Simple star
ASCII| --+-- |
A point of light in three lines.
Copyable collection
8 ASCII stars to copy: sparks and starry skies
These stars use ASCII asterisks, plus signs, strokes and spaces. Copy a decorative line or a multiline design; ★ and ☆ are Unicode symbols, covered separately.
8 designs available
Geometric star
ASCII/\ / \ < > \ / \/
A symmetrical outline motif.
Tiny sky
ASCII * .
+
. *Scattered stars for a short decoration.
Asterisk star
ASCII *
***
* ***** *
*****
* *A solid star in five lines.
Spark
ASCII| -+- |
Three lines and three columns.
Three stars
ASCII* * *
A one-line divider.
Rays
ASCII\ | / --*-- / | \
A central point with rays.
Light trail
ASCII*---.. .
An asymmetrical horizontal design.
No matching designs. Try a wider size.
Choose for the destination
To separate paragraphs, start with Three stars. For a standalone decoration, choose Rays or Spark. A five-column shape is easier to fit into a small block than a wide sky whose layout depends on many spaces.
Compare the eight formats
| Design | Columns | Lines | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple star | 5 | 3 | A point of light in three lines. |
| Geometric star | 8 | 5 | A symmetrical outline motif. |
| Tiny sky | 8 | 3 | Scattered stars for a short decoration. |
| Asterisk star | 10 | 5 | A solid star in five lines. |
| Spark | 3 | 3 | Three lines and three columns. |
| Three stars | 9 | 1 | A one-line divider. |
| Rays | 5 | 3 | A central point with rays. |
| Light trail | 8 | 1 | An asymmetrical horizontal design. |
Two examples explained
Spark
| -+- |
Spark centres + between two hyphens. Spaces on the first and third lines place the vertical strokes in the same column. It is a simple test: if the centre shifts, check the font before changing the drawing.
Rays
\ | / --*-- / | \
Rays uses slashes and backslashes around its centre. In HTML, place it in a preformatted element; inside a programming string, backslashes may need language-specific escaping.
Customise without losing the shape
A bare asterisk can act as Markdown formatting. A code block avoids that ambiguity for these designs. If you only want a solid star such as ★, use the symbol library; replacing a character does not turn a multiline drawing into an emoji.
Copying, compatibility and limitations
Copy the complete design, then check the result in your app. TXT preserves raw text; it does not set the recipient’s font. If the design shifts, use the alignment repair guide. Tools can export an image when you need a fixed appearance, but that image is no longer selectable raw text art.
These are simple variants provided here, without invented historical attribution. The ASCII repertoire is documented in RFC 20. On a web page, the HTML pre element preserves spacing; this does not guarantee presentation in every messaging app.