Less Software

Simpler systems, teams, and AI products.

art.sh

A bash script that fills your terminal with random Unicode characters, inspired by 10 PRINT — the one-line Commodore 64 BASIC program that endlessly prints random maze-like patterns:

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10

This does something similar with the full range of Unicode box-drawing and block element characters. Five modes give you different visual textures: double-line boxes (╣ ║ ╗ ╝ ╚ ╔), single-line boxes (│ ┤ ┐ └ ┴ ┬), the complete 128-character box-drawing set including dashed lines, rounded corners, and diagonals (╭ ╮ ╱ ╲ ┄ ┅ ┈), block and shade elements with quadrants (░ ▒ ▓ █ ▙ ▚ ▛), or all of them at once. It runs forever until you press any key.

Color is optional. You can set a solid color, cycle through a rainbow, randomize every character, or oscillate between two hues with gradient presets like ocean, fire, forest, and sunset. Custom hue ranges work too.

No dependencies beyond bash and a terminal that supports UTF-8. True color support needed for the fancier color modes.

./art.sh --boxy --color rainbow
./art.sh --blocky --color fire
./art.sh --all --color ocean
./art.sh --color gradient --hue 260 300

You can checkout the project here:

• github.com/georgemandis/art.sh