Why this only uses # and space, not fancier box-drawing characters#
Some ASCII art generators lean on Unicode box-drawing or block characters for a smoother look, which renders beautifully in a modern terminal and breaks completely in a plain-text context that assumes ASCII — an old terminal, a code comment meant to compile cleanly, a log file, a fixed-width email client. Sticking to the actual 7-bit ASCII character set (# and space) means the output is guaranteed to look identical everywhere a monospaced font is used, at the cost of looking slightly blockier than a Unicode-based alternative.
Where a banner like this is actually useful#
A CLI tool printing its name in block letters on startup, a section header inside a large shell script or code comment meant to stand out during a scroll-through, a README's top banner before GitHub renders the rest of the Markdown, or simply a startup splash in a terminal application — anywhere plain-text output benefits from something more visually distinct than a plain line of text, without requiring an image or a rendering engine.
Why alignment can look off in some contexts#
ASCII art like this depends entirely on being displayed in a monospaced font, where every character — including a space — occupies the exact same width. Pasted into a proportional-width font (most word processors, most webpage body text, many chat apps' default rendering), the columns drift out of alignment and the banner turns into a jumble. Always verify the destination renders in a monospace font — a code block, a <pre> tag, or a terminal — before relying on the shape holding together.