FAQ: New to ASCII art? Read me first!

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         __\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
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Answers to frequently asked questions in the ASCII art discussion groups

  * news:alt.ascii-art
  * news:alt.ascii-art.animation
  * news:rec.arts.ascii

Author: Matthew Thomas
Version: 2.0
Last changed: 1998-05-10

NOTE: If you are new to Usenet News, please read the messages in
news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.

This FAQ is regularly posted to the newsgroups news:alt.ascii-art ,
news:rec.arts.ascii , and news:alt.ascii-art.animation.
It is also available at the following locations:

  * http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm
  * http://artpacks.acid.org/faqs/faq-altasciiart.html
  * http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm.
  * http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html
  * http://fmf.ml.org/~shimrod/asciiart/FAQ.html
  * http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html
  * http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/q/ada/aaafaq.htm



Contents

1.  What is ASCII art?
2.  What isn't ASCII art?
3.  What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups?
4.  How do I view ASCII art?
5.  How do I draw my own ASCII art?
6.  What should I know before posting ASCII art?
7.  Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII?
8.  Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture?
9.  How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art?
10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art?
11. What should I know about signature files?
12. Where can I find more ASCII art?



1. What is ASCII art?

  ASCII art is any kind of artwork -- pictures, charts, cartoons, whatever --
  drawn with the characters in the ASCII character set.
  The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character set
  is a set of 128 characters (0 to 127) which are standard on almost all types
  of computer. The only characters used in ASCII art are those with the values
  32 to 126, which are shown below, and 13, which represents a carriage return
  (new line). The other characters in the ASCII character set (0-12, 13-31, and
  127) are control codes for representing things such as `end of file' and
  `backspace'; they should not be used in ASCII art.

      032 [space] 048 0       064 @       080 P       096 `       112 p
      033 !       049 1       065 A       081 Q       097 a       113 q
      034 "       050 2       066 B       082 R       098 b       114 r
      035 #       051 3       067 C       083 S       099 c       115 s
      036 $       052 4       068 D       084 T       100 d       116 t
      037 %       053 5       069 E       085 U       101 e       117 u
      038 &       054 6       070 F       086 V       102 f       118 v
      039 '       055 7       071 G       087 W       103 g       119 w
      040 (       056 8       072 H       088 X       104 h       120 x
      041 )       057 9       073 I       089 Y       105 i       121 y
      042 *       058 :       074 J       090 Z       106 j       122 z
      043 +       059 ;       075 K       091 [       107 k       123 {
      044 ,       060 <       076 L       092 \       108 l       124 |
      045 -       061 =       077 M       093 ]       109 m       125 }
      046 .       062 >       078 N       094 ^       110 n       126 ~
      047 /       063 ?       079 O       095 _       111 o

  These characters are almost completely standard, except for a few slight
  variations which you should keep in mind when drawing and viewing ASCII art:

    # (hash/pound):
    a hash sign on most computers, a pound (�- currency) sign on some British
    ones
    | (bar):
    a vertical line in most fonts, but in some it is split in the middle
    ^ (caret):
    differs in size depending on the font used
    ~ (tilde):
    appears in the middle of the line in some fonts, at the top in others
    ' (apostrophe/single quote):
    tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, is vertical in others (this also
    applies to the comma ,).

  Here's a small example of ASCII art using some of these variable characters: a
  snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark. How good it looks will depend to
  some extent on which font and computer system you are using to view it.
          ____
       .-" +' "-.
      /.'.'A_'*`.\
     |:.*'/\-\. ':|
     |:.'.||"|.'*:|
      \:~^~^~^~^:/
       /`-....-'\
  jgs /          \
      `-.,____,.-'

  People use ASCII art for a variety of reasons, some of which are:

  * it is the most universal computer art form in the world -- every computer
  system capable of displaying multi-line text can display ASCII art, without
  needing to have a graphics mode or support a particular graphics file format;
  * an ASCII picture is also hundreds of times smaller in file size than its GIF
  or BMP equivalent, while still giving a good idea of what something looks
like;
  * it is easy to copy from one file to another;
  * it's fun to do!

2. What isn't ASCII art?

  The following specialized artforms are not ASCII art and are not welcome in
  the ASCII art discussion groups.

  * ANSI or `extended ASCII' art. Many computer systems have an extended
    character set of 256 or more characters, based on the ANSI or Unicode
    character sets and having the first 128 characters identical to ASCII. These
    characters should not be used in ASCII art because many types of computer
    system do not support them, and even those that do may not display them in a
    standard way (for example, the Windows ANSI character set is different from
    the Mac ANSI character set).
  * HTML art. HTML, the language used in Web pages, can be used to add special
    effects such as colours, font size, and blinking text to ascii art, and HTML
    can be read by some newsreaders. However, the key word here is `some'. To
    many newsreaders, HTML art will just appear as a jumble of <TAGS> and will
    be totally unrecognizable.

    If you want to create HTML art, do so by all means, but put it on a Web page
    and post the page address (URL) to the appropriate discussion group. Advice
    on how to do this can be found at
    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/asciionpage.htm.
  * ASCII art animated using JavaScript. This relies not only on the newsreader
    being able to display HTML, but also being able to run JavaScript. As with
    HTML art, put it on a Web page and post the address to
    news:alt.ascii-art.animation.

  Not all "ASCII" is ASCII! Certain computer operating systems use their own
  specific character sets which are modified hybrids of the original
  128-character ASCII set. These "strains", if you will, have been deceivingly
  dubbed as "Extended ASCII" or "High ASCII" as they have added symbols beyond
  the first 128. Realize that while these extra characters may seem to give you
  more flexibility in your artwork, you are severely limiting your viewing
  audience to those who use the same operating system as you -- thus defeating
  the purpose of ASCII entirely!
  Please refrain from using these special characters in addition to the 33
  special control codes in the real ASCII character set. Remaining within the
  32-126 range benefits everyone in a multitude of ways. Not only by maximizing
  the number of potential viewers, but it also ensures proper interpretation of
  your artwork by others and will alter the way they perceive your abilities.
  This is just one of the necessary disciplines of becoming a true ASCII
  artists. [RaD Man]


3. What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups??

  In the ASCII art discussion groups people discuss ASCII art, post ASCII
  pictures, post improved versions or variations of pictures other people have
  drawn, and generally have fun.

  Types of messages which we usually enjoy seeing include:

  * look, here's an ASCII picture I drew ...
  * REQ: xyz (ie, has anyone got any ASCII pictures of xyz?)
  * suggestions on, or improvements of, other people's ASCII pictures
  * hey-guys-love-your-work-type messages!

  Types of messages which we usually don't enjoy seeing include:
  * messages with the subject `ASCII art' (try to be a bit more informative,
    please)
  * make money fast!!! ... (yawn, yawn, snore)
  * heres the adress of my web site, come see it pleez (why should we?)
  * don't read this, this is a test (that's what alt.test, misc.test, and many
    other `test' newsgroups are for)

  There are three ASCII art discussion groups.
    news:alt.ascii-art is the main group, where most of the discussion takes
    place.

    news:rec.arts.ascii is identical in purpose to news:alt.ascii-art, but it is
    a moderated group -- all messages pass through an intermediary (the
    moderator) who checks them for appropriateness before sending them to the
    group itself. The advantage of this is that there isn't any unwanted
    advertising in the group; however, the frequency of postings to
    news:rec.arts.ascii is very low at the time of writing (it was resurrected
    in November 1997 after the previous moderator, Bob Allison (`Scarecrow')
    retired in December 1996).

    If your news server isn't set up to allow direct posting to
    news:rec.arts.ascii, e-mail your message to the moderator, Don Bertino
    <ber...@netcom.com>.
    news:alt.ascii-art.animation is specifically for discussion and postings of
    animated ASCII art [see Question 12].


4. How do I view ASCII art?
  If a picture you see posted to this newsgroup looks like a complete mess to
  you, don't panic. There are several reasons why it may look weird.

  * If none of the pictures in the newsgroup look like what the sender describes
    them as, then you're probably using a proportional font. To view (and draw)
    ASCII art, you must use a fixed-width font -- one where all characters are
    the same width (like on a typewriter). If you're not sure if your font is
    fixed-width or not, check the following two lines and see if they're the
    same length.

    iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|
    mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm|

  * If they aren't, find the option in your news reader which lets you specify
    which font to use. If you just have a choice between proportional and fixed
    width, choose fixed width. If you have a choice of which font to use, try
    different ones until you find a fixed-width one (using the `i's and `m's
    above as a guide). Popular fixed width fonts include Courier, Monaco, and
    Fixedsys; anything with `fixed' or `terminal' will probably be fixed-width.
    Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supply newsreaders to their customers
    which, strange as it seems, don't allow them to use a fixed-width font. If
    this applies to you, there's not much you can do except to ask them for a
    newsreader which does, or switch ISPs.
  * If there are a lot of almost-blank lines in the picture, then the message is
    probably suffering from `wrapping'. This wrapping may be being done by your
    newsreader; see if it has an option called `wrap long lines' or similar, and
    make sure it is turned off. If this doesn't work, then the wrapping was
    probably done by the news program of the person who sent the picture, in
    which case there's not much you can do -- everybody else will be seeing the
    same thing.
  * If there are a lot of < and > symbols in the picture, with words like HTML,
    FONT COLOR, B, I, and so on inside them, then the picture has been sent in
    HTML format (see Question 2), and your newsreader does not understand HTML
    (most newsreaders don't).
  * If you still can't work out what the picture is supposed to be, try reducing
    the font size (if you can), and moving a couple of metres away. If it still
    looks unrecognizable, then it's probably a problem with the news program
    used by the person who sent the message -- or maybe it's just a really bad
    picture!

5. How do I draw my own ASCII art?
   You don't need a special program to draw ASCII art with. It can be drawn
using
   any text editor, such as SimpleText or BBEdit in MacOS, Notepad in Windows,
   nedit, vi, or pico in Unix, BEd or AZ in AmigaOS, edit in DOS, or any of the
   various Emacs editors. You can use a word processor to draw ASCII art, but
   remember: (1) use a fixed-width font (see Question 4); and (2) using any
   special formatting (bold/italic/coloured etc) is a waste of time, as it will
   be lost when you post the picture.

   There are some features of editors/word processors which can help when
drawing
   ASCII art.

   * Overtype, also known as overstrike: removes the need for you to constantly
     realign characters using the Backspace, Space, and Delete keys. Try the
     Insert key if there is one on your keyboard, or look in your program's
     Options or Preferences.
   * Rectangular copy and paste: allows you to select rectangular sections of
     text (not just rows or parts of rows). On programs which have this feature,
     it is usually done by holding down a key such as Ctrl while selecting text.
   * Find/Change: allows you to change all the characters of one type to another
     (eg all the ~s to "s).

  But before you start, a word about fonts. For ASCII art you should use a
  fixed-width font (see Question 4), because every type of computer system is
  guaranteed to have one, and that after all is one of the main reasons ASCII
  art exists -- because everyone can view it. Different fixed-width fonts do
  vary slightly in the height of the characters, but for most drawings this
  doesn't matter that much.

  DON'T try to post pictures drawn in a proportional-width (ie non-fixed- width)
  font: even if you specify the exact font you used, the chances of other people
  being able to read it are pretty slim (even `standard' proportional fonts such
  as Times New Roman can vary in width from computer to computer).

  The other thing to be aware of with fonts is the difference between serif and
  sans serif. Here's roughly how an `m' looks in both:
      __ __   __        __   __
       |/  \ /  \     |/  \ /  \
       |    |    |    |    |    |
       |    |    |    |    |    |
      _|_  _|_  _|_   |    |    |

          Serif        Sans serif

  The serif version has little strokes, or serifs, at the end of most of the
  main strokes, while the sans serif version doesn't (sans means `without'). For
  example, Courier is a serif font, and Monaco is sans serif. This isn't often
  important, but if you're using a sans serif font, just remember to use the
  vertical bar (|, above \ on most keyboards) to draw vertical lines, and not
  the capital i (I), otherwise it will look weird for people using serif fonts.
  It also means that you should think carefully before using characters like L
  and 7 for various corners -- they won't always look that good with a serif
  font.

  One way to make drawing ASCII art easier is to type a row of spaces for
  however wide you want your picture, and then copy this row and paste it for
  however many rows high you think your art will get. Then turn overtype on,
  stick your cursor somewhere in the middle, and you're ready to draw.
  If nothing springs to mind immediately, start with the ASCII art equivalent of
  the stick figure:
       O
      /H\  Person
      / \

  Fiddle with it, and see what you can do...
       A                    _                o            _
       O   Person wearing   O`              _O_          (< =  Person about
      /H\  a dunce's hat   /H\  Professor   XHX  Angel   /H-'  to eat a
      / \                  / \              / \          / \   sandwich...?

  Gradually you'll be able to add things like scenery around the person:
       ___  ,---.
      / __\/---. ._,
       /  \@-.  -(_)-
           @     ' `    Person playing a banjo
          ,P            while sitting against a
          d'O_,     MT  palm tree ...
      ____@/|/________
      ::::@\O_,:::::::
      ::::::::::::::::

  Draw your cat, your toaster, your musical instruments, your partner, anything
  that will sit still long enough -- practice makes, if not perfect, then at
  least pretty good. Whether you do small drawings (less work involved) or large
  ones (easier to make a drawing recognizable) is up to you.

  The things which give beginning ASCII artists the most trouble are usually
  diagonal lines and circles. Here are some lines of various angles:

      |   |   /      ,'      ,-'     _,-'
      |  .'  /     ,'     ,-'    _,-'
      |  |  /    ,'    ,-'   _,-'          __..--""
      | .' /   ,'   ,-'  _,-'      __..--""
      | | /  ,'  ,-'  ,-'  __..--"" _______________

        And here are a few circular shapes:
                                                 _____              __
                                              .-'     `-.        ,dP""Yb,
                                            .'           `.    ,d"      "b,
                                           /               \   d'    _   `Y,
                                   _      ;                 ;  8     8    `b
                        __      ,'" "`.   |                 |  `b,_,aP     P
                __    ,'  `.   /       \  ;                 ;    """"     d'
              .'  `. /      |  |       |   \               /            ,P"
           _  |    | |      /  \       /    `.           .'     a,.__,aP"
      . o (_) `.__.'  `.__.'    `.___.'       `-._____.-'        `"""''

  The spiral is a good example of anti-aliasing -- using the particular shape of
  some characters (especially b, d, and P) to smooth the edge of a solid shape.

  A final point: don't use the Tab key. Pressing Tab will go along a certain
  number of spaces in your editor/word processor -- but that `certain number' is
  different for different newsreaders, editors, and so on, so your picture may
  suffer from what is known as `tab damage' when other people try to view it.
  Just use spaces instead.

  Here are a couple links to existing ASCII art tutorials:
  http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/dcau.htm (Daniel Au's Tutorial)
  http://www.inetw.net/~mullen/asciiart.htm (Allen Mullen's Site- several
  tutorials)



6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?

  It doesn't matter if it's not particularly good -- we'd like to see it anyway.
  We won't be rude about it (although you'd better tell us what it is, or we
  might ask :-), but if it shows potential, you may find that other people will
  `re-diddle' it -- change a few characters, make it a bit better, and re-post
  it.

  HOWEVER, there are a few things you should check before you post any piece of
  ASCII art.

  * Are you sending it as plain text? Some news programs, particularly those
    built in to Web browsers, read and write messages in HTML (HyperText Markup
    Language, the language which Web pages are written in). HTML allows colours
    and (using JavaScript) animations in ASCII art, but few newsreaders support
    it, and those which don't will show a whole lot of garbage text with your
    picture hidden inside it.

    So if you have one of these HTML-sending programs, PLEASE select the option
    which tells it to send messages as plain text only. If you have a picture
    which uses HTML for a particular feature (such as colours or animation), put
    it on a Web page, and post the URL of the page to alt.ascii-art, rather than
    posting the whole picture.

  * Is it under 72 characters wide? Most news readers can only show lines which
    are under either 72, 76, or 80 characters wide, so if your picture is wider
    than 72 characters it may get wrapped (see Question 4). Also remove any
    unnecessary space characters from the end of each line of the picture, to
    prevent lines from being too long (and getting wrapped) without your
    realizing.

 *  Have you used any control codes? Inserting control codes (ASCII characters 0
    to 31) in a picture can sometimes achieve interesting effects on your
    computer screen or news reader, such as reversing text, changing its colour,
    and so on. DO NOT post any of these pictures to alt.ascii-art, for two
    reasons:

    1. the effects that the control codes have on your news reader are almost
       certainly going to be different from those on the thousands of other news
       readers that other people use
    2. on some news readers, control codes can cause messed up displays,
messages
       not appearing, or (in some cases) the news reader crashing.

  * If your first line starts with one or more spaces, stick a dummy line (such
    as -- or .) above it, to prevent the spaces from being ignored by your news
    program (this only applies to some news programs, and only to the first line
    of the message).

  If you're not sure about whether your message will turn out ok, post it to a
  test newsgroup (such as news:alt.test or news:misc.test) first and make sure
  (using a different newsreader, if you can) that you can read it ok.
  [See Question 10 for advice on posting someone else's ASCII art.]


7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII?

  Probably not, unless we're REALLY bored. The reason for this is that there is
  a program called Figlet which does that sort of thing automatically -- you
  type in `Jane Smith', and you get back
    ___              __,
   ( /              (          o _/_ /
    / __,  _   _     `.  _ _  ,  /  /_
  _/_(_/(_/ /_(/_  (___)/ / /_(_(__/ /_
 //
(/

  in this and a whole lot of other fonts (lettering styles). The ASCII text-art
  produced by Figlet can be quite stunning, so it's best to try it first before
  asking for help from the newsgroup.

  The Figlet home page is at http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html.
  This site links to the FTP site ftp://ftp.internexus.net/pub/figlet where you
  can download versions of the program for many different platforms.

  If you have a Web browser which has form support (most browsers do), you can
  run Figlet on the Internet by going to one of the following sites and choosing
  your text and options on the Web page. Different sites offer different options
  (eg multiple fonts at once, justification, line length etc). Some of these
  sites also provide an e-mail Figlet service for people with browsers which
  don't support forms.

    http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
    http://wwwcn.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html
    http://www.schnoggo.com/figlet.html
    http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet/
    http://saigon.mit.edu/dinhyen/figlet/figlet.html
    http://www.mediacube.de/cgi-bin/moniteurs/figlet/
    http://www.sconnect.net/figlet/index.cgi
    http://boulder.Colorado.EDU/~kai/figlet.html
    http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/cgi-bin/bwagner/FIGLET/figlet.pl
    http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~mcchau3/cgi-bin/express.html
    http://www.webserve.com/gateways/figletgateway.pl

  (Thanks to Shimrod and Veronica Karlsson for the original list.)

  If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you can post to
  the newsgroup with your request. Make sure that you include:

  * the fact that you have already tried Figlet, or don't have access to it
    (otherwise you will probably just get told to use it)
  * a description of the kind of lettering you want, along with any other
    symbols or logos which you would like incorporated into it.

8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture?

  Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject `REQ: xyz' if
  you're looking for a picture of an xyz, then in the message describe more
  exactly what you're looking for. Generally, the more specific you are, the
  more likely you are to get someone to draw what you want: if you just say
  something like `can someone draw me a fish' then you're not likely to get many
  replies, because people won't be sure whether or not they're wasting their
  time by drawing something you won't want. If you don't have Web access,
  mention this fact, otherwise you may get replies consisting only of URLs for
  the kind of pictures you're looking for.

9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art?

  There are computer programs which convert graphics files of a particular
  format (usually GIF) to ASCII art. They go by names such as ascgif, gifa,
  gifscii, and gif2ascii. Do a Web search for any of these programs to find
  places where you can download them. Try:

    gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
    ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.

  However, the output from these programs is often not good (fiddling with the
  picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help). In this case, you
  can post a request to the newsgroup asking for someone to `asciify' it, but
  please don't post the picture itself. To save downloading time for people
  reading the messages, if possible give the URL (Web address) of the picture
  instead.

  If you saw the picture on a Web page, you can find out its URL by right-
  clicking on it (on the Macintosh, holding down the mouse button) and selecting
  `Open this image' (or its equivalent for your Web browser), then copy the URL
  from the Location bar to your news program (make sure you copy it exactly).

  If the picture is not on a Web site anywhere, put it up on your own site (if
  you have one), or get a friend to put it up on their site, and post the URL to
  alt.ascii-art. If you can't do this, post your request to alt.ascii-art and
  wait for an artist to reply, then e-mail the picture to them.

10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art?

  Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a newsgroup, that gives you
  the right to use it however you like; copyright laws still apply. For more
  information, see the article `Copyright Myths FAQ: 10 big myths about
  copyright explained' in news:news.announce.newusers. (It is also available at
  http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.)

  ASCII art is often an exception to this rule, though: generally, ASCII artists
  don't mind if you copy their pictures and repost them or put them on your own
  Web site for your personal use. There are a few important conditions, however.

  * If the picture contains a few letters in one corner which don't seem to be
    part of the picture, they're the artist's initials. DO NOT remove these
    initials -- would you cut away the part of a Van Gogh painting containing
    his name? Leaving the initials on is a small price to pay for being able to
    use the picture for free.

  * If you're going to use a picture in your signature file, or in a place (such
    as a log-in screen) which means you're going to be using it a lot, you
    should really e-mail the artist (or post to the newsgroup, if you don't know
    their address) and ask for permission, because otherwise people may get the
    mistaken impression that you were the one who drew the picture.

  As for posting other people's ASCII art, after a discussion in
  news:alt.ascii-art the following rules were agreed upon:

  1. If an ASCII ART picture has initials on it, leave them on when posting it.
  2. If an ASCII ART picture doesn't have initials on it, mention that you
didn't
     draw it when posting it.
  3. If somebody posts a picture without initials and you have an original copy
     with initials, feel free to repost the original version. The repost ought
     not to be taken personally, as we all know that ASCII art often loses
proper
     credits. Responses to the repost are not necessary.

     [Donovan]

11. What should I know about signature files?

  A signature file (or `sig' for short) is a small, personalized text file which
  an e-mail or news program adds to the end of every message a person sends --
  the equivalent of a letterhead for dead-tree (paper) mail. Usually it contains
  little more than the person's name, organization, and e-mail address, and an
  inspirational quote of some sort; but some people like to incorporate ASCII
  art into their signature files as well.

  The biggest problem that this causes is the number of lines that the signature
  file takes up. This is a topic which, despite its lack of importance in
  relation to global warming, violence in society, and so on, can be the subject
  of heated arguments. To summarize, (almost) no-one will complain if your
  signature file is four lines long or fewer -- and it is quite possible to draw
  good ASCII pictures which are that small. Some examples are at:

    http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~kenter/sigs.html
    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/sigs.htm.

  Some e-mail programs don't allow you to have a signature file which is longer
  than four lines, while others just complain. Five or six lines is usually
  acceptable, but any longer, and you're starting to take the risk that your
  signature will be longer than some of your e-mail messages; this wouldn't
  really make sense on paper, so it isn't really acceptable in cyberspace
  either. The exception is in messages posted to alt.ascii-art itself -- we're
  used to seeing long sigs, so we won't complain.

  But no matter what the length of your signature, make sure it's fewer than 72
  characters wide, otherwise it may end up a horrible mess -- see Question 6.

12. Where can I find more ASCII art?

  Lots of ASCII artists put up libraries of their own and others' ASCII art on
  their Web sites, as well as tutorials on how to draw ASCII art. Allen Mullen
  has links to many of these sites at
  http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm.

  Yahoo also has a page dedicated to ASCII art, at
  http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Computer_Generated/ASCII_Art/.
  And try Joan Stark's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/.

  To find out how to animate ASCII art using JavaScript, see
  http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/faq_hta.htm
  http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/animlesson.htm.

THE END

This document may be freely copied as long as Matthew Thomas is identified as
the original author.

--

fr0m tHe tWiSTeD mINd oF dAVid pALmeR
     dav...@ntlworld.com
|  | ||| | | |||| |   | | || ||    #####
 |  | ||| | | |||| |   | | || ||  _/_ ####
|  | ||| | | |||| |   | | || || [.[.]-=##
 |  | ||| | | |||| |   | | || ||  /_    )#
 |  | ||| | | |||| |   | | || ||  |__/  #
0  1  8  4 3   9  0   8 3  2  2   \___/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/palmer666/

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(    )
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 /     \ 
 `-._.-' 

(‘-‘)

   _
 _(_)_
(_)@(_)
  (_)\
     |
    \|/
  \\\|//jgs
^^^^^^^^^^^

    \\__  o
|\/    o\  o
>       < o
|/\   __/
    //

 |\__/,|   (`\
 |_ _  |.--.) )
 ( T   )     /
(((^_(((/(((_/

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