When thanking someone, you don't want to just send them an e-mail saying "Thanks!", you want to have something FLASHY:

Input: THANKS!!
Output:
TTT H H AAA N N K K SSS !!! !!! 
 T  H H A A NNN K K S   !!! !!! 
 T  HHH AAA NNN KK  SSS !!! !!! 
 T  H H A A N N K K   S            
 T  H H A A N N K K SSS !!! !!!

Write a program to generate a banner. You only have to generate upper-case A-Z along with spaces and exclamation points (what is a banner without an exclamation point?). All characters are made up of a 3x5 grid of the same character (so the S is a 3x5 grid made of S). All output should be on one row (so no newlines). Here are all the letters you need:

Input: ABCDEFGHIJKL
Output:
AAA BBB CCC DD  EEE FFF GGG H H III JJJ K K L
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L
AAA BBB C   D D EE  FF  G G HHH  I    J KK  L
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L
A A BBB CCC DD  EEE F   GGG H H III JJJ K K LLL

Input: MNOPQRSTUVWX
Output:
M M N N OOO PPP QQQ RR  SSS TTT U U V V W W X X
MMM NNN O O P P Q Q R R S    T  U U V V W W  X
M M NNN O O PPP Q Q RR  SSS  T  U U V V WWW  X
M M N N O O P   QQQ R R   S  T  U U V V WWW  X
M M N N OOO P   QQQ R R SSS  T  UUU  V  WWW X X

Input: YZ!
Output:
Y Y ZZZ !!!
Y Y   Z !!!
YYY  Z  !!!
  Y Z
YYY ZZZ !!!

The winner is the shortest source code, as counted by the number of bytes it takes to store the file in utf-8 encoding. Source code should read input from stdin, output to stdout. You can assume input will only contain [A-Z! ]. If you insult the user on incorrect input, you get a 10 character discount =P.

I was going to require these exact 28 characters, but to make it more interesting, you can choose how you want them to look - whatever makes your code shorter! To prove that your letters do look like normal letters, show the output of the last three runs.

Shortest codes so far, in characters (utf8 encoding if non-ASCII present):

133 J

205 Python

209 Ruby

313 Haskell

345 C89

382 F#

David

J, 133 135 79 83 84 88 characters (utf-8 encoding)

;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:

Usage:

    ;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ !'
┌───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┐
│AAA│BBB│CCC│DD │EEE│FFF│GGG│H H│III│JJJ│K K│L  │M M│N N│OOO│PPP│QQQ│RR │SSS│TTT│U U│V V│W W│X X│Y Y│ZZZ│   │!!!│
│A A│B B│C  │D D│E  │F  │G  │H H│ I │  J│K K│L  │MMM│NNN│O O│P P│Q Q│R R│S  │ T │U U│V V│W W│ X │Y Y│  Z│   │!!!│
│AAA│BBB│C  │D D│EE │FF │G G│HHH│ I │  J│KK │L  │M M│NNN│O O│PPP│Q Q│RR │SSS│ T │U U│V V│WWW│ X │YYY│ Z │   │!!!│
│A A│B B│C  │D D│E  │F  │G G│H H│ I │J J│K K│L  │M M│N N│O O│P  │QQQ│R R│  S│ T │U U│V V│WWW│ X │  Y│Z  │   │   │
│A A│BBB│CCC│DD │EEE│F  │GGG│H H│III│JJJ│K K│LLL│M M│N N│OOO│P  │QQQ│R R│SSS│ T │UUU│ V │WWW│X X│YYY│ZZZ│   │!!!│
└───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┘

    ;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:'this is incorrect input.'
|index error

Explanation (NB. is comment in J):

;/              NB. String together along the third dimension...
5 3$"1          NB. ... reshape each line to 5x3...
(' ',.s)        NB. ... a space before each letter of the input string...
{~"1            NB. ... indexed using...
#:              NB. ... the (15 bit) binary representation of ...
3 u:            NB. ... the integer representation of...
(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧')  ... the unicode versions of these code points...
{~              NB. ...indexed using...
0>.             NB. ...the max of 0 and...
64-~            NB. ...64 less than...
a.i.            NB. the ascii indexes of s
s=:             NB. Assign the input string to the variable s.

doublep

Python, 250 224 chars

s=raw_input()
for i in range(5):
    for c in s:
        print''.join((' ',c)[int('2zj93fqzj6hsh2bc8i2b1ycncj5yc2v9i0m16dz91gcizj18blbw6wt0p3qqh8svchwc5onna2808of',36)>>((ord(c)-65 if c>'@'else 26)*15+i*3+j)&1]for j in[0,1,2]),
    print

Notes:

relies on 2.x print statement considerably;
supports spaces.

Running (I changed appearance of a few letters, for aestetic reasons only ;):

$ echo ABCDEFGHIJKL | python code-golf.py
AAA BBB CCC DD  EEE FFF GGG H H III JJJ K K L   
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L   
AAA BBB C   D D EEE FFF G   HHH  I    J KK  L   
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L   
A A BBB CCC DD  EEE F   GGG H H III JJJ K K LLL 

$ echo MNOPQRSTUVWX | python code-golf.py
M M N N OOO PPP QQQ RR  SSS TTT U U V V W W X X 
MMM NNN O O P P Q Q R R S    T  U U V V W W X X 
M M NNN O O PPP Q Q RR  SSS  T  U U V V WWW  X  
M M N N O O P   QQQ R R   S  T  U U V V WWW X X 
M M N N OOO P   QQQ R R SSS  T  UUU  V  W W X X 

$ echo YZ\! | python code-golf.py
Y Y ZZZ !!! 
Y Y   Z !!! 
YYY  Z  !!! 
  Y Z       
YYY ZZZ !!!

There are trailing spaces.

Jordan Lewis

Figlet (0 chars)

wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b

Sample output:

% wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS

 A  BB   CC DD  EEE FFF  GG H H III  JJ K K L   M M NNN  O  PP   Q  RR   SS 
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L   MMM N N O O P P Q Q R R S   
AAA BB  C   D D EE  FF  G G HHH  I    J KK  L   MMM N N O O PP  Q Q RR   S  
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L   M M N N O O P    QQ R R   S 
A A BB   CC DD  EEE F    GG H H III  J  K K LLL M M N N  O  P     Q R R SS 
% wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b TUVWXYZ \!

TTT U U V V W W X X Y Y ZZZ     !!! 
 T  U U V V W W X X Y Y   Z     !!! 
 T  U U V V WWW  X   Y   Z      !!! 
 T  U U V V WWW X X  Y  Z           
 T  UUU  V  W W X X  Y  ZZZ     !!!

Nas Banov

Python, 233 231 225 224 205 chars

Candidate for the shortest python solution here :-)
It is a two-liner - last line was broken in 3 for urrrr readability

s=raw_input()
for i in range(5):print' '.join(''.join((' ',c)[ord(
'W_E__U__QQ_QN_UQ_EA_Q]_D_Q_QYQ__D[_PP_B__F__Q__EG_Y__EZWU]A_A_P_OPO_\\_QNQWT_YUS'
[max(0,3*ord(c)-192-k)])>>i&1]for k in(2,1,0))for c in s)

ps. Thanks for comments, corrected issues and now using 7-bit ASCII only!

Test banner:

TTT H H EEE     QQQ U U III CCC K K     BBB RR  OOO W W N N     FFF OOO X X     JJJ U U M M PPP SSS     OOO V V EEE RR      TTT H H EEE     L   AAA ZZZ Y Y     DD  OOO GGG !!!
 T  H H E       Q Q U U  I  C   K K     B B R R O O W W NNN     F   O O  X        J U U MMM P P S       O O V V E   R R      T  H H E       L   A A   Z Y Y     D D O O G   !!!
 T  HHH EE      Q Q U U  I  C   KK      BBB RR  O O WWW NNN     FF  O O  X        J U U M M PPP SSS     O O V V EE  RR       T  HHH EE      L   AAA  Z  YYY     D D O O G G !!!
 T  H H E       QQQ U U  I  C   K K     B B R R O O WWW N N     F   O O  X      J J U U M M P     S     O O V V E   R R      T  H H E       L   A A Z     Y     D D O O G G    
 T  H H EEE     QQQ UUU III CCC K K     BBB R R OOO WWW N N     F   OOO X X     JJJ UUU M M P   SSS     OOO  V  EEE R R      T  H H EEE     LLL A A ZZZ YYY     DD  OOO GGG !!!

Thomas Eding

Haskell, 313 316 320

import Data.Bits
import Data.Char
c&True=c
c&_=' '
a ' '='@'
a '!'='['
a c=c
q s=unlines[s>>= \c->take 3(drop(84*n+3*(ord(a c)-64))$map((c&).testBit(0xffdebaf79f6fbfde7bfe8062f6a979b69b55a4d368ebaf6aeefbe9717add3f8f2ab6a36dbf9b1524d368fedb6fefff69bfdffbff8::Integer))[0..])++" "|n<-[0..4]]
main=getLine>>=putStr.q

For the curious, the large number is the hex version of encoding in the following code. The number is simply used as a bitmap. I've had no success with further shortening the code by encoding the number to other bases even with non-standard character representations.

formats :: [String] -- order: [ A-Z!] <- that's a space in front of A
formats = [
    "   AAABBBCCCDD EEEFFFGGGH HIIIJJJK KL  M MN NOOOPPPQQQRR SSSTTTU UV VW WX XY YZZZ!!!"
  , "   A AB BC  D DE  F  G  H H I   JK KL  MMMNNNO OP PQ QR RS   T U UV VW W X Y Y  Z!!!"
  , "   AAABBBC  D DEE FF G GHHH I   JKK L  M MNNNO OPPPQ QRR SSS T U UV VWWW X YYY Z !!!"
  , "   A AB BC  D DE  F  G GH H I J JK KL  M MN NO OP  QQQR R  S T U UV VWWW X   YZ     "
  , "   A ABBBCCCDD EEEF  GGGH HIIIJJJK KLLLM MN NOOOP  QQQR RSSS T UUU V WWWX XYYYZZZ!!!"
  ]

charToBool :: Char -> Bool
charToBool ' ' = False
charToBool _   = True

boolToInteger :: Bool -> Integer
boolToInteger True = 1
boolToInteger _    = 0

encoding :: Integer
encoding = foldr f 0 $ zip [0..] $ map charToBool $ concat formats
  where
    f (pow, bool) z = z + ((2^pow) * boolToInteger bool)

ChristopheD

Python 2.6, 251 - 243 - 227 characters

I tried a slightly different approach (bitpacking the parts the letters are made of) ...

handles uppercase letters, spaces, exclamation mark.
2 unnecessary linebreaks added here for readability (the for loop could be one line)
be sure to save this as UTF-8 with BOM!

As always, all comments and suggestions welcome! Contender for shortest Python solution (again a few characters behind at the moment)...

w=raw_input()
for l in range(5):print''.join("1111 11  11  1   1   "
[int(("%05d"%ord(u"<ϳϲࢬ禉ऐऒ࠾⬃ᅘᖆⰯ囌❿✛іϾь穏ࠂᅜ⭦⭪⫸㡩⬪㰼"
[max(0,ord(c)-64)]))[l])*3:][:3].replace("1",c)+" "for c in w)

C89, 345 characters

Newlines added for your sanity (they are not included in the character count and can/should be deleted):

char o[5][99];
d[]={0x2df7fbef,0x3927bb6b,0x396792cf,0x3da7dbed,0x3a4bfb27,0x2d76f249,0x2dbedbfd,0x3db793ef,0x3fb7daeb,0x3ce7a497,0x3db6ab6d,0x3ff6d495,0x3cf6f2a7,0x38ff8000};
c,i,j;
main(){memset(o,32,495);
while((c=getchar())>0){
for(j=0;j<15;j++)
o[j/3][i+j%3]=d[c-33?(c-65)/2:13]>>((c&1)*15+j)&1?c:32;i+=4;}
for(j=0;j<5;j++)printf("%.*s\n",i,o[j]);}

gineer

Ruby : 207 ~~215 252 345~~ characters

i=gets.chomp;5.times{|t|p i.gsub(/./){|c|j=3*(c>?@?c.ord-64:0);(3*t..3*t+2).map{|d|"mini5mbmzjf2bqjmof3prl72i5pn138iuhylmkpi65i278kq3qjfaihyjb66787odp8ktiy5hwt78tmnb"[j..j+2].to_i(36)[d]==1?c:" "}.join+" "}}

F#, 382 chars

I compressed two letters from each row into an ascii-printable byte, and handled space and exclamation point specially.

let s,(!)=stdin.ReadLine(),printf"%s"
for n in 0..4 do
 for c in s do if c=' '||n=3&&c='!'then !"    "elif c='!'then !"!!! "else for x in 0..3 do printf"%c"(if(Array.collect(fun b->let B n=int b&&&n=0 in[|(B 64)||not(B 8);B 32;B 16;true;B 4;B 2;B 1;true|])"wvwuwTUwvwUUWUEDEiTwUUBURQwEfWidWWVrUrrUEDUmTUTuZUr\\WvtuwWUturruw"B).[n*104+(int c-int 'A')*4+x]then ' 'else c)
 !"\n"

Sample I/O below:

HELLO WORLD!!!
H H EEE L   L   OOO     W W OOO RR  L   DD  !!! !!! !!!
H H E   L   L   O O     W W O O R R L   D D !!! !!! !!!
HHH EE  L   L   O O     WWW O O RR  L   D D !!! !!! !!!
H H E   L   L   O O     WWW O O R R L   D D
H H EEE LLL LLL OOO     WWW OOO R R LLL DD  !!! !!! !!!

ABCDEFGHIJKL
AAA BBB CCC DD  EEE FFF GGG H H III JJJ K K L
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L
AAA BBB C   D D EE  FF  G G HHH  I    J KK  L
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L
A A BBB CCC DD  EEE F   GGG H H III JJJ K K LLL

MNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
M M N N OOO PPP QQQ RR  SSS TTT U U V V W W X X Y Y ZZZ
MMM NNN O O P P Q Q R R S    T  U U V V W W  X  Y Y   Z
M M NNN O O PPP Q Q RR  SSS  T  U U V V WWW  X  YYY  Z
M M N N O O P   QQQ R R   S  T  U U V V WWW  X    Y Z
M M N N OOO P   QQQ R R SSS  T  UUU  V  WWW X X YYY ZZZ

Bwmat

Python, 340 characters

d=dict((i,[23535,31727,29263,15211,29391,4815,31567,23533,29847,31527,23277,29257,23421,23549,31599,5103,32623,23275,31183,9367,31597,11117,32749,21653,31213,29351][i-65])for i in range(65,91))
d[33]=29183
d[32]=0
s=raw_input()
for l in range(5):
 p=""
 for c in s:
  for n in range(3):
   if d[ord(c)]&2**(3*l+n):p+=c
   else:p+=" "
  p+=" "
 print p

sample output

>>> 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ !
aaa bbb ccc dd  eee fff ggg h h iii jjj k k l   m m n n ooo ppp qqq rr  sss ttt u u v v w w x x y y zzz     !!! 
a a b b c   d d e   f   g   h h  i    j k k l   mmm nnn o o p p q q r r s    t  u u v v w w  x  y y   z     !!! 
aaa bbb c   d d ee  ff  g g hhh  i    j kk  l   m m nnn o o ppp q q rr  sss  t  u u v v www  x  yyy  z      !!! 
a a b b c   d d e   f   g g h h  i  j j k k l   m m n n o o p   qqq r r   s  t  u u v v www  x    y z           
a a bbb ccc dd  eee f   ggg h h iii jjj k k lll m m n n ooo p   qqq r r sss  t  uuu  v  www x x yyy zzz     !!! 
>>>

not too great, but it was fun writing it

edit whoops, I made the input be lowercase. fixed now, saved me one character too :)

Wouter van Nifterick

Delphi, 397 chars

Ok, with all the begin/end statements Delphi probably will never be shorter than any other languages, but I do see a challenge in getting it as short as possible.

vvar s:String;i,j,k:Word;const F:Array[65..92]of Word=($5BEA,$3AEB,$624E,$3B6B,$72CF,$12CF,$6B4E,$5BED,$7497,$2B26,$5AED,$7249,$5BFD,$5B6F,$2B6A,$12EB,$4D6A,$5AEB,$388E,$2497,$7B6D,$2B6D,$5FED,$5AAD,$24AD,$72A7,$2092,$0000);begin S:=ParamStr(1);for j:=0 to 4 do begin for k:=1 to Length(S)do begin for i := 0 to 2 do Write((' '+S[k])[1+(F[ord(S[k])]shr(i+j*3))and 1]);Write(' ');end;WriteLn;end;end.

The font is built up like this:

010 110 011 110 111 111 011 101 111 011 101 100 101 111 010 110 010 110 011 111 101 101 101 101 101 111 010 000
101 101 100 101 100 100 100 101 010 001 101 100 111 101 101 101 101 101 100 010 101 101 101 101 101 001 010 000
111 110 100 101 110 110 101 111 010 001 110 100 111 101 101 110 101 110 010 010 101 101 111 010 010 010 010 000
101 101 100 101 100 100 101 101 010 101 101 100 101 101 101 100 011 101 001 010 101 101 111 101 010 100 000 000
101 110 011 110 111 100 011 101 111 010 101 111 101 101 010 100 001 101 110 010 111 010 101 101 010 111 010 000

The characters in this 5x3 font take up 15 bits and are stored in word (UINT16) in this order:

Formatted code:

var
  s:String;    
  i, j, k: Word;

const
  F: Array [65 .. 92] of Word = (
    $5BEA,$3AEB,$624E,$3B6B,    $72CF,$12CF,$6B4E,$5BED,
    $7497,$2B26,$5AED,$7249,    $5BFD,$5B6F,$2B6A,$12EB,
    $4D6A,$5AEB,$388E,$2497,    $7B6D,$2B6D,$5FED,$5AAD,
    $24AD,$72A7,$2092,$0000);

begin
  S := ParamStr(1);
  for j := 0 to 4 do
  begin
    for k := 1 to Length(S) do
    begin
      for i := 0 to 2 do
        Write((' '+S[k])[1+(F[ord(S[k])]shr(i+j*3))and 1]);
      Write(' ');
    end;
    WriteLn;
  end;
end.

Python: 259 chars

Not the shortest, but considering it was my first Python script, I'm more than satisfied.

k=raw_input()
for i in range(5):print' '.join(''.join((' ',x)[int(z)]for z in bin(int(''.join('%02d'%(ord(q)-43)for q in'xwxvxabxwxbbdqbXWX@axbbUb_^qxXwd@kddcsbssqbXWvDabav7bs9+dwuvxdbuvssvxq')[i*28+'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ! '.find(x)],8))[2:])for x in k)

Jordan Lewis

Perl, 69 74 77 78 79 chars

$a=<>;s:(?{$z=substr$a,$-[0]/4,1})z|#:$z:g,print for`figlet -f3x5 $a`