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Halloween ASCII Art

Halloween ASCII art in text: jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats and a haunted house, sized for chats and code blocks. Tap to copy.

By Maya Chen, lettering designer and type educator · Checked by Jordan Hale · · How we review content

Small spooky pieces

5 lines, 9 wide
5 lines, 7 wide
3 lines, 20 wide
One line, 7 wide

Bigger pieces

7 lines, 20 wide
7 lines, 20 wide
7 lines, 16 wide

Made with our image converter

We drew a simple jack-o-lantern shape and ran it through the image to ASCII converter on this site. Braille pieces pack eight dots into each character, so they look smoother but rely on a font with Braille Patterns.

9 lines, 18 wide
14 lines, 28 wide
6 lines, 10 wide

10 pieces on this page. All are drawn for this site except those marked traditional, which have been shared online for years without a known author. Copy one and paste it into a code block, a terminal or any app that uses a monospace font; in a proportional font the lines drift apart. Make your own with the text to ASCII generator or the image to ASCII converter.

Key facts

  • A jack-o-lantern in text has a round body of curved pairs, a stem of | or | and a carved face with ^ or /\ eyes and a jagged mouth.
  • Ghosts are the easiest Halloween art: a rounded top, two eyes, an O mouth and a wavy hem of ~~~ or ///.
  • Bats are harder because the wings are wide: keep the body in the middle as (o.o) and draw each wing as a run of slashes ending in a point.
  • Halloween art printed for decorations scales cleanly because it is text: paste into a monospace font and enlarge it.
  • The text to ASCII generator's Small Slant and Doom fonts suit spooky banners above a piece.

How do you draw a pumpkin in text?

A jack-o-lantern needs a round body, a stem and a carved face. The body is made of curved pairs, .' at the top and '. at the bottom; the stem is a | or _|_; the face uses ^ or /\ for triangle eyes and vvv or \/\/\/ for a jagged mouth. Bigger pumpkins add more lines between the curves so there is room for a full grin.

Halloween ASCII art: ghosts and bats

Ghosts are the easiest Halloween art: a rounded top, two eyes, an O for a mouth and a wavy hem (~~~ or /\/\/\). Bats are harder because the wings are wide: keep the body in the middle ((o.o)) and make each wing a run of slashes ending in a point.

To add words such as “Happy Halloween” above a piece, generate them in a matching font with the text to ASCII generator. Small Slant and Doom suit spooky banners. Whichever halloween ascii art you choose, paste it into a code block so the spooky shapes keep their width.

Frequently asked questions

Basics

Which pieces are on this page?
Small and large jack-o-lanterns, a small ghost, a one-line ghost, a ghost saying boo, a bat with spread wings and a haunted house with a bat, plus three Braille and ASCII jack-o-lanterns made with the image converter. Each piece shows its width and line count so you can choose one that fits.
What characters make a jack-o-lantern face?
Use ^ or /\ for triangle eyes and vvv or /// for a jagged mouth. The body is curved pairs with a stem of | or | on top. Bigger pumpkins add lines between the curves so there is room for a full grin.
What makes a ghost in ASCII art?
A rounded top, two eyes, an O for a mouth and a wavy hem drawn as ~~~ or ///. It is the easiest Halloween piece because the shape is mostly a rounded column, so even a one-line ghost works in bios and comments.

Where it works

How do I post Halloween ASCII art in Discord?
Use the Code block button so the art is wrapped in three backticks. Discord then uses a monospace font and the pumpkin keeps its shape. Without a code block, spaces shrink and the picture breaks. Pieces that are wider than a phone screen may still wrap, so check the width on each card first.
Which piece is safe in a plain text email?
The hand-drawn pieces use only ASCII characters, so they survive plain text email. The Braille jack-o-lanterns use Unicode Braille Patterns, which some email apps may not show. Many apps also read messages in a proportional font, so even ASCII shapes may drift for the reader.
Where can I find skulls for Halloween?
The skull ASCII art page has one-line skull faces, a small skull and skull and crossbones. It sits well beside the pumpkins, ghosts and bats on this page, and the small skull fits a code block on any screen. The two pages share the same monospace advice for keeping shapes intact.

How it works

How do I draw a bat with wide wings?
Keep the body in the middle as (o.o), then make each wing a run of slashes that ends in a point. Bats are harder than ghosts because the wings are wide, so check the piece in a monospace font before you send it.
How do I add Happy Halloween above a piece?
Generate the words in the text to ASCII generator and paste them above the pumpkin or ghost. Small Slant and Doom suit spooky banners. Keep the banner no wider than the piece so the whole thing fits a phone in a code block.

Tips & limits

Can I print these for decorations?
Yes. Paste into a document, choose a monospace font such as Courier New or Consolas, and enlarge the font size; the art scales cleanly because it is text. Pumpkins and ghosts look best printed large, and a bat with spread wings suits a window or door.
How do I make a pumpkin bigger or grinnier?
Add more lines between the curved top and bottom, then use the extra room for a wider mouth of ///. Bigger pumpkins need more width, so use a code block or a monospace document to keep the curves round. Check the result in a code block before you post it.

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