Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Making ASCII Art

What is ASCII art?

ASCII art is art work made up of standard computer text arranged to present a picture. It was very popular in the early days of the Internet to create amongst other things pictures of attractive lady's. Eventually jpegs and gifs came along to save everyone the trouble. Now a days ASCII art is a wonderful retro way to draw. Scroll down to see an example.

........,+Z$?,...........?OOZZO,.......
.....+Z$$ZZOZZZO~,.,..:ZOZOOOOOOZOI....
....,ZZZZOOOOOO8ZZZ..,$ZZ8OO88888OOZO..
..~Z8ZOOOOOOOOOO8OZZZOOOO88888888OOZO..
..7ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO$OZO888888888O8OZZ,.
.:$OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO88888OOOOOOOOZ8.
.?$OZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO8OOOOOOOOOOZ8.
.=$OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO$ZZZ.
..$OOOOOOOOOOOOOZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOO87OOO..
..$ZOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOZZ$O..
..:$OOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOZZ$8...
...IZZZOZOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOZ$$Z,...
....Z$ZOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOO$Z$O:....
...,..ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOZ$8Z......
.......8Z$ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOIZ7OI.......
........,$ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOO77O8.........
..........Z$ZZZZZZZZZZZZO$?Z8..........
.............$$ZZZZZZZZOO7$$..... .....
.............ZZZZZZZZZOZZO...... ......
..............7$ZZZZZZ$ZZ....... ......
...............OZZZZZZ$Z........ ......
...............,Z$ZOO$$......... ......
.................Z$OZZ+......... ......
..................Z77~.......... ......
................................ .......



How to ASCII

1. First make sure your font is fixed width for example courier.

2.Then make the font as small as possible. The less white space between letters the better.

3. Use more dense letters to create darker edges eg. $$$$$$$ looks darker than OOOOOO.

4. Be creative if your drawing a bird use lots of 'wwwwwww' as its fairly bird shaped.

5. Try not to use spaces. Use ...... as spaces can have odd formats attached.


Suggestions for use
1. An eye catching poster.
2. A love email to a girl.
3. A way to eat into the boring hours at work




1 comment:

  1. ..***...***..
    ..*.*...*.*..
    ..***...***..
    .....^.......
    ....^^^......
    .............
    ..==...==....
    ....===......

    ReplyDelete