March 9, 2026
ASCII is back, baby!
Durdraw – ANSI art editor for Unix-like systems
Retro text-art editor sparks nostalgia, rumors, and fresh doodles
TLDR: Durdraw, a free retro text-art editor for modern computers, reignited nostalgia and creativity while a single unverified rumor about future updates stirred drama. Most commenters ignored the noise, traded tools and memories, and rallied around the idea: keep drawing, fork if needed, and let the text-art boom continue.
Durdraw, a throwback tool for making pictures with keyboard characters, just lit up the internet—and the comments are a rollercoaster. Fans of old-school dial‑up message boards (called BBSes) flooded in with misty‑eyed memories, linking to classics like TheDraw and shouting “the purest form of nostalgia!” Others are already remixing the vibe for today: one dev shared an iPad‑friendly ASCII app and asked the crowd to try it, turning the thread into a mini art jam.
Then came the drama. One commenter dropped a bombshell claiming this might be the “final version,” citing an unverified rumor about the project’s future—cue gasps, side‑eyes, and a chorus of “fork it or it fades.” Despite the suspense, the prevailing mood is: keep drawing. Veterans reminisced about running ACiDDraw in emulators, while newcomers loved that Durdraw runs in modern terminals, exports to web‑friendly formats, and even includes extras like an animated system info tool and an art pack viewer with 16colo.rs integration.
It’s equal parts memory lane and makers’ fair: people swapping tools, posting links, and cracking jokes about “1990s art on 2020s screens.” Whether the rumor fizzles or not, the community’s message is loud and clear: retro text art is back, and it never really left.
Key Points
- •Durdraw is a terminal-based ASCII, Unicode, and ANSI art editor for Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS) with high-speed frame animation.
- •It supports 256- and 16-color modes, mouse drawing, paint brushes, MS-DOS ANSI art, and CP437/Unicode mixing and conversion.
- •Output options include HTML and mIRC color formats, with custom themes available.
- •Bundled tools include Durfetch (animated system info) and Durview (ANSI art pack viewer) with 16colo.rs integration.
- •The project is open source under a BSD 3-Clause License, downloadable via GitHub or OS package repositories; GIF/PNG export requires Ansilove.