the fine art of making pictures for character based terminals and printers, using only standard Ascii characters.
That is, only codes 0x20 - 0x7e are allowed. Ascii-Art is designed for monospaced fonts like Courier.
short one-line symbols representing a (smiling) human face, best seen when either you turn your head or your monitor by 90 degrees :-) Smileys can be inserted anywhere in a text and reflect the autor's feeling at the remark he just made. Smileys are popular in emails, news and can even be found in source-code of programs.
Some examples:
:-) the standard smiley, happy face, the author is joking ;-) twinkling, or a smiling pirate :-( sad face
Example: the problem-solving algorithm
YES ============================= NO
+-----------|| Does the Darn Thing work? ||-----------+
| ============================= |
V V
+----------+ +---------+ +---------+
| Don't | NO | Does | +-------+ YES | Did you |
| mess | +---| anyone |<------| YOU |<---------| mess |
| with it! | | | know? | | MORON | | with it |
+----------+ | +---------+ +-------+ +---------+
| V | YES | NO
| +------+ +-----------+ |
| | HIDE | V V
| | IT | +--------+ +-----------+
| +------+ | YOU | YES | WILL THEY |
| | +------->| POOR |<------------| CATCH YOU?|
| | | |BASTARD!| +-----------+
| | | |________| | NO
| | | | |
| | | V V
| | | +---------------+ +-----------+
| | | NO | CAN YOU BLAME | |DESTROY THE|
| | +------| SOMEONE ELSE? | | EVIDENCE |
| | +---------------+ +-----------+
| | | YES |
| | v |
| | ============================ |
| +---->|| N O ||<---------+
+------------>|| P R O B L E M ||
============================
_ ___ _____ _____ ___ ___ _____ _ _ ___ | | | __!|_ _||_ _|| __! | _ ) |_ _|| \| | / __! | |_ | __! | | | | | __! | \ _| |_ | || \_ \ !___!!___! !_! !_! !___! !_!\_\!_____!!_!\_| \___/
A classical program to generate big letters in many fonts is FIGLET (Frank, Ian and Glenn's LETters).
/\_/\ ( o.o ) > ^ < |
(o_ (o_ //\ (/)_ V_/_ |
..::::::::. ::::::::::::: /. `::::::::::: o__,_::::::::::' |
A/~~\A ((o o)) \ / (--) |
(@< (< ) ^^ |
_ _ (_)_(_) (o o) ==\o/== |
^..^ ( oo ) )~ ,, ,, |
__ \ ______/ V`-, } /~~ /_)^ --,r' |b |b |
___ (o,o) < . > --"-"-- |
_o) /_/// (____> |
o /|\ / \ |
\ o / | / \ |
_ o | | \ |
__\o /) | |
__| \o (\ |
\ / | /o\ |
|__ o/ /) |
o/__ | (\ |
o _ /\ / | |
\ o / | / \ |
o /|\ / \ |
Popular objects are animals, flowers, starships,... Size goes from a few lines to full-page. Small pictures are often used in signatures of emails. They were also used to illustrate text-based computer games, or in terminal login-screens. They can even be found in Web-pages instead of (larger) GIF images, or as ASCII <HR> tag.
\./
(o o)
-------------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo-------------------------
Stereograms, like this Snowman by Rowan Crawford.
.-~~\ :::::: .-~~\ ::::::
/ \ _ |::::| / \ _ |::::|
~x .-~_)_ l~~~~! ~x .-~_)_ l~~~~!
~>x".-~ ~-. \RC/ ~x".-~ ~-. \RC/
_ ( / \ || _ ( / \ ||
|| T o o Y || || T o o Y||
==:l l < ! (3 ==:l l < !(3
\\ \ .__/ / /|| \\ \ ._/ / ||
\\ ,r"-,___.-'r.//|| \\,r"-,___.-'r/||
}^ \.( ) _.'//.|| }^\. ( ) _.-//||
/ }~Xi--~ // || / }~Xi--~ // ||\
Y Y I\ \ " || Y Y I\ \ " || Y
| | |o\ \ || | | |o\ \ || |
| l_l Y T || | l_l Y T || |
l "o l_j |! l "o l_j || !
\ || \ ||/
.--^. o -Row .^||. .--^. o -Row ||--.
" ~ `' " ~`'
In greyscale images, characters are not only used for their shape, but also for their intensity.
Some images are made to be printed (or to view with a black font on a bright background); most of them should be viewed with white characters on a dark blackground. If they are viewed the wrong way, they generally look like "negatives".
Exemple 1, top half of a picture by Susie Oviatt
.
.@. .
@m@,. .@
.@m%nm@,. .@m@
.@nvv%vnmm@,. .@mn%n@
.@mnvvv%vvnnmm@,. .@mmnv%vn@,
@mmnnvvv%vvvvvnnmm@,. .@mmnnvvv%vvnm@
@mmnnvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm@, ;;;@mmnnvvvvv%vvvnm@,
`@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvvnnmmm;;@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvnmm@
`@mmmnnvvvvvv%vvvnnmmm;%mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm@
`@m%v%v%v%v%v;%;%;%;%;%;%;%%%vv%vvvvnnnmm@
.,mm@@@@@mm%;;@@m@m@@m@@m@mm;;%%vvvnnnmm@;@,.
.,@mmmmmmvv%%;;@@vmvvvvvvvvvmvm@@;;%%vvnnm@;%mmm@,
.,@mmnnvvvvv%%;;@@vvvvv%%%%%%%vvvvmm@@;;%%mm@;%%nnnnm@,
.,@mnnvv%v%v%v%%;;@mmvvvv%%;*;*;%%vvvvmmm@;;%m;%%v%v%v%vmm@,.
,@mnnvv%v%v%v%v%v%v%;;@@vvvv%%;*;*;*;%%vvvvm@@;;m%%%v%v%v%v%v%vnnm@,
` `@mnnvv%v%v%v%%;;@mvvvvv%%;;*;;%%vvvmmmm@;;%m;%%v%v%v%vmm@' '
`@mmnnvvvvv%%;;@@mvvvv%%%%%%%vvvvmm@@;;%%mm@;%%nnnnm@'
`@mmmmmmvv%%;;@@mvvvvvvvvvvmmm@@;;%%mmnmm@;%mmm@'
`mm@@@@@mm%;;@m@@m@m@m@@m@@;;%%vvvvvnmm@;@'
,@m%v%v%v%v%v;%;%;%;%;%;%;%;%vv%vvvvvnnmm@
.@mmnnvvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm%mmnnvvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm@
.@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm'`@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvnnmm@
@mmnnvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm@':%::`@mmnnvvvv%vvvnm@'
@mmnnvvv%vvvvvnnmm@'`:::%%:::'`@mmnnvv%vvmm@
`@mnvvv%vvnnmm@' `:;%%;:' `@mvv%vm@'
`@mnv%vnnm@' `;%;' `@n%n@
`@m%mm@' ;%;. `@m@
@m@' `;%; `@
`@' ;%;. '
` `;%;
Example 2, picture of Albert Einstein by the Scarecrow
This image should be viewed from a certain distance (1 meter), and must be displayed white on black. I set the appropriate colors with HTML flags. If your browser doesn't show the picture correctly, you must change your display options manually.
:(!!:
..:::tNi@Nin!+: :::xr
'!)Q88i@8888NNidbo@Ni8ir
.s:S988TR88RX*###RB8888i:x
x+RRX88888NL#?!< :(?#RR888bX
!MN*#M#*BRR#8iXxi@NUX!MN88888:
(x@T!M!::(R8H@888888888xX88888#=
x8W8Ui@!~!XMMM9M8RRRRBMMM!T588.
.N8888M<<<~!#MXMHM8N888RMR(9R888N!.
XQ888M!(:::sxXU!?MTT222#MM(?M8888~!
988NMMf(!!~`"!Rk:X!"""#*N!:~!T588 !
"R(#MF `( "!!~ ~(9XN#88XX(:
"%/9" x~ :L XH?R?M888x%
xi/ ~M:u::~ (88)x(:(uuUF(~*"(?8!~
X38M::#M88R::d(88k9bxH888f4r o((Ri
'!88N!!X6?M?i8#(88Rt88NMR9%!!'8:(?8!
#R?(:~B:M88~ 488H~"88XM8~ ~HRtxH#
+++x8!:('8!@8!. ""!:.#8M8# ~(!@!M?::
-(!#\x~:.?(M~ <<::;;>> ?%8xx!:i:`MHbLX
:*:!!:nM.~!~`<<! <`~" d(?98NHRNi!?888eu.
` `xH98MN. '~~:. ?:x888!888xd88888f
:@8R?R?88ex .boba94 WM888M88(W888888f
.oX"#MMX!!R88b ~"##**".d8f?RRX8PW8888888f
.u8888iXMMnWU7T#@s. @88kX888RN88888888f
.@888888NK9*MR88N86Q:.. x8T888R#88888888888f
x8888888888@iX#M@8888888N88888#X@88888888888f
d88888888888kM888NN868RRRRRRR5b@8888888888888f
|
Ansi (VT100) terminals (or MS-DOS, when the ANSI.SYS driver is loaded) support certain control sequences to clear the screen, move the cursor or change the colours; these control sequences begin with the code <ESC> (0x1b), so files containing control sequences are no regular ASCII-art files. Because they cannot be viewed with every newsreader, they should not be posted to newsgroups; and when so, they must be "encapsuled" (uu-encoded) with a special program.
ANSI codes allow two special features:
colour: newer Web-browsers support commands to change colours in a text. There are colour ASCII images on the Web (for example, on Allen Mullen's site), which use these codes instead of ANSI control sequences.
animations: these files contain a series of images, separated by time-delaying control sequences. A special program (for example VTCAT) is needed to play the animation.
There are three newsgroups devoted to ascii-art:
There are several interesting FAQs from:
WWW-Sites:
- ('K 1996-10-19
( \ _ / )
( ( \) Patrick Hahn (phahn@vo.lu)
( /
L L Homepage http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/phahn/default.htm