Art Generator
Creates a dreamy ASCII art banner using pyfiglet and boxes.
"""

import subprocess
import sys
import pyfiglet

def generate_dream_art(text="DREAMSCAPE", font="slant", box_style="scroll"):
    """Generate dreamy ASCII art."""
    # Generate the ASCII art with pyfiglet
    ascii_art = pyfiglet.figlet_format(text, font=font)
    
    # Use boxes to add a decorative border
    try:
        process = subprocess.Popen(
            ['boxes', '-d', box_style],
            stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
            stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
            text=True
        )
        stdout, stderr = process.communicate(input=ascii_art)
        if process.returncode != 0:
            print(f"Error from boxes: {stderr}", file=sys.stderr)
            return ascii_art  # Return raw art if boxes fails
        return stdout
    except FileNotFoundError:
        print("Boxes command not found, returning raw ASCII art", file=sys.stderr)
        return ascii_art

def main():
    """Main function to generate and save dream ASCII art."""
    # Generate the art
    art = generate_dream_art()
    
    # Print to terminal
    print(art)
    
    # Save to file
    with open('dream_art.txt', 'w') as f:
        f.write(art)
    
    print("Dream ASCII art saved to dream_art.txt")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Run output

Boxes command not found, returning raw ASCII art
    ____  ____  _________    __  ________ _________    ____  ______
   / __ \/ __ \/ ____/   |  /  |/  / ___// ____/   |  / __ \/ ____/
  / / / / /_/ / __/ / /| | / /|_/ /\__ \/ /   / /| | / /_/ / __/   
 / /_/ / _, _/ /___/ ___ |/ /  / /___/ / /___/ ___ |/ ____/ /___   
/_____/_/ |_/_____/_/  |_/_/  /_//____/\____/_/  |_/_/   /_____/   
                                                                   

Dream ASCII art saved to dream_art.txt