How to output a Multiline Character Image in the console

Question

I am developing a text-based game and I want to make the title something catchy. I tried to use a text to ASCII converter to make a nice-looking title and then copy and paste it in my code to output it, but it didn't work.

Here is what I tried to do:

System.out.println("
██████╗ ██╗   ██╗███╗   ██╗ ██████╗ ███████╗ ██████╗ ███╗   ██╗     ██████╗ ███████╗                            
██╔══██╗██║   ██║████╗  ██║██╔════╝ ██╔════╝██╔═══██╗████╗  ██║    ██╔═══██╗██╔════╝                            
██║  ██║██║   ██║██╔██╗ ██║██║  ███╗█████╗  ██║   ██║██╔██╗ ██║    ██║   ██║█████╗                              
██║  ██║██║   ██║██║╚██╗██║██║   ██║██╔══╝  ██║   ██║██║╚██╗██║    ██║   ██║██╔══╝                              
██████╔╝╚██████╔╝██║ ╚████║╚██████╔╝███████╗╚██████╔╝██║ ╚████║    ╚██████╔╝██║                                 
╚═════╝  ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═══╝ ╚═════╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═══╝     ╚═════╝ ╚═╝                                 
                                                                                                                
    ████████╗██╗  ██╗███████╗    ███████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗  ██████╗  ██████╗ ████████╗████████╗███████╗███╗   ██╗
    ╚══██╔══╝██║  ██║██╔════╝    ██╔════╝██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝ ██╔═══██╗╚══██╔══╝╚══██╔══╝██╔════╝████╗  ██║
       ██║   ███████║█████╗      █████╗  ██║   ██║██████╔╝██║  ███╗██║   ██║   ██║      ██║   █████╗  ██╔██╗ ██║
       ██║   ██╔══██║██╔══╝      ██╔══╝  ██║   ██║██╔══██╗██║   ██║██║   ██║   ██║      ██║   ██╔══╝  ██║╚██╗██║
       ██║   ██║  ██║███████╗    ██║     ╚██████╔╝██║  ██║╚██████╔╝╚██████╔╝   ██║      ██║   ███████╗██║ ╚████║
       ╚═╝   ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝    ╚═╝      ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝ ╚═════╝  ╚═════╝    ╚═╝      ╚═╝   ╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝");

But it didn't seem to work. I know it works in JavaScript, but I was wondering if it would also work in Java.

The most likely explanation is that your console cannot support those characters. For instance, I wouldn't fancy your chances at all if you were running Windows. If you are, Powershell might be more hopeful than cmd.exe — g00se, May 15 '22 at 07:53
To me it looks like it's working, but the spacing or line feed is incorrect — Stewart, May 15 '22 at 08:11
I think it will be tricky to include that in your source. I'd be inclined to load a UTF-8 file containing the string such as [THIS](http://technojeeves.com/tech/the-forgotten.txt.gz) — g00se, May 15 '22 at 09:43

Alexander Ivanchenko · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-15T12:15:24.177

String literals

String literal - is a string consists of zero or more characters enclosed in double quotes "myText".

It is not possible to create a multiline string literal in Java, precisely as you've tried it. According to the language specification it's a compile-time error, line termination is present in a string lateral.

String invalidLiteral = "line1
                         line2
                         ..."; // will cause a compilation error

To make such string literal compile, line termination can be replaced with a new line character \n.

String validString = "line1\nline2\nline3";

The resulting string can become very long, in order to make it readable you can split the string into chunks concatenated with a plus sign +, appending a new line character \n to each chunk.

String validConcatinatedString = "line1\n" +
                                 "line2\n" +
                                 "line3";

Although it'll work, it might be tedious.

Text Blocks

With Java 15 you can create a multiline string using text blocks available.

In order to create a text block, you need to enclose the target multiline text in triple double-quote characters """.

String myASCIIArt = """ // no text after the opening delimiter
              Your amazing 
                  ASCII art 
                       here""";

Note that the opening delimiter """ should be immediately followed by the line termination, and the actual body of the text block always starts on the next line.

How to output a Multiline Character Image in the console

1 Answers1

String literals

Text Blocks