Fidel-ASCII 🇪🇹🎨

Fidel-ASCII is the first open-source Ethiopic character map and high-impact ASCII rendering engine for terminal interfaces. It provides a modular engine, a comprehensive character map, and a powerful font importer that bridges the gap in terminal aesthetics for non-Latin scripts.

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🚀 Features

• Multi-Style Engine: 7 unique rendering modes including braille, dot-matrix, sketch, and matrix.
• High-Fidelity Importer: Import any .ttf or .otf font directly into ASCII with precision rasterization.
• Syllabic Support: Full mapping for the Ge'ez syllabary (ሀ-ፐ) and common punctuation.
• Smooth Gradients: Beautiful, harmonious vertical, horizontal, and angular color transitions.
• 3D Shadows: Pronounced, stylized shadow effects that adapt to any character style.
• Dynamic Borders: Professional ASCII borders with customizable styles (solid, double, dotted, bold).
• Auto-Wrapping: Smart line wrapping based on terminal width.
• Library Mode: Use the rendering engine directly in your own Node.js/TypeScript projects.

🎨 Rendering Styles

Fidel-ASCII now supports dynamic style translation. You can apply these to the standard font or any custom imported font:

• Blocks (Default): The classic shaded ASCII look.
• Braille: Ultra-high resolution dots using Unicode Braille patterns.
• Dot-Matrix: Retro electronic display style (●, •, ·).
• Sketch: Hand-drawn pencil draft look (X, /, \).
• Matrix: Digital "falling code" effect using binary 0 and 1.
• Halftone: Grayscale newsprint simulation using a character ramp (@%#*+=-:. ).
• Solid: Clean, high-contrast block characters.

🛠️ Installation

npm install -g fidel-ascii

📖 CLI Usage

Basic Rendering

fidel-ascii --text "ሰላም" --style dot-matrix --color cyan

Advanced Styling

fidel-ascii --text "ኢትዮጵያ" --style sketch --shadow --gradient "red,yellow,green"

Importing a Custom Font

You can turn any Ethiopic font into a .fidel.json map:

fidel-ascii import --font "nyala.ttf" --output "nyala.json" --height 10 --style blocks

Options

| Flag | Short | Description | Default | |------|-------|-------------|---------| | --text | -t | The Ethiopic text to render (Required) | - | | --style | - | ASCII style: blocks, braille, dot-matrix, sketch, matrix, halftone, solid | blocks | | --color | -c | Basic chalk color (red, green, blue, etc.) | white | | --gradient | -g | Apply a gradient (comma-separated colors) | - | | --direction| -d | Direction: horizontal, vertical, or degrees (e.g., 45) | horizontal | | --shadow | -s | Add a 3D-style shadow effect | false | | --light | -l | Light source for shadow (top-left, top-right, etc.) | top-left | | --animate | -a | Animate the colors or light source | false | | --wrap | -w | Enable line wrapping based on terminal width | false | | --border | -b | Add a stylized border around the output | false | | --border-style | - | Style: solid, double, dotted, bold | solid | | --font | -f | Path to a custom .fidel.json or .ttf file | standard | | --output | -o | Output path for imported font files | - |

🧩 Programmatic API

import { renderFidel } from 'fidel-ascii';
import fontData from 'fidel-ascii/fonts/standard.fidel.json';

const ascii = renderFidel("ሰላም", fontData, {
  style: 'dot-matrix',
  shadow: true,
  gradient: ['#00ffff', '#ff00ff']
});

console.log(ascii);

🤝 Contributing

We are currently expanding the character map! Use our Fidel Builder (or the local tool in tools/fidel-builder) to contribute.

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create new glyphs or styles.
3. Submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

MIT © EyuReaper