ASCII Draw
A free Linux app for drawing diagrams, tables, trees and art using only text characters.
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- 4 of 4
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About ASCII Draw
ASCII Draw is a small GNOME app for sketching with characters instead of pixels. You get rectangle, line, freehand brush, flood fill, eraser and selection tools, plus helpers that build tables and tree views, and a text tool that renders headings in FIGlet fonts. The result is plain text, so you can paste it into a README, a code comment, a terminal or an email and it looks the same everywhere. It suits developers documenting systems, people writing plain-text notes, and anyone who enjoys ASCII art. It is free and open source under the GPL, built with GTK4 and libadwaita, and is meant for Linux desktops, where it is usually installed from Flathub. There is no Mac or Windows build and no collaboration or export to image formats; you save to a text file or copy to the clipboard. Compared with Monodraw it is free and cross-distro but Linux-only, and it has fewer smart diagram features such as connectors that stay attached when you move boxes.
Best for: Linux users who want quick plain-text diagrams and ASCII art for docs, READMEs and code comments.
Pros and cons
What works
- Free and open source, with no account or paywall
- Output is plain text that pastes cleanly into code, docs and terminals
- Table, tree view and FIGlet text tools save a lot of manual typing
Why people leave
- Linux only; there are no Mac or Windows builds
- Saves only as text, with no image or SVG export
- No smart connectors that follow boxes when you rearrange a diagram
Top ASCII Draw alternatives
See all 4- 1
Monodraw68.8Polished paid Mac app for ASCII diagrams, with smart connectors and more layout tools.
- 2
draw.io64.8Free graphical diagram editor for when you need image or SVG output rather than plain text.
- 3
D261.8Write diagrams as code and render them, which suits docs kept in version control.
- 4
PlantUML59.4Text-based diagram language that can also render ASCII-art output for UML diagrams.
Why people left ASCII Draw
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ASCII Draw: common questions
Is ASCII Draw free?
Yes. ASCII Draw is free, open-source software.
Is ASCII Draw open source?
No, ASCII Draw is not open source. Open-source alternatives include draw.io, D2 and PlantUML.
What platforms does ASCII Draw run on?
ASCII Draw is available for Linux.
What are the best alternatives to ASCII Draw?
The highest-ranked ASCII Draw alternatives right now are Monodraw, draw.io and D2. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.