Bear ASCII Art: Teddy Bears and the ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Face

The ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ bear and friends

The best-known bear face is ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ. It is not ASCII: ʕ and ʔ are letters from the phonetic alphabet that happen to look like round ears, • is a bullet and ᴥ is a small letter that looks like a snout. Swap the middle to change the expression:

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ    ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ    ʕ ᵔᴥᵔ ʔ    ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧    ʕ-ᴥ-ʔ

They work on nearly every phone and computer, but some games and old systems show empty boxes instead of the special letters.

A bear in plain ASCII

If you need a bear that works everywhere, use brackets for the round ears instead. The teddy bear at the top of this page is plain ASCII, and here is a small face that fits in one or two lines:

()__()     ()_()
( o.o )    (o.o)
(  ^  )

Round ears are what separates a bear from a cat: cats get pointy /\ ears, bears get ( ) or round letters.

Converting a bear or teddy photo

Brown bears and teddy bears are mid-tone, so they can blend into a mid-tone background. A teddy bear on a white bed converts well; a brown bear in a forest needs more Contrast. Crop to the head: the two round ears and the snout are what make the result look like a bear at small sizes.