diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/ascii/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/text/ascii/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..769cf389426c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/text/ascii/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "ascii-${version}";
+  version = "3.12";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://www.catb.org/~esr/ascii/${name}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "17jhmmdbhzzaai0lr5aslg0nmqchq1ygdxwd8pgl7qn2jnxhc6ci";
+  };
+
+  prePatch = ''
+    sed -i -e 's|$(DESTDIR)/usr|$(out)|g' Makefile
+  '';
+
+  preInstall = ''
+    mkdir -vp "$out/bin" "$out/share/man/man1"
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "Interactive ASCII name and synonym chart";
+    homepage = "http://www.catb.org/~esr/ascii/";
+    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.bsd3;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index a7b9a962635e..e0331ed62509 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -373,6 +373,8 @@ let
 
   archivemount = callPackage ../tools/filesystems/archivemount { };
 
+  ascii = callPackage ../tools/text/ascii { };
+
   asymptote = builderDefsPackage ../tools/graphics/asymptote {
     inherit freeglut ghostscriptX imagemagick fftw boehmgc
       mesa ncurses readline gsl libsigsegv python zlib perl