Customize Spring Boot Startup Banner: Text, ASCII Art, and Images

When developing a Spring Boot project, you can replace the default startup banner with a custom banner.txt file to display any text, ASCII art, or dynamic variables.

Spring Boot documentation

1. What is banner.txt ?

banner.txt

is a special text file in a Spring Boot project that defines the welcome message shown when the application starts. By default Spring Boot displays:

.   ____          _            __ _ _
/\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
 '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
=========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
:: Spring Boot ::               (v2.6.13)

By creating your own banner.txt, you can replace this text with any content, including ASCII art or variables.

2. How to create a banner.txt file?

1. Create the banner file (custom name supported)

Place a text file of any name under src/main/resources/, for example:

banner.txt (default)

my-banner.txt

banner-dev.txt

banner-prod.txt

If you use a non‑default name, specify its path in the configuration, e.g. for my-banner.txt:

spring:
  banner:
    location: my-banner.txt

2. Add content

Paste ASCII characters directly into the file, such as:

.--.   .--.      .-''-.      .-''-.  .-------.       .-'''-. .-./`) _____     __ .-./`)   ____     __ .-./`) ,---.   .--.  .-_'''-.
|  | _/  /     .'_ _   \   .'_ _   \ |  _ _   \     / _     \\ .-.')\   _\   /  /\ .-.')  \   \   /  /\ .-.')|    \  |  | '_( )_   \
| (`' ) /     / ( ` )   ' / ( ` )   '| ( ' )  |    (`' )/`--'/ `-' \\.-./ ). /  ' / `-' \   \  _. /  ' / `-' \|  ,  \ |  ||(_ o _)|  '
|(_ ()_)     . (_ o _)  |. (_ o _)  ||(_ o _) /   (_ o _).    `-"`"`\ '_ .') .'   `-"`"`   _( )_ .'   `-"`"`|  |\_ \|  |. (_,_)/___|
| (_,_)   __ |  (_,_)___||  (_,_)___|| (_,_).' __  (_,_). '.  .---.(_ (_) _) '    .---. ___(_ o _)'    .---. |  _( )_\  ||  |  .-----. 
|  |\ \  |  |'  \   .---.'  \   .---.|  |\ \  |  |.---.  \  : |   |  /    \   \   |   ||   |(_,_)'     |   | | (_ o _)  |'  \  '-   .' 
|  | \ `'   / \  `-'    / \  `-'    /|  | \ `'   /\    `-'  | |   |  `-'`-'    \  |   ||   `-'  /      |   | |  (_,_)\  | \  `-'`   |  
|  |  \    /   \       /   \       / |  |  \    /  \       /  |   | /  /   \    \ |   \      /       |   | |  |    |  |  \       /  
`--'   `'-'     `'-..-'     `'-..-'  ''-'   `'-'    `-...-'   '---''--'     '----''---'  `-..-'        '---' '--'    '--'   `'-...-'  
${AnsiColor.RED}Spring Boot Version: ${spring-boot.version}${AnsiColor.DEFAULT}

✅ Tip: Use online tools like Text to ASCII Art Generator (TAAG) or FIGlet to generate desired ASCII fonts.

Note: If the file encoding is not UTF‑8, set spring.banner.charset accordingly.

3. Dynamic variable injection

Spring Boot supports inserting dynamic variables (e.g., version) into banner.txt. Supported variables are shown in the image below.

Example:

.--.   .--.      .-''-.      .-''-.  .-------.       .-'''-. .-./`) _____     __ .-./`)   ____     __ .-./`) ,---.   .--.  .-_'''-.
|  | _/  /     .'_ _   \   .'_ _   \ |  _ _   \     / _     \\ .-.')\   _\   /  /\ .-.')  \   \   /  /\ .-.')|    \  |  | '_( )_   \
| (`' ) /     / ( ` )   ' / ( ` )   '| ( ' )  |    (`' )/`--'/ `-' \\.-./ ). /  ' / `-' \   \  _. /  ' / `-' \|  ,  \ |  ||(_ o _)|  '
|(_ ()_)     . (_ o _)  |. (_ o _)  ||(_ o _) /   (_ o _).    `-"`"`\ '_ .') .'   `-"`"`   _( )_ .'   `-"`"`|  |\_ \|  |. (_,_)/___|
| (_,_)   __ |  (_,_)___||  (_,_)___|| (_,_).' __  (_,_). '.  .---.(_ (_) _) '    .---. ___(_ o _)'    .---. |  _( )_\  ||  |  .-----.
|  |\ \  |  |'  \   .---.'  \   .---.|  |\ \  |  |.---.  \  : |   |  /    \   \   |   ||   |(_,_)'     |   | | (_ o _)  |'  \  '-   .'
|  | \ `'   / \  `-'    / \  `-'    /|  | \ `'   /\    `-'  | |   |  `-'`-'    \  |   ||   `-'  /      |   | |  (_,_)\  | \  `-'`   |  
|  |  \    /   \       /   \       / |  |  \    /  \       /  |   | /  /   \    \ |   \      /       |   | |  |    |  |  \       /  
`--'   `'-'     `'-..-'     `'-..-'  ''-'   `'-'    `-...-'   '---''--'     '----''---'  `-..-'        '---' '--'    '--'   `'-...-'  
${AnsiColor.RED}Spring Boot Version: ${spring-boot.version}${AnsiColor.DEFAULT}

4. Use images as banner

Spring Boot can convert an image to ASCII characters for the startup banner.

1. Prepare the image

Place the image file under src/main/resources/. Spring Boot automatically reads and converts it.

Supported image file names (no extra config needed):

banner.gif

banner.jpg

banner.png

If you use a non‑default name or format (e.g., logo.jpg or app-banner.gif), specify the path in application.yml:

spring:
  banner:
    image:
      location: classpath:images/app-banner.jpg
      width: 30   # recommended not to exceed terminal width
      height: 10  # character height
      invert: false  # false for light backgrounds

Note:

Text banner and image banner can coexist.

Keep banner.txt for textual content (e.g., version, colors) and banner.png for logo or graphics.

Spring Boot shows the image banner first, then the text banner. If banner.gif, banner.jpg, and banner.png all exist and no explicit config is set, the order of precedence is gif > jpg > png.

2. View the effect on startup

Example:

The final printed result looks like this:

5. Disable banner

In production or audit environments you may want to hide the banner.

Method 1: Java code

import org.springframework.boot.Banner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class BannerDemoApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication app = new SpringApplication(BannerDemoApplication.class);
        app.setBannerMode(Banner.Mode.OFF);
        app.run(args);
    }
}

This approach can be overridden by configuration.

Method 2: Configuration file

spring:
  main:
    banner-mode: OFF