This video goes into depth about ASCII rendering as a post processing effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg40RWiaHRY
It is still a cool shader that turns input into text, even if it doesn't have the ascii art vibe.
Note that e.g. PETSCII, while internally 8x8, would be displayed using non-square pixels[1] - also not resulting in square letters.
I see what you did there
(without intending to do it)