Original Usenet thread from alt.ascii-art, started 10 May 1998.
ASCII art FAQ version 2.0
alt.ascii-art
· 70 messages · 10 May 1998 - 12 Nov 2001
Well, here it is folks, a more-than-slightly revised FAQ.
I've included Donovan's rules on reposting others' work, Joris's Ten
Commandments, and some of Martin Atkin's mini-FAQ. Elsewhere though I
have been concentrating on making the darn thing shorter, and fixing
silly mistakes (such as the one where I suggested the Mac Notepad as an
ASCII art tool -- it only uses a proportional font).
There's probably a couple of typos, dead links, and incorrect
cross-references -- I've only proof-read the darn thing three times :-).
All comments/corrections to the group, no need to CC them to me.
Other developments in progress:
* customized HTML versions for Joan, RadMan, /, Andreas, and Shimrod
* my own Web site (at last) to store the `official' HTML version
* investigating getting the FAQ posted to news.answers and stored at
http://www.faqs.org/, the official FAQ archive.
Ah well, bombs away ...
-- __
/_/\ Matthew Thomas, Master of the Mail
_\_\/_ http://kiwipages.co.nz/matthew.html
/_/\/_/\
\_\/\_\/ FAQ follows ...
__ __ __ _,
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
Matthew Thomas wrote: > This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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 I've had a copy of the FAQ's on this page for some time now and would feel privaleged to be added to the list. (The new version is already available there BTW) http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html AND in #10 you had a word that jumped ship on you from the margins. It looks great and seems much shorter. Thanks for the hard work Matthew! -- Peace, Donovan . .> )\,^a__ POEMS BY DONOVAN - What is there to see? _ __,~~~/ ( _ _)/ /-." ~~ Ascii Art - DA QUIZ! - Original Poetry ~~`( )_( )-\| `( )_ )/ The Secret Link Game - Dragons - Baby Pics |/| `--. sb<_ <_dwb http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6558/ ! ! ! dwb Email: bak...@gwtc.net ICQ#: 812836 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (".___.") EVANS PLUNGE BEANIE BABIES PRICE LIST _ { + } _ ()__|>o<|__() http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/bb.html ( . ) (_) (_) New & Retired Beanies are available from $5.95 and up!
Krogg wrote: > > Donovan wrote: > > > > Matthew Thomas wrote: > > > > > This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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 > > > > I've had a copy of the FAQ's on this page for some time now and would > > feel privaleged to be added to the list. (The new version is already > > available there BTW) > > > > http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html > > > > AND in #10 you had a word that jumped ship on you from the margins. > > > > It looks great and seems much shorter. Thanks for the hard work Matthew! > > > > -- > > Peace, > > > > Donovan > > I am assuming that Mr. T. is posting the faq regularly here now,But > I haven't seen any of the posts from him.Should i still be posting my > copy as well or what?I dunno what course to take so,will you regulars > give me some berings to stear by? Hmmm? He just posted version 2.0 asked if there were any links problems and/or corrections. You better try DejaNews for a while....you news reader maybe as bad as mine. LOL I tried to get every link, linked directly. Since you missed the Mr. T posting, you can get it from here...but keep in mind that I added my site to the list already. *S* So you may want to take it out until he adds it, but that's up to you bro! http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html Anyway, the FAQ's can not be posted too many times. So please, by all means, do not stop posting them! Besides we like to know you are still alive and kicking. *S* -- Peace, Donovan . .> )\,^a__ POEMS BY DONOVAN - What is there to see? _ __,~~~/ ( _ _)/ /-." ~~ Ascii Art - DA QUIZ! - Original Poetry ~~`( )_( )-\| `( )_ )/ The Secret Link Game - Dragons - Baby Pics |/| `--. sb<_ <_dwb http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6558/ ! ! ! dwb Email: bak...@gwtc.net ICQ#: 812836 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (".___.") EVANS PLUNGE BEANIE BABIES PRICE LIST _ { + } _ ()__|>o<|__() http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/bb.html ( . ) (_) (_) New & Retired Beanies are available from $5.95 and up!
Krogg wrote: > > Donovan wrote: > > > > Matthew Thomas wrote: > > > > > This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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 > > > > I've had a copy of the FAQ's on this page for some time now and would > > feel privaleged to be added to the list. (The new version is already > > available there BTW) > > > > http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html > > > > AND in #10 you had a word that jumped ship on you from the margins. > > > > It looks great and seems much shorter. Thanks for the hard work Matthew! > > > > -- > > Peace, > > > > Donovan > > I am assuming that Mr. T. is posting the faq regularly here now,But > I haven't seen any of the posts from him.Should i still be posting my > copy as well or what?I dunno what course to take so,will you regulars > give me some berings to stear by? Hmmm? He just posted version 2.0 asked if there were any links problems and/or corrections. You better try DejaNews for a while....you news reader maybe as bad as mine. LOL I tried to get every link, linked directly. Since you missed the Mr. T posting, you can get it from here...but keep in mind that I added my site to the list already. *S* So you may want to take it out until he adds it, but that's up to you bro! http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html Anyway, the FAQ's can not be posted too many times. So please, by all means, do not stop posting them! Besides we like to know you are still alive and kicking. *S* -- Peace, Donovan . .> )\,^a__ POEMS BY DONOVAN - What is there to see? _ __,~~~/ ( _ _)/ /-." ~~ Ascii Art - DA QUIZ! - Original Poetry ~~`( )_( )-\| `( )_ )/ The Secret Link Game - Dragons - Baby Pics |/| `--. sb<_ <_dwb http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/6558/ ! ! ! dwb Email: bak...@gwtc.net ICQ#: 812836 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (".___.") EVANS PLUNGE BEANIE BABIES PRICE LIST _ { + } _ ()__|>o<|__() http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/bb.html ( . ) (_) (_) New & Retired Beanies are available from $5.95 and up!
Donovan wrote: > > Matthew Thomas wrote: > > > This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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 > > I've had a copy of the FAQ's on this page for some time now and would > feel privaleged to be added to the list. (The new version is already > available there BTW) > > http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html > > AND in #10 you had a word that jumped ship on you from the margins. > > It looks great and seems much shorter. Thanks for the hard work Matthew! > > -- > Peace, > > Donovan I am assuming that Mr. T. is posting the faq regularly here now,But I haven't seen any of the posts from him.Should i still be posting my copy as well or what?I dunno what course to take so,will you regulars give me some berings to stear by? ___________ THE ___________ / _________ \ <\PRINCE /> / _________ \ / / __ \/ \\ // \/ __ \ \ / / / \ \\ // / \ \ \ / / / /\/ /""""""\ \/\ \ \ \ \ \ / / SEE HIS ( / \ \ SEE HIS \ \ / / \ \ \ \ FACE \/<> <>\/ SMILE / / / / \ \ \ \ / W \ / / / / / / \ \ /\_|||||_/\ / / \ \ / / / \ // ||| \\ / \ \ \ / / / /\ \ // ' \\ / /\ \ \ \ / / / / / / </ TIME TO DIE \> \ \ \ \ \ \ / / / \/ \_______________________/ \/ \ \ \ \ \ / /\_________________________________/\ \ / / \ \/ / kro...@inspace.net \ \/ / \__/ Remove no.to.spam to reply \__/ http://www.inspace.net/~carcher/krogg/aani.htm Gory javascript animations for your enjoyment
Krogg <kro...@inspace.net> wrote: > I am assuming that Mr. T. is posting the faq regularly here now,But >I haven't seen any of the posts from him.Should i still be posting my >copy as well or what?I dunno what course to take so,will you regulars >give me some berings to stear by? Try an email to Mr. T. because it is just possible that neither of you are seeing each other's public postings...the unreliability of the Net...aaaaargh! Another problem however is that both you, and Mt. T., are using munged email addresses which can cause mail bouncing. So failure to successfully communicate publicly in the newwsgroup just about locks things up...so no wonder you are not talking to each other nowadays...you are Incommunicado. *8-( where are the postings... \ dunno, just can't see any... ____ ____ / <---- = =\\\ o o\\\ /< c /< c ___ _______/__D_/'_ /__,_/\___ /(- /(\_\________ \ '\_/ \ \ ) \ )_ \o \ | o \ /|\ /|\ |' | | |' | | | _\ | | | \ //\____| | //\_| | /-,---/ |/-,--|__| / / _) / / /( / / / / / \ )_ ( ( < ( ( < \\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ | \ \ | \_\____\ \_\____\ ___\_\_\ ___\_\_\ ((((,,,,o) ((((,,,,o) . .. b'ger where are the emails... \ dunno, they just seem to keep bouncing... ____ ____ / <---- = =\\\ o o\\\ /< c /< c ___ _______/__D_/'_ /__,_/\___ /(- /(\_\________ \ '\_/ \ \ ) \ )_ \o \ | o \ /|\ /|\ |' | | |' | | | _\ | | | \ //\____| | //\_| | /-,---/ |/-,--|__| / / _) / / /( / / / / / \ )_ ( ( < ( ( < \\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ | \ \ | \_\____\ \_\____\ ___\_\_\ ___\_\_\ ((((,,,,o) ((((,,,,o) . .. b'ger Bye,
Matthew Thomas wrote: > > Colin Douthwaite wrote: > > > > Krogg <kro...@inspace.net> wrote: > > [snip what we wrote] > > Try an email to Mr. T. because it is just possible that neither of > > you are seeing each other's public postings...the unreliability of > > the Net...aaaaargh! > I seen this one,maybe more will be visable now. -- ___________ THE ___________ / _________ \ <\PRINCE /> / _________ \ / / __ \/ \\ // \/ __ \ \ / / / \ \\ // / \ \ \ / / / /\/ /""""""\ \/\ \ \ \ \ \ / / SEE HIS ( / \ \ SEE HIS \ \ / / \ \ \ \ FACE \/<> <>\/ SMILE / / / / \ \ \ \ / W \ / / / / / / \ \ /\_|||||_/\ / / \ \ / / / \ // ||| \\ / \ \ \ / / / /\ \ // ' \\ / /\ \ \ \ / / / / / / </ TIME TO DIE \> \ \ \ \ \ \ / / / \/ \_______________________/ \/ \ \ \ \ \ / /\_________________________________/\ \ / / \ \/ / kro...@inspace.net \ \/ / \__/ Remove no.to.spam to reply \__/ http://www.inspace.net/~carcher/krogg/aani.htm Gory javascript animations for your enjoyment
Colin Douthwaite wrote: > > Krogg <kro...@inspace.net> wrote: > > > I am assuming that Mr. T. is posting the faq regularly here now, But > > I haven't seen any of the posts from him.Should i still be posting > > my copy as well or what?I dunno what course to take so,will you > > regulars give me some berings to stear by? No, sorry, I was just posting the new version to see if anyone would make any suggestions/corrections, before sending it to Krogg (which I have now done). I can not post it regularly since I am often away from my Internet account during university holidays (sigh). > Try an email to Mr. T. because it is just possible that neither of > you are seeing each other's public postings...the unreliability of > the Net...aaaaargh! Speaking of which, did anyone see the map of the world which I posted? I didn't see any comments on/rediddles of it. > Another problem however is that both you, and Mt. T., are using > munged email addresses which can cause mail bouncing. So failure to > successfully communicate publicly in the newwsgroup just about > locks things up...so no wonder you are not talking to each other > nowadays...you are Incommunicado. *8-( My apologies for forgetting to include my real e-mail address in my last message. > Bye, BTW Colin, is there supposed to be a sig file after this `Bye,'? Coz it never appears ... -- __ /_/\ Matthew Thomas, Master of the Mail (er -- sometimes) _\_\/_ http://kiwipages.co.nz/matthew.html /_/\/_/\ My real address is mpt26 @ student . canterbury . ac . nz \_\/\_\/ THE ASCII ART FAQ: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm
Matthew Thomas <mpt...@spamfree.land> wrote: > Speaking of which, did anyone see the map of the world which I > posted? I didn't see any comments on/rediddles of it. Yes...I saved it for my map collection. Dunno quite what to think of it except that you have been a little more generous than Jorn Barger in your depiction of New Zealand. :-) -----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- . _..::__: ,-"-"._ |7 , _,.__ _.___ _ _<_>`!(._`.`-. / _._ `_ ,_/ ' '-._.---.-.__ >.{ " " `-==,',._\{ \ / {) / _ ">_,-' ` _ \_.:--. `._ )`^-. "' , [_/( __,/-' '"' \ " _L oD_,--' ) /. (| | ,' _)_.\\._<> 6 _,' / ' `. / [_/_'` `"( <'} ) \\ .-. ) / `-'"..' `:._ _) ' ` \ ( `( / `:\ > \ ,-^. /' ' `._, "" | \`' \| ?_) {\ `=.---. `._._ ,' "` |' ,- '. | `-._ | / `:`<_|h--._ ( > . | , `=.__.`-'\ `. / | |{| ,-.,\ . | ,' \ / `' ," \ | / |_' | __ / | | '-' `-' \. |/ " / \. ' ,/ ______._.--._ _..---.---------._ ,-----"-..?----_/ ) __,-'" " ( -.._( `-----' mt-2`- -----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- -Matthew Thomas- Your map and those of Jorn Barger are the only world maps in that format that I have seen although there are some globes around. ,_ . ._. _. . _ , . , _-\','|~\~~ ~~ ~~/ ;-'-' ~-', ,;_;_, ~~- /~~-\_/-'~'--' \~~| \,/' _-| / / |_/~-/-/~~ ~~--~~~~'---_ / ,/'-/~ '\./ ' , '|,'|~ ' ._/-, /~~ ~/-'~\_, '-,| '|. ' ,\ /'~ / /_ /~ .-~ '| '',\~|\ _\~ ,_ . . /| '\ /'~ |_/~\\,-,~' \ " ,_,/ | | / . _-~'\_ _~| \ ) / \ __-\ ./ ~ |\ \_ / ~ ., '\ |, ~-_ . | \\_' ~| /~\ \~ , ~-_' ; \ '-, \,' /\/ | '\_,~'\_ \_ _, /' ' |, /|' / \_ ~ | / \ ~'; -,_. | ~\ | | , '-_, ,; ~ ~\ \, / \ / /| ,-, , -, | ,/ | |' |/ ,- ~ \ '. ,| ,/ \ ,/ \ | / | ~ -~~-, / _ | ,-' ~ / / ,' ~ ',| ~ -Jorn Barger- ~' ,_ . ._. _. . _ , . , _-\','|~\~~ ~~ ~~/ ;-'-' ~-', ,;_;_, ~~- /~~-\_/-'~'--' \~~| \,/' _-| Scand/ / |_/~-/-/~~ ~~--~~~~'---_ / AK ,/'-/~ '\./ ' , '|,'|~ ' ._/-, /~~ ~/-'~\_, Canada'-,| '|. ' UK,\ /'~ Russia / /_ /~ .-~ '| '',\~|\ _\~Euro ,_ . . /| '\ /'~ |_/~\\,-,~' \ " ,_,/ | | USA / . _-~'\_ _~|Mideast China\ ) /Japan \ __-\ ./ ~ |\ \_ India / ~ ., Mex'\ |, ~-_ . | \\_' ~| /~\SE\~ , Hawaii ~-_' ;Carib \ Africa '-, \,' /\/ | '\_,~'\_ \_ _, /' ' |, /|' Oceania / \_ ~ | / \ ~'; -,_. | South ~\ | | , '-_, ,; ~ ~\ \, Amer / \ / /| ,-, , -, | ,/ | |' |/ ,- ~ \ '. ,| ,/ \ ,/ \Austral| / | ~ -~~-, / _ | ,-' ~ / / ,' ~ ',| ~ -Jorn Barger- ~' >> Bye, > BTW Colin, is there supposed to be a sig file after this `Bye,'? > Coz it never appears ... Nope. Bye, is a Sig you can have when you are not having a Sig. :-) I've used it almost since my first days on the Net because I wanted something to denote the end of my messages and make it clear that nothing had been chopped off during posting. Because I liked Ascii Art I decided that using a pictorial Sig at the end of postings of Ascii pictures looked a little excessive and also there was some antipathy towards pictorial Sigs in some newsgroups...especially if the Sig was longer than four lines. I've noticed some people end their messages with...later, but I chose Bye, as a well-known abbreviation of Goodbye. My use of Bye, means no more than "end of this message". Anyone is welcome to snaffle my Sig...here it comes... Bye,
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
pru...@post3.tele.dk wrote: >Hi- who ever it may concern? >Just read the ASCII ART FAQ. Pleased to hear that someone has read it! :-) >There is a missing computer in the FAQ list. >The Atari range (ST,- TT,- Stacy,- Falcon,- Hades,- Medusa, Milan) >Any editor will do. >Everest >QED >Steno >EditPro >to name but a feew. Thanks...Matthew Thomas is the FAQ author/maintainer. Bye,
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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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
Hi- who ever it may concern? Just read the ASCII ART FAQ. There is a missing computer in the FAQ list. The Atari range (ST,- TT,- Stacy,- Falcon,- Hades,- Medusa, Milan) Any editor will do. Everest QED Steno EditPro to name but a feew. cheers Joergen surfing the net on a ATARI Falcon 030 with MagiC 6, - CAB 2.7 on I-Conn. Reading News, Sending mail with ASH EMailer 1.1. http://home3.inet.tele.dk/prunus/
Colin Douthwaite wrote: > > pru...@post3.tele.dk wrote: > > > Hi- who ever it may concern? > > > > Just read the ASCII ART FAQ. > > Pleased to hear that someone has read it! :-) Me too. 3-) > > There is a missing computer in the FAQ list. ObAscii: a missing computer? ,----.|_ ,--------------------------------------------------. ,-| ,'` | I'm free! I've escaped! No-one can catch me now! | |_| `'| --'`-------------------------------------------------' `.--.' mt-2 ,|--|-._ |__\____`, ,' \_ ` > > The Atari range (ST,- TT,- Stacy,- Falcon,- Hades,- Medusa, Milan) > > > > Any editor will do. > > > > Everest > > QED > > Steno > > EditPro > > > > to name but a feew. > > Thanks...Matthew Thomas is the FAQ author/maintainer. Hmm ... I don't remember anybody ever asking about editors for Ataris, so IMHO it doesn't qualify as a Frequently Asked Question. And I'm not going to publish a list of editors for Ataris, BeOS, OS/2, NeXT, CP/M, whatever unless quite a few people actually ask for it. Tata -- .._o Matthew Thomas ..://\/ http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/ (Site for sore eyes) ..:_/\ <-- If this looks a mess, change your font to Courier ..:/ Grated carrot!
> There is a missing computer in the FAQ list. > > The Atari range (ST,- TT,- Stacy,- Falcon,- Hades,- Medusa, Milan) > > Any editor will do. I would like to mention too, that the two popular Commodore 8-bits (the C64 and C128) are also quite useful for making ASCII art. Editors like Zed or NovaPic work well, as well as online ones such as Pico or the message editor in Pine. (Zed and NovaPic allow the use of true ASCII as well as Commodore's modified ASCII set) ___________________________________________________________________ | _ _|_ _ | _ | * http://www2.southwind.net/~natedac * | | |/�\ _| | /_)/�| _|/� | GCS d- s++:++ a-- C++ UB>++ L>+ E- W++ | | | |(_| \_ \_ \_|(_|\_ | N++ w--- K- M- V- PS PE Y+ PGP- t+ 5 | | at southwind dot net | X+ R tv+(++) b+ DI(+) D+ G e+ h+ r- y- | �������������������������������������������������������������������
Nate / DAC <nat...@southwind.youknowme.net> wrote: >> There is a missing computer in the FAQ list. >> >> The Atari range (ST,- TT,- Stacy,- Falcon,- Hades,- Medusa, Milan) >> >> Any editor will do. >I would like to mention too, that the two popular Commodore 8-bits (the C64 >and C128) are also quite useful for making ASCII art. Editors like Zed or >NovaPic work well, as well as online ones such as Pico or the message editor >in Pine. (Zed and NovaPic allow the use of true ASCII as well as >Commodore's modified ASCII set) I see that the Ascii Art FAQ maintainer, Matthew Thomas, does not want to add Atari, etc. but I think perhaps Martin Atkins ( if he is reading these postings ) may be willing to add them to his MONOFONTS FAQ. Bye,
>Message-id: <901...@mnementh.southern.co.nz> >I think perhaps Martin Atkins ( if he is >reading these postings ) may be willing to add them to his MONOFONTS FAQ. That may be a more suited spot.. -joan -- ,-._ _.-' '--. joan stark .' _ -`\_ mailto:spu...@juno.com / .----.`_.'----' ;/ ` ASCII ART GALLERY: jgs /_; http://www.ascii-art.com ._ ._ ._ ._ ._ ._ ._ _.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._)`\_.-._
Nate / DAC <nat...@southwind.youknowme.net> wrote:
>as well as online ones such as Pico or the message editor in Pine.
Uhm... The editor in Pine *is* Pico. Long live vi.
cheers,
cb
--
Cyberspace Buddha /(0\ What's on, your mind?
mailto:c...@io.com \1)/ http://www.io.com/~cb
Not your fathers buddha.
.----- On 22 Jul 1998 04:29:17 GMT, Colin Douthwaite posted: | |I see that the Ascii Art FAQ maintainer, Matthew Thomas, does not |want to add Atari, etc. but I think perhaps Martin Atkins ( if he is |reading these postings ) may be willing to add them to his MONOFONTS FAQ. | '----------------------- Hehe colin... Just did it then flicked onto this message! Now a query to everyone: Are all the fonts on Atari monospaced? If not, can I have a list please? |\/| _..__|_o._ /\_|_| o._ _ mart.atkins@-- | |(_|| |_|| | /--\|_|<|| |_> --bigfoot.com
.----- On Tue, 21 Jul 1998 21:31:41 +1200, Matthew Thomas posted: |And I'm not |going to publish a list of editors for Ataris, BeOS, OS/2, NeXT, CP/M, |whatever unless quite a few people actually ask for it. '--------------------- I would like a list of these if anyone would care to? And maybe for some even more obscure systems, like SOS or that AROS (or whatever the amiga replacement os is called) Can anyone help... drop me an email to avoid annoying ng users. |\/| _..__|_o._ /\_|_| o._ _ mart.atkins@-- | |(_|| |_|| | /--\|_|<|| |_> --bigfoot.com
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
Hello out there! Can anybody help me with my Windows or AOL. I want to force my NewsGroup reader to a fixed-width font, to look at the ASCII art. Any help will be greatful! Alan
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
> > > -------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS------------------- > > \\\\`/// > / _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ. > (\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the > ______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art. > /`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership > / /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art. > /_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ. > | / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission > \/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's > ) / / \__\ - | ASCII art. > '-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone > \_ | | | else's ASCII art. > | | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ. > \ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone > / | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making > \ | | | clear that you didn't make it. > \_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that > \| | | ASCII art isn't art at all. > | V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ. > |______b'ger______| > > -----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]---------- ^ | e Ha Colin, could you correct this for me? (Joris Bellenger) Pfffft! Bellinger! What if my mom was reading this newsgroup?! / `, ___ # |/ ? | ^ )\ /__/\ \____ ,- / \_/ \ |/| / < _____ _> \ -|.|--/___/ ,___/___\--------- '-' |\/ b'ger Thanks, joris
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
joris bellenger wrote: >... > > -----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]------ > ^ > | > e > > Ha Colin, could you correct this for me? (Joris Bellenger) > > Pfffft! Bellinger! What if my mom > was reading this newsgroup?! > / > > `, > ___ # > |/ ? > | ^ )\ > /__/\ \____ > ,- / \_/ \ > |/| / < _____ _> \ > -|.|--/___/ ,___/___\--------- > '-' |\/ b'ger > > Thanks, > joris Eee, that might well have been my fault -- when I rediddled the commandments at the end of the FAQ, I changed that line ... I've now corrected my copy of it, so it will be correct for future FAQ versions ... :-) If it was me, then sorry! By the way, Joris, I'm not too sure which way you are looking in your self-portrait ... either `, ___ # |/==? | _ )\ /__/\ \____ ,- / \_/ \ |/| / < _____ _> \ -|.|--/___/ ,___/___\--------- '-' |\/ b'ger - `^' + `==' or `, ___ # |= ? /_^ )\ /__/\ \____ ,- / \_/ \ |/| / < _____ _> \ -|.|--/___/ ,___/___\--------- '-' |\/ b'ger - `/|' + `=/' Hmmm ... -- .._o Matthew Thomas (mpt26 @ student . canterbury . ac . nz) ..://\/ http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/ (Site for sore eyes) ..:_/\ ASCII ART FAQ: http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/art/ascii/ ..:/ Linux. Because life is too short to reboot.
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
Adam Sargant probably wrote: [Re: Monospaced fonts] > Question: > > Can I do this in Outlook Express? Answer: Yes. Tools | Options | Read | Fonts Change the "Proportional font" from whatever it is to Courier New (or whatever you like.) HTH.. HAND, --Muke! -- Follow your dream! Unless it's the one where you're at work in your underwear during a fire drill. ICQ:1936556 http://mc11a.southern.edu/ -Personal [non-C1/C2] homepage http://welcome.to/alt.binaries.games.creatures -Visit the abgc archive!
Angel \ Muke" Rivera > wrote in message <362...@bigfoot.com>... >Adam Sargant probably wrote: >[Re: Monospaced fonts] >> Question: >> >> Can I do this in Outlook Express? > >Answer: Yes. > >Tools | Options | Read | Fonts >Change the "Proportional font" from whatever it is to Courier New (or >whatever you like.) > >HTH.. HAND, > > --Muke! Thanks Muke Now I have to face up to the fact that my sig doesn't work to well. Ho hum * * /\ * __ { | } / | ~ * * \/__\/ * * / \ * * ( ^ ^ ) * * \ Y / * * * * Cosmic Bunster Visit the Sargant Family at http://sargant.future.easyspace.com Love is indivisible at source
Colin Douthwaite wrote in message <908...@mnementh.southern.co.nz>... > * If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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, > Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in > its name will probably be fixed-width. Question: Can I do this in Outlook Express? * * /\ * __ { | } / | ~ * * \/__\/ * * / \ * * ( ^ ^ ) * * \ Y / * * * * Cosmic Bunster Visit the Sargant Family at http://sargant.future.easyspace.com Love is indivisible at source
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
.----- On Wed, 30 Dec 1998 10:54:10 GMT, Colin Douthwaite posted:
|__ __ _ __ _
|\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
| \\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
| \/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
|
|
| ___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
| __\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
| ((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
|
|
'----------------------------------
Nice to see you back again Colin! I hope that your treatments have been
okay and that you will stay well for some time to come.
___ ___ _____
/ __| __|_ _| .-.-. _.-._
| (_ | _| | | ('`-'.) ( \ / )
__ \___|___|_|_| _ `.'.' )__O__(
\ \ / / __| | | | __`Y'__ .-.-. ( / \ ) __
\ \/\/ /| _|| |__| |__ ;-_\|/,-`. ( `.' ) `-._.-'/.')
\_/\_/_|___|____|____| `--'`--' `. .' :|//_/
/ __|/ _ \ / _ \| \| | __`Y'__ |;.'
\__ \ (_) | (_) | .` | ;-_\|/,-; )/
|___/\___/ \___/|_|\_| |/` //
//
'
The flowers are not mine, but I unfortunately can`t locate the credits for
them in my files... so hopefully someone else can pinpoint the creators.
Bye,
-Martin
_
____.Martin Atkins AKA mga.____ / |
""""-mart.atkins bigfoot.com-"""" /@ |
___________________________________/___|_
__/___| o o o o o o o o o o o A _______
| _-"
-________________\ \____________-"
\_____\ mga
If you are new to the newsgroup, please read
our FAQ list - posted weekly and on the web
at http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm
>5. <snip> > * 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. Windows standard (or common to most programs supporting it) is Alt while selecting text. > [MONOSPACED FONTS] > <snup> > |Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Shouldn't this be "or another monospaced font" <snap>
.----- On Wed, 06 Jan 1999 13:30:27 +1100, Reiner Richter posted:
|>5. <snip>
|> * 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.
|
|Windows standard (or common to most programs supporting it) is Alt while
|selecting text.
|
|> [MONOSPACED FONTS]
|> <snup>
|> |Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|Shouldn't this be "or another monospaced font"
|
|<snap>
'------------------------
Oh... I didn`t scroll down enough to see that Colin had included my
'MiniFAQ' too... yes that is an old version of it before I spotted the minor
typo... this is how it reads in *my* file...
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this
in all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from
the left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the
list, please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along
with what operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another fixed width font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
As for the other point, I`ll leave that one to Matthew Thomas... It`s his
FAQ after all :o)
Thanks!
-Martin
_
____.Martin Atkins AKA mga.____ / |
""""-mart.atkins bigfoot.com-"""" /@ |
___________________________________/___|_
__/___| o o o o o o o o o o o A _______
| _-"
-________________\ \____________-"
\_____\ mga
If you are new to the newsgroup, please read
our FAQ list - posted weekly and on the web
at http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ _ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art 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
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 symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol 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 (ugh)
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.
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 news:alt.test,
news: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 one of the ASCII art discussion
groups looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group 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 an ordinary 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 newsreader 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,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name 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 using a smaller font (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 and 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
value to another (eg change 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_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't 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 group (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. 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
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art 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 available 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 poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art 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, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or 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 discussion group,
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. 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; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) 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 be
brief, (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 news: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 and
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.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
>-----------------------------------------------------<
__ __ _
| \/ | ___ _ __ ___ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ __| |
| |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
| | | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_| __/ (_| |
|_|_ |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
/ _| ___ _ __ | |_ ___ |_|
| |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
| _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
|_| \___/|_| |_|\__|___/
Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced, or
fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below and find
a font on your system that is on the list.
Windows: FixedSys
Courier New
Courier
Lucida Console
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus, Homerton, System (all three in Resources)
If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this in
all fonts available:
iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|
In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from the
left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the list,
please email mar...@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along with what
operating system/computer it is from.
.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another proportional font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_____ _
|_ _|____ _| |_
| |/ _ \ \/ / __|
| | __/> <| |_
_|_|\___/_/\_\\__|
| ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __ ___
| _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
| |__| (_| | | || (_) | | \__ \
|_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |___/
A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor but
without text formatting functions.
Unix: vi
pico
emacs
jed
joe
ed
Windows95: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
EDIT.COM (Comes with windows!)
MicroEMACS
EditPad
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
TextPad (www.textpad.com)
Windows3: Notepad (Comes with Windows!)
MicroEMACS
PFE
UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com)
MSDOS: EDIT.COM (Comes with DOS 5 and 6 - Type EDIT at command line)
QEdit
MicroEmacs
GNU Emacs
Amiga: Ed (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
MicroEMACS (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
Blacks Editor
CygnusEd
AZ
NotePad (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
AppleMac: Nisus
SimpleText (included with MacOS)
TeachText (included with MacOS)
Saint Edit (shareware $10)
BBEdit (commercial but free light version is available)
Tex-Edit Plus (shareware)
Linux: joe
nedit
Acorn: !Edit (in Resources)
>-----------------------------------------------------<
_ ____ ____ ___ ___
/ \ / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _ _ _ _ _
/ _ \ \___ \| | | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
/ ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
/_/ \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
--------------------------- \___/ \__|_|_|___/
Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:
* FIGlet
This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
these lists are a good example.
A few more examples:
_____ ___ ____ _ _
| ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
| |_ | | | _| |/ _ \ __|
| _| | | |_| | | __/ |_
|_| |___\____|_|\___|\__|
88888888888 88 ,ad8888ba, 88
88 88 d8"' `"8b 88 ,d
88 88 d8' 88 88
88aaaaa 88 88 88 ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
88""""" 88 88 88888 88 a8P_____88 88
88 88 Y8, 88 88 8PP""""""" 88
88 88 Y8a. .a88 88 "8b, ,aa 88,
88 88 `"Y88888P" 88 `"Ybbd8"' "Y888
8"""" 8 8""""8
8 8 8 " e eeee eeeee
8eeee 8e 8e 8 8 8
88 88 88 ee 8e 8eee 8e
88 88 88 8 88 88 88
88 88 88eee8 88eee 88ee 88
Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions
of FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/
There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
If required, I will email FigDos and the GUI in one zip file -
just email mar...@bigfoot.com and ask!
* GIFscii
GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF)
and convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant,
but can serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture
Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere.
Versions are available for a wide variety of operating systems
and computer types.
Try the following URLs for a starting point
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
[URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]
.- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.
| ;$XXHXXXXXXX+. |
| :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$. |
| /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/ |
| /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH% |
| .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH; |
| ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX. |
| .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX; |
| =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$ |
| /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX- |
| %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/ |
| XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$. |
|.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|
|,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|
|-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|
|=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|
|=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|
|=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|
|-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|
| //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|
| %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|
| =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|
| $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|
'------------------- for Windows! -'
>-----------------------------------------------------<
.-----------------------------------------.
|Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
| * Veronica Karlsson |
| * Jorn Barger |
| * Colin Douthwaite |
| * Randy Gardner |
| * Ilmari Karonen |
| * aardvarko |
| * gumby |
| * Valentin Valciu |
| * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw |
| * llizard |
| * Sami Sihvonen |
| * Doug Wilson |
| * Brock Kevin Nambo |
| * Cipher |
| * Ben Norwood |
| * Matthew Thomas |
'-----------------------------------------'
>------------- Last Updated 14-05-98 -----------------<
Also available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
__ __ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
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
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| | ||| | | |||| | | | || || [.[.]-=##
| | ||| | | |||| | | | || || /_ )#
| | ||| | | |||| | | | || || |__/ #
0 1 8 4 3 9 0 8 3 2 2 \___/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/palmer666/
> 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 (_) `.__.' `.__.' `.___.' `-._____.-' `"""'' I posted the "How to draw ASCII shapes - Tutorial" to supplement this section > 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) Should I put it on a webpage ? Yes I think I should. BTW I believe Krogg made a nice tutorial once. > 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/. Suggestion : http://www.jave.de > 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/. how about adding the DMOZ category and the Zeal category too ? And a few of the huge collections out there .. http://www.ascii-art.de f.x (If you're wondering if there is a www.ascii-art.com then Yes .. there is - It reroutes to Joans site) > 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. http://www.jave.de
Because of the amazing speed with which my newsserver throws messages
out, I have missed the beginning of this thread. I apologize if some
of this is repetition. However, I just received e-mail that the link
on my pages to Matthew's FAQ was broken. I went to Andreas Freise's
site, copied the FAQ and have now put that FAQ (with a few minor
alterations) on my pages.
The URL is http://llizard.crosswinds.net/ascii-art/ascii-art_FAQ.html
I saw that there were a number of broken links in the "figlet"
section. For the moment, I have merely crossed out the links that used
to work when Matthew wrote the FAQ.
Also, for those of you who still have the FAQ on your sites, please
note that my javascript ascii-animation lesson is no longer housed on
geocities. It is now at
http://llizard.crosswinds.net/ascii-art/animation/animlesson.htm
__ __ __ _
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) ||
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
-llizard
--
llizard aka ejm >%^7^^^7^^
llizard@idirec+.ca
ASCII-art & ASCII-animation
www.crosswinds.net/~llizard/ascii-art/
NOTE: If you are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to
"idirct"; its absence is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
CeeJay wrote: > > > BTW I believe Krogg made a nice tutorial once. You are thinking of JRO,It was he who was on the path to putting togather a set of tutorials..Then suddenly he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i doin, a grown man making a freeking TUTORIAL on drawring stick figures with text."It was one of then epiffany things or something,then he went on to start a neat little ascii comic book style type of thing about a post nuked future.Then all of a sudden he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i doin, spending hours at a time tipity typing little keys,poking and pecking at these silly buttons,mashing them in all sorts of ways,just to make silly little stick figures with text"..then there were a couple of other itterations of the same kind,and finally,he just stopped... Oh,ya,he was having a hellllll of a time with his ISP,and got pretty fustrated...on top of other things... I on the otherhand,made a small reference called the "Levels of Politeness"... -- |"""""<`.THE PRINCE ,'>"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""| | `.`/""""""\,',' my sig is too big, | |SEE HIS ( / \ \' SEE HIS but its really cool. | | FACE \/<> <>\/ SMILE | | / W \ Visit my ascii art site: | | ,'\_|||||_/`. http://www.gtcom.net/~krogg/ascii/ | | ,',' ||| `.`. kro...@gtcom.net | |____<,' TIME TO DIE `.>____Remove no.to.spam to reply____|
I can see problems ahead if several different modified versions of this FAQ are created.
But more importantly, let's not forget this:-
Author: Matthew Thomas
Version: 2.0
Last changed: 1998-05-10
Don't you think that the author might be concerned about changes to his document?
--
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/
<snip> > -- > llizard aka ejm >%^7^^^7^^ > llizard@idirec+.ca > ASCII-art & ASCII-animation > www.crosswinds.net/~llizard/ascii-art/ > > NOTE: If you are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to > "idirct"; its absence is to stop the torment of automatic mailers. This is a bit confusing. If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? Am I missing the point? Is this a deliberate double disguise? btw What about NO_POLLUTIONwildmail.com? ______________________________________________________________________ / \ / ______ \ | ##### \ D a v i d P a l m e r / /_ _\ | | #### _\_ \ / |/ \ / \| | | ##=-[.].] \ david.666palmer.ntlworld.com / |\__\/__/| | | #( _\ / \ \ / | | # \__| / http://homepage.ntlworld.com/palmer666 \ \ __ / | | \___/ / \ _\__/_ | | .' `. / ASCII ART, it's not a hobby, it's an obsession! \ / \ | \________/___________________________________________________\_________/
--(Once apon a time, in alt.ascii-art,)-- --(David Palmer said it like only they can.)-- ><snip> > >> -- >> llizard aka ejm >%^7^^^7^^ >> llizard@idirec+.ca >> ASCII-art & ASCII-animation >> www.crosswinds.net/~llizard/ascii-art/ >> >> NOTE: If you are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to >> "idirct"; its absence is to stop the torment of automatic mailers. > > This is a bit confusing. > If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". > Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail client and is a bad choice something like id_r_ct relace the "_"s with "e"s would be better -- --(tty...@faux.local|04:45|/home/faux)-- cat .sig GUI's are for slackers. Get ibpconf.sh 6.1 on freshmeat.net It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. - Andrew Jackson
> I can see problems ahead if several different modified versions of this FAQ are created. > > But more importantly, let's not forget this:- > > Author: Matthew Thomas > Version: 2.0 > Last changed: 1998-05-10 > > Don't you think that the author might be concerned about changes to his document? Is'nt Matthew Thomas (wow two first names) the maintainer of the FAQ , not the sole author ? Anyways it needs updating and if Matthew can be contacted to do it then great , otherwise I think we need a new maintainer.
On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:58:20 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) enlightened us with: > --(Once apon a time, in alt.ascii-art,)-- > --(David Palmer said it like only they can.)-- > ><snip> > > > >> -- > >> llizard aka ejm >%^7^^^7^^ > >> llizard@idirec+.ca > >> ASCII-art & ASCII-animation > >> www.crosswinds.net/~llizard/ascii-art/ > >> > >> NOTE: If you are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to > >> "idirct"; its absence is to stop the torment of automatic mailers. > > > > This is a bit confusing. > > If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". > > Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? > > actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail > client and is a bad choice > something like id_r_ct relace the "_"s with "e"s would be better > Not very much better, as email would be sent to iderect.ca -- o |\ _[] L_ === Stuart Moore []\, stm
On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:58:20 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) provoked the following text: >> This is a bit confusing. >> If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". >> Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? > >actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail >client and is a bad choice Just curious, what would happen if it did pass a sendmail client? -- Peter Punk \ / ---\\\\--- / \ Op zoek gaan naar buitenaards leven? Kijk op http://home.hetnet.nl/~setiathomegroep/index.html voor tips, antwoorden, discussies. links, downloads en meer. 1560wu/2.268yrs When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers. -- The Wall Street Journal
On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 18:18:24 GMT, ppu...@damthatspam.chello.nl (Peter Punk) wrote: >On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:58:20 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) >provoked the following text: > >> >>actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail >>client and is a bad choice > >Just curious, what would happen if it did pass a sendmail client? >-- > Peter Punk > \ / > ---\\\\--- > / \ > well, you would have to clean the mess Peter...... ObASCIImopandpail: || || || .---. || c' 'c (()) \-----/ )))) \___/ (((( .......................... -- _________________________________________________ /| _____________________________________________ | //| | _ _ _ _______ _____ | | // | | | \/ \/ \\__ __\ _ \ .irc.bluedwarf.net.| | //__| | | \ \ \_ \ \ __/ .www.bluedwarf.net.| | \\ | | | \__\ \ \\ \ \ | | \\ | | |_____\ \__\_____\___\ -=MikeChat=- | | \\| |_____________________________________________| | \|_________________________________________________|
On Mon, 3 Sep 2001 06:23:50 +0100, "David Palmer" <dav...@ntlworld.com> wrote: > * 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). Maybe not a line starting with a '.' as some misconfigured newsreaders or news servers may either (a) think that line is the end of the post, or (b) add another dot in front of it. Commas are fine. Cheers, Philip -- Philip Newton <nos...@gmx.li> That really is my address; no need to remove anything to reply. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:58:20 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) wrote: > actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail > client and is a bad choice But only in the local-part, not the domain, I would have thought? Cheers, Philip -- Philip Newton <nos...@gmx.li> That really is my address; no need to remove anything to reply. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
--(Once apon a time, in alt.ascii-art,)-- --(Peter Punk said it like only they can.)-- > On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:58:20 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) > provoked the following text: > >>> This is a bit confusing. >>> If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". >>> Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? >> >>actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail >>client and is a bad choice > > Just curious, what would happen if it did pass a sendmail client? Well since you asked. If you pass something like foo...@notarealdomain.xyz sendmail will see foo@... but will pass it on as foo+bar@... This way you can do something like foo+amazon_spam@... when asked for an email address by amazon and then see if amazon is selling your name to anyone else. The problem is that non-sendmail clients might not see things that way and will see foo+bar and try to deliver to foo+bar and sence no admin would let someone use + in a user name the message would bounce back to whoever sent it. At least thats my understanding of things. You may want to veriphy that with someone else. So when i say its a bad choice its not realy that sendmail might mind but some other clients might. -- --(tty...@faux.local|04:45|/home/faux)-- cat .sig GUI's are for slackers. Get ibpconf.sh 6.1 on freshmeat.net It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. - Andrew Jackson
CeeJay wrote: > > Is'nt Matthew Thomas (wow two first names) the maintainer of the FAQ , not the > sole author ? No, he wrote it. Then people criticised it and made suggestions, and then he changed it until everybody could accept it, but he's still the author. > Anyways it needs updating and if Matthew can be contacted to do it then great , > otherwise I think we need a new maintainer. Why not ask him? -- (, http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/asciichat/ /|__--__ . __--__ |\ '__ /|\ _{ _ `.' / `.,_ _________ | _________ _,.' (/ `. / ||``._.' ASCII ART CHAT! `---'|:||,/ .' /| /|:| \ .' /\ \ __ __ _ `/|'\' ` `,/ /`,\ \ \ / /__ _ _ ___ _ _ (_)__ __ _ /,'\ \ .'.' /| \ V / -_) '_/ _ \ ' \| / _/ _` | |\ `.`. ,' / / | \_/\___|_| \___/_||_|_\__\__,_| | \ \ `, - `- -- `-'- -ejm-------------------------------------VK-- -`-' -- -' -
On Thu, 06 Sep 2001 10:26:01 GMT, Fau...@yahoo.comERCIAL (Faux_Pseudo) provoked the following text: >>>> This is a bit confusing. >>>> If I add an "e" to "idirct" it makes "idircte". >>>> Perhaps I should replace the "+" in "idirec+" with "t" to make "iderect" ? >>> >>>actualy the + has special meaning if it passes though a sendmail mail >>>client and is a bad choice >> >> Just curious, what would happen if it did pass a sendmail client? > >Well since you asked. > If you pass something like foo...@notarealdomain.xyz sendmail > will see foo@... but will pass it on as foo+bar@... This way you can do > something like foo+amazon_spam@... when asked for an email > address by amazon and then see if amazon is selling your name to > anyone else. The problem is that non-sendmail clients might not > see things that way and will see foo+bar and try to deliver to > foo+bar and sence no admin would let someone use + in a user name > the message would bounce back to whoever sent it. > > At least thats my understanding of things. You may want to > veriphy that with someone else. > > So when i say its a bad choice its not realy that sendmail might > mind but some other clients might. Okay, i understand now. Thanks for the explanation. -- Peter Punk \ / ---\\\\--- / \ Op zoek gaan naar buitenaards leven? Kijk op http://home.hetnet.nl/~setiathomegroep/index.html voor tips, antwoorden, discussies. links, downloads en meer. 1561wu/2.269yrs Anyone 14 or older who profanely curses, damns or swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be fined one to three dollars for each offense, with a maximum fine of ten dollars per day. (Indiana state law)
Such a shame, he was always my favourite artist, such a talent! Andrew > "Krogg" <kro...@gtcom.net> wrote > in message news:3B9...@gtcom.net... > > You are thinking of JRO,It was he who was on the path to putting togather > a set of tutorials..Then suddenly he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i doin, > a grown man making a freeking TUTORIAL on drawring stick figures with > text."It was one of then epiffany things or something,then he went on to > start a neat little ascii comic book style type of thing about a post > nuked future.Then all of a sudden he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i doin, > spending hours at a time tipity typing little keys,poking and pecking at > these silly buttons,mashing them in all sorts of ways,just to make > silly little stick figures with text"..then there were a couple of > other itterations of the same kind,and finally,he just stopped...
Oh wait stupid me, although JRO was good, I was actually thinking of Joris Bellinger (B'Ger) when I typed the message! I must go to sleep..... Andrew "Andrew Carpenter" <and...@gloucestershire.freeserve.co.yuk> wrote in message news:9n94ld$9jd$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk... > Such a shame, he was always my favourite artist, such a talent! > > Andrew > > > > > "Krogg" <kro...@gtcom.net> wrote > > in message news:3B9...@gtcom.net... > > > > You are thinking of JRO,It was he who was on the path to putting > togather > > a set of tutorials..Then suddenly he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i > doin, > > a grown man making a freeking TUTORIAL on drawring stick figures with > > text."It was one of then epiffany things or something,then he went on > to > > start a neat little ascii comic book style type of thing about a post > > nuked future.Then all of a sudden he was like,"oh,my gawd,what am i > doin, > > spending hours at a time tipity typing little keys,poking and pecking > at > > these silly buttons,mashing them in all sorts of ways,just to make > > silly little stick figures with text"..then there were a couple of > > other itterations of the same kind,and finally,he just stopped... > > >
Hi all
I represent a company called ScanConsult. We are looking for an ASCII
representation of a logo to a system we have developed.
Out company makes software systems for airline companies. Our main
product is called ParaCraft, and is a cargo handling system. The
system takes care of all necessary "paperwork" connected to the cargo,
while it is transported from airport to airport, and even some in
extension of that.
It is a UNIX-based system, and among other things it can create a lot
of printouts (statistics, logistics, economic etc...). It is for those
printouts where we need a decent logo to be printed on top of the
first page.
The logo must show the name of the product (ParaCraft - note: capital
'P' and 'C'), and should show part of our company logo. In addition,
it could show something connected to air cargo handling. But it needs
to look professional and clean - no need for fancy stuff. It have to
be easy to read and understand, and not distracting in any way.
Max. size is 70 characters on 20 lines. It need to be standard 7-bit
ASCII, so it can be printed on any standard printer with a fixed-width
font.
Any help will be appreciated.
I don't want to post binaries in this group, so to look at our logo,
go to this page:
http://home16.inet.tele.dk/cobra/scanconsult.htm
And here is what we have designed ourselves so far:
Any suggestions for improvement will be most welcome.
___ _______
. / __ | __ \
/ / | | \ \____ _ _______
o | |__/ /___ \ | |/ ____ \
| ____/ ___| | | / ___| |
o | | / __ | | / / __ |
| | ( (__| |_| | ( (__| |
O |__| \___,_____/ \___,__\
____________________ ______
O . / _________________// ____//|
O . / / _ _______ | | | |
O o | | | |/ ____ \ | |____| |___
O o o | | | / ___| | | ____ __/
| | | / / __ | | | | | __
\ \____| | ( (__| |_| | | |_/ /
\________| \___,_____/ \____/
Thanks in advance
Benny Moeller
Home email: ben...@mail.tele.dk
Work email: b...@scanconsult.dk
On Fri, 09 Nov 2001 21:27:11 +0100, The Cobra <cob...@home.now> wrote: >go to this page: >http://home16.inet.tele.dk/cobra/scanconsult.htm > >And here is what we have designed ourselves so far: >Any suggestions for improvement will be most welcome. > > ___ _______ > . / __ | __ \ > / / | | \ \____ _ _______ > o | |__/ /___ \ | |/ ____ \ > | ____/ ___| | | / ___| | > o | | / __ | | / / __ | > | | ( (__| |_| | ( (__| | > O |__| \___,_____/ \___,__\ > ____________________ ______ > O . / _________________// ____//| > O . / / _ _______ | | | | > O o | | | |/ ____ \ | |____| |___ > O o o | | | / ___| | | ____ __/ > | | | / / __ | | | | | __ > \ \____| | ( (__| |_| | | |_/ / > \________| \___,_____/ \____/ > >Thanks in advance > >Benny Moeller >Home email: ben...@mail.tele.dk >Work email: b...@scanconsult.dk > ``^::::=., `::; _,oop ;; -==>> _,,8P"' '.' ;' od8' / / 88P' _____ d8P' / ____| d8P' | (___ ___ __ _ _ __ ___ _ _ d8' \___ \ / __/ _` | '_ \ / __|___ _ _ ____ _| | |_ ,8P ____) | (_| (_| | | | || (__/ _ \ ' \(_-< || | | _| d8 |_____/ \___\__,_|_| |_| \___\___/_||_/__/\_,_|_|\__| d8 ______ _ d8 | | |_) _ ___|___ _ __ _ Y8L ,8P_|_ | | (_| | |_| |(/_ | _> `Y8o. ,o8' `Y8ooo_____ ___,ood8P' '`""""PPPPPPPPPPPP"""'' eh, paragliders need work -- _________________________________________________ /| _____________________________________________ | //| | _ _ _ _______ _____ | | // | | | \/ \/ \\__ __\ _ \ .irc.bluedwarf.net.| | //__| | | \ \ \_ \ \ __/ .www.bluedwarf.net.| | \\ | | | \__\ \ \\ \ \ | | \\ | | |_____\ \__\_____\___\ -=MikeChat=- | | \\| |_____________________________________________| | \|_________________________________________________|
Hi Banny!
I gave it a shot.
65 chars, 17 lines - what do you think?
'*##q,,,
"WWD
_,-'" WP -qqr
.,-' P T"
.q*' ' '
,P'
,P' TM
.#' 888b. .d88b d8b w
.; 8 .8 .d88 8d8b .d88 8P 8d8b .d88 8' w8ww
P 8wwP' 8 8 8P 8 8 8b 8P 8 8 w8ww 8
d 8 `Y88 8 `Y88 `Y88P 8 `Y88 8 Y8P
#
*b
*b ,'
'T;. _.- [lf]
"*r._ _ . -'
'""**----''''
On Fri, 09 Nov 2001 21:27:11 +0100, The Cobra <cob...@home.now> wrote:
>Hi all
>
>I represent a company called ScanConsult. We are looking for an ASCII
>representation of a logo to a system we have developed.
>
>Out company makes software systems for airline companies. Our main
>product is called ParaCraft, and is a cargo handling system. The
>system takes care of all necessary "paperwork" connected to the cargo,
>while it is transported from airport to airport, and even some in
>extension of that.
>
>It is a UNIX-based system, and among other things it can create a lot
>of printouts (statistics, logistics, economic etc...). It is for those
>printouts where we need a decent logo to be printed on top of the
>first page.
>
>The logo must show the name of the product (ParaCraft - note: capital
>'P' and 'C'), and should show part of our company logo. In addition,
>it could show something connected to air cargo handling. But it needs
>to look professional and clean - no need for fancy stuff. It have to
>be easy to read and understand, and not distracting in any way.
>
>Max. size is 70 characters on 20 lines. It need to be standard 7-bit
>ASCII, so it can be printed on any standard printer with a fixed-width
>font.
>
>Any help will be appreciated.
>
>I don't want to post binaries in this group, so to look at our logo,
>go to this page:
>http://home16.inet.tele.dk/cobra/scanconsult.htm
>
>And here is what we have designed ourselves so far:
>Any suggestions for improvement will be most welcome.
>
> ___ _______
> . / __ | __ \
> / / | | \ \____ _ _______
> o | |__/ /___ \ | |/ ____ \
> | ____/ ___| | | / ___| |
> o | | / __ | | / / __ |
> | | ( (__| |_| | ( (__| |
> O |__| \___,_____/ \___,__\
> ____________________ ______
> O . / _________________// ____//|
> O . / / _ _______ | | | |
> O o | | | |/ ____ \ | |____| |___
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>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Benny Moeller
>Home email: ben...@mail.tele.dk
>Work email: b...@scanconsult.dk
Hi!
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WiktorM
"The Cobra" <cob...@home.now> wrote in message news:iue...@4ax.com... > Hi all > > I represent a company called ScanConsult. We are looking for an ASCII > representation of a logo to a system we have developed. > > Out company makes software systems for airline companies. Our main > product is called ParaCraft, and is a cargo handling system. The > system takes care of all necessary "paperwork" connected to the cargo, > while it is transported from airport to airport, and even some in > extension of that. > > It is a UNIX-based system, and among other things it can create a lot > of printouts (statistics, logistics, economic etc...). It is for those > printouts where we need a decent logo to be printed on top of the > first page. > > The logo must show the name of the product (ParaCraft - note: capital > 'P' and 'C'), and should show part of our company logo. In addition, > it could show something connected to air cargo handling. But it needs > to look professional and clean - no need for fancy stuff. It have to > be easy to read and understand, and not distracting in any way. > > Max. size is 70 characters on 20 lines. It need to be standard 7-bit > ASCII, so it can be printed on any standard printer with a fixed-width > font. > > Any help will be appreciated. > > I don't want to post binaries in this group, so to look at our logo, > go to this page: > http://home16.inet.tele.dk/cobra/scanconsult.htm > > And here is what we have designed ourselves so far: > Any suggestions for improvement will be most welcome. > > ___ _______ > . / __ | __ \ > / / | | \ \____ _ _______ > o | |__/ /___ \ | |/ ____ \ > | ____/ ___| | | / ___| | > o | | / __ | | / / __ | > | | ( (__| |_| | ( (__| | > O |__| \___,_____/ \___,__\ > ____________________ ______ > O . / _________________// ____//| > O . / / _ _______ | | | | > O o | | | |/ ____ \ | |____| |___ > O o o | | | / ___| | | ____ __/ > | | | / / __ | | | | | __ > \ \____| | ( (__| |_| | | |_/ / > \________| \___,_____/ \____/ > > Thanks in advance my attempt at it. thinking that the picture is more involved than you wanted but i am enjoying the use of . : ' at the moment also used figlet for the font (speed) good luck. '''.:::::' ':::' ...' ::' '.:::' ..:'' :' ::' .:'' ' ' .:'' ________ .:' _____ __ \_____ _____________ _ .:' _____ /_/ / __ `/_ ___/ __ `/ .:' ____ ____// /_/ /_ / / /_/ / ::' /_/ \__,_/ /_/ \__,_/ ::' __________ ____________ .:' ____ ____/____________ ___ __/_ /_ ::: ____ / __ ___/ __ `/_ /_ _ __/ ::. / /___ _ / / /_/ /_ __/ / /_ ::. \____/ /_/ \__,_/ /_/ \__/ '::. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ '::. ..' '::. ..'' ''::... ..:::''' '''''::::::::::::::::''''' --lgbeard
On Fri, 09 Nov 2001 21:27:11 +0100, The Cobra <cob...@home.now> wrote: Hi all Thanks to all who have responded to my posting regarding a new logo for our product. I do not have the final saying in the matter, but I have forwarded your suggestions to my boss, who will look at the suggestions, and i will return with the result later. /Benny Moeller
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