figlet-ui/IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md

Figlet UI - Implementation Plan

Project Overview

A modern, feature-rich web UI for generating ASCII art text using figlet.js with 373 fonts from xero/figlet-fonts (.flf format). This project aims to be the best figlet web interface, significantly improving upon existing solutions like TAAG.

Tech Stack:

• Next.js 16 with static export
• React 19
• TypeScript 5
• Tailwind CSS 4
• figlet.js for ASCII art rendering
• Fuse.js for fuzzy search
• Lucide React for icons
• Docker deployment with nginx

Key Features & Improvements Over TAAG

Superior Font Management

• 373 fonts from xero collection (all .flf FIGlet fonts)
• Visual font preview cards
• Fuzzy search with intelligent matching
• Font categories and tags (3D, block, script, retro, etc.)
• Favorites system with localStorage
• Recently used fonts
• Random font discovery

Better Export & Sharing

• One-click copy to clipboard
• Export as PNG/SVG images
• Export as HTML with styling
• Shareable URLs (text + font encoded)
• Download as .txt file
• Generate code snippets (JS, Python, Bash)
• Markdown-ready code blocks

Enhanced UX

• Live preview as you type
• Debounced updates for performance
• Dark/light mode toggle
• Keyboard shortcuts (/, Esc, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+K)
• Command palette for quick actions
• Mobile-optimized layout
• Smooth animations and transitions
• Character counter
• Width constraint preview

Modern UI Design

• Clean, minimalist interface
• Responsive layout (mobile-first)
• Better typography and spacing
• Smooth transitions
• Loading states
• Empty states
• Error handling

Implementation Phases

Phase 1: Project Setup ✅

• Initialize git repository
• Add GitHub remote origin
• Create Next.js 16 project with TypeScript
• Configure Tailwind CSS 4
• Install dependencies (figlet, fuse.js, lucide-react)
• Set up project structure (app/, components/, lib/, types/)
• Configure static export
• Create initial commit

Phase 2: Font Management System

• Clone xero/figlet-fonts into public/fonts/
• Create font loading service
  • List all available fonts
  • Load fonts on-demand (lazy loading)
  • Cache loaded fonts in memory
• Build font metadata system
  • Extract font characteristics (height, width, style)
  • Categorize fonts by style tags
  • Generate font preview data
• Create font types and interfaces

Phase 3: Core Figlet Engine

• Implement figlet.js wrapper service
  • Initialize figlet with custom fonts
  • Handle font loading errors
  • Provide type-safe API
• Create real-time rendering hook
  • Debounced text input (300ms)
  • Handle multi-line text
  • Optimize re-renders
• Add text validation and sanitization
• Implement character width calculations

Phase 4: Main UI Components

• Build main converter interface
  • Text input area (textarea)
  • Live preview display (pre/code block)
  • Font selector component
  • Options panel (alignment, width, etc.)
• Create font selector with search
  • Visual font preview cards
  • Fuzzy search implementation
  • Category filters
  • Sort options (name, recent, popular)
• Build responsive layout
  • Desktop: side-by-side layout
  • Mobile: stacked layout
  • Tablet: adaptive layout

Phase 5: Search & Filters

• Implement Fuse.js integration
  • Configure fuzzy matching
  • Index font names and metadata
  • Real-time search results
• Add category filtering
  • Style tags (3D, block, script, etc.)
  • Font size filters
  • System filters (metric/imperial)
• Create search UI
  • Search input with icon
  • Keyboard shortcut (/) to focus
  • Clear button
  • Results count

Phase 6: Export & Sharing

• Copy to clipboard functionality
  • One-click copy button
  • Success feedback
  • Clipboard API with fallback
• Export as image (PNG/SVG)
  • Canvas rendering for PNG
  • SVG text rendering
  • Download with proper filename
• Shareable URLs
  • Encode text + font in URL params
  • Base64 compression for long text
  • Auto-load from URL on page load
• Code snippet generation
  • JavaScript/Node.js example
  • Python example
  • Bash/CLI command
  • Copy individual snippets

Phase 7: User Preferences & History

• Favorites system
  • Mark fonts as favorite (heart icon)
  • Save to localStorage
  • Quick access to favorites
  • Favorites filter
• Recent fonts
  • Track last 10 used fonts
  • Save to localStorage
  • Display in font selector
• Conversion history
  • Save recent conversions
  • History panel/sidebar
  • Re-apply previous conversion
  • Clear history

Phase 8: Keyboard Shortcuts & Command Palette

• Implement keyboard shortcuts
  • / - Focus search
  • Esc - Clear/close
  • Ctrl/Cmd + C - Copy result
  • Ctrl/Cmd + K - Open command palette
  • Ctrl/Cmd + D - Toggle dark mode
  • Arrow keys - Navigate fonts
• Build command palette
  • Search commands
  • Quick actions
  • Recent commands
  • Keyboard hints

Phase 9: Dark Mode & Theming

• Implement theme system
  • Light/dark mode toggle
  • Save preference to localStorage
  • System preference detection
  • Smooth theme transitions
• Update color variables
  • Dark mode color palette
  • Ensure WCAG contrast ratios
  • Theme-aware components

Phase 10: Mobile Optimization

• Responsive breakpoints
  • Mobile (< 640px)
  • Tablet (640px - 1024px)
  • Desktop (> 1024px)
• Touch-friendly UI
  • Large tap targets (44px min)
  • Swipe gestures (optional)
  • Mobile font selector (bottom sheet)
• Performance on mobile
  • Lazy load fonts
  • Optimize image exports
  • Reduce bundle size

Phase 11: Advanced Features

• Font comparison mode
  • Side-by-side preview
  • Compare 2-4 fonts
  • Toggle comparison view
• Random font generator
  • Shuffle button
  • Exclude recently used
  • Lock text while changing font
• Text alignment options
  • Left, center, right
  • Custom width constraints
  • Auto-fit to viewport
• Multi-line text support
  • Preserve line breaks
  • Line-by-line rendering
  • Vertical spacing options

Phase 12: Performance Optimization

• Web Workers for rendering
  • Offload figlet rendering
  • Non-blocking UI updates
  • Progress indicators
• Lazy loading
  • Font files on-demand
  • Virtual scrolling for font list
  • Intersection Observer for previews
• Bundle optimization
  • Code splitting
  • Tree shaking
  • Dynamic imports
  • Minification

Phase 13: Accessibility & Polish

• WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Screen reader support
  • ARIA labels and roles
  • Focus indicators
  • Color contrast
• Error handling
  • Font load failures
  • Network errors
  • Invalid input handling
  • User-friendly messages
• Loading states
  • Skeleton screens
  • Progress indicators
  • Smooth transitions
• Empty states
  • No search results
  • No favorites yet
  • No history

Phase 14: Docker Deployment

• Create multi-stage Dockerfile
  • Stage 1: Dependencies (node:22-alpine)
  • Stage 2: Builder (pnpm build)
  • Stage 3: Runner (nginx:alpine)
• Configure nginx.conf
  • Static file serving
  • Gzip compression
  • Cache headers
  • Security headers
• Add health check
• Create .dockerignore
• Build and test image
• Document deployment

Phase 15: SEO & Meta Tags

• Add comprehensive metadata
  • Title, description, keywords
  • OpenGraph tags
  • Twitter card tags
  • Favicon and app icons
• Generate sitemap
• Add robots.txt
• Structured data (Schema.org)
• Performance optimization
  • Lighthouse audit
  • Core Web Vitals
  • Image optimization

Technical Architecture

Component Structure

components/
├── converter/
│   ├── TextInput.tsx           # Main text input
│   ├── FontPreview.tsx         # ASCII art preview display
│   ├── FontSelector.tsx        # Font selection with search
│   ├── FontCard.tsx            # Individual font preview card
│   ├── OptionsPanel.tsx        # Conversion options
│   └── ExportButtons.tsx       # Export/copy actions
├── search/
│   ├── FuzzySearch.tsx         # Search with Fuse.js
│   ├── SearchInput.tsx         # Search input component
│   └── FilterPanel.tsx         # Category/tag filters
├── ui/
│   ├── Button.tsx              # Reusable button
│   ├── Input.tsx               # Reusable input
│   ├── Card.tsx                # Card container
│   ├── Badge.tsx               # Tag/badge
│   ├── Tabs.tsx                # Tab navigation
│   ├── Dialog.tsx              # Modal dialog
│   └── CommandPalette.tsx      # Keyboard command UI
└── layout/
    ├── Header.tsx              # App header
    ├── Footer.tsx              # App footer
    └── ThemeToggle.tsx         # Dark mode switch

Service Layer

lib/
├── figlet/
│   ├── figletService.ts        # Figlet.js wrapper
│   ├── fontLoader.ts           # Font loading logic
│   ├── fontMetadata.ts         # Font info/categorization
│   └── fontCache.ts            # In-memory font cache
├── search/
│   ├── fuzzySearch.ts          # Fuse.js integration
│   └── searchConfig.ts         # Search configuration
├── export/
│   ├── clipboard.ts            # Clipboard operations
│   ├── imageExport.ts          # PNG/SVG generation
│   ├── codeGenerator.ts        # Code snippet generation
│   └── urlSharing.ts           # URL encoding/decoding
├── storage/
│   ├── favorites.ts            # Favorites management
│   ├── history.ts              # Conversion history
│   └── preferences.ts          # User preferences
└── utils/
    ├── cn.ts                   # clsx + tailwind-merge
    ├── debounce.ts             # Debounce utility
    └── validation.ts           # Input validation

Type Definitions

// Font metadata
interface FigletFont {
  name: string;
  path: string;
  style: FontStyle[];
  height: number;
  width: number;
  preview?: string;
}

type FontStyle = '3d' | 'block' | 'script' | 'retro' | 'small' | 'banner' | 'decorative';

// Conversion settings
interface ConversionOptions {
  font: string;
  text: string;
  horizontalLayout?: 'default' | 'fitted' | 'full';
  verticalLayout?: 'default' | 'fitted' | 'full';
  width?: number;
  whitespaceBreak?: boolean;
}

// Export format
type ExportFormat = 'text' | 'png' | 'svg' | 'html' | 'code';

// User preferences
interface UserPreferences {
  theme: 'light' | 'dark' | 'system';
  defaultFont: string;
  recentFonts: string[];
  favorites: string[];
  history: ConversionRecord[];
}

// Conversion history
interface ConversionRecord {
  id: string;
  timestamp: number;
  text: string;
  font: string;
  result: string;
}

Design System

Color Palette

/* Light mode */
--background: 0 0% 100%;
--foreground: 0 0% 3.9%;
--primary: 0 0% 9%;
--muted: 0 0% 96.1%;
--border: 0 0% 89.8%;

/* Dark mode */
--background: 0 0% 3.9%;
--foreground: 0 0% 98%;
--primary: 0 0% 98%;
--muted: 0 0% 14.9%;
--border: 0 0% 14.9%;

Typography

• Headings: System font stack
• Body: System font stack
• Mono: Monospace (for ASCII art display)

Spacing Scale

• Tailwind CSS 4 default scale (0.5rem increments)

Performance Targets

• First Contentful Paint: < 1.0s
• Time to Interactive: < 2.0s
• Lighthouse Score: > 95
• Bundle Size: < 150KB (gzipped)
• Font Load Time: < 100ms per font

Browser Support

• Chrome/Edge (last 2 versions)
• Firefox (last 2 versions)
• Safari (last 2 versions)
• Mobile Safari iOS 14+
• Chrome Android (last 2 versions)

Future Enhancements

• Custom font upload (.flf files)
• Animated ASCII art support
• Batch text generation
• API endpoint for programmatic access
• Browser extension
• PWA support with offline capability
• Multi-language support (i18n)
• Font editor/creator
• Collaborative sharing
• ASCII art gallery

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Project Start Date: 2025-11-09 Target Completion: TBD Version: 1.0.0