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File: academy/faqs/faq_allison.txt |
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http://www.ascii-art.de/info/faq_allison.txt |
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From - Thu Jun 26 21:25:54 1997 |
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From: cfbd@southern.co.nz (Colin Douthwaite) |
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Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art,alt.ascii-art.animation,alt.binaries.pictures.ascii |
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Subject: Ye Olde Ascii Art FAQ ( Bob Allison ) |
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Date: 24 Jun 1997 19:04:34 GMT |
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Message-ID: <5op5o2$qnu$5@mnementh.southern.co.nz> |
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********************** IMPORTANT NOTE ************************ |
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This is a copy of the last Ascii Art FAQ posted before Bob |
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Allison ( Scarecrow ) retired as Moderator of the newsgroup |
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"rec.arts.ascii" in June 1996. |
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There is no guarantee that any of the references to Archives, |
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FTP Sites, Websites and Files are still valid. |
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******************************************************************** |
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Summary: what ASCII art is - why and what it's used for - types of |
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ASCII art how to use FTP, Gopher, WWW - how to save, |
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'uudecode' and uncompress copyright info - how to make big |
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letters and gray scale pictures how to put an animation in |
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your .plan - info on posting ASCII art how to make sigs - |
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how to automatically add a sig to posts and email how to |
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make and view ASCII art - where to get art and tools - more |
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. . |
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' + ` . * . * ' |
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. + . ' . ' . ` . . ' ) . + |
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'. ' _______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ` ______ _______ _______ |
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'. +. /______//______//_____//_____//_____/ . /_____//____ //_______ |
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. . ` _______ _____ '___ + ___ '. ___ ______ _____/ / __ . ' |
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' : / ___ /.\___ \*/ / . / / * / / ' / __ // . __/. '/ / . |
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. ' ./ /. / /_____) // /___ _/ /_ _/ /_ / / / // / \ \ '/ / ' |
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+ . /_/ '/_//______//_____//_____//_____/ './_/ /_//_/ * \_\' /_/ ' |
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+___________________ . ___________________ ' ___________________ ' |
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' / / ./ /. / /' . |
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* /__________________/' /__________________/ / _________ / . |
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' . : ` . + ' . * / / . ' / /. |
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_______________ . ___________________ ' / / ` / / ' |
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. / / '/ /. / / . + / / . * |
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/ __________/ ' . / _________ / / /'. /\/ / ( |
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/ / . / / . / / '/ /______/ / : `. |
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/ ( ' ' / / . + / /. / / . ' |
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___/ . ` /____/. /____/ /________________ / ` |
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Version 4.9.2 April 9, 1996 \/ . |
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. ' * . |
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. ` . |
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. |
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___ ___ _ _ ___ ___ _____ ___ ___ _ _ ___ |
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| | / _ \| | | | __/ __!_ _!_ _/ _ \| \| / __! |
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| | | (_) | |_| | _|\__ \ | | | | (_) | .` \__ \ |
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| | \__\_\\___/!___!___/ !_! !___\___/!_|\_!___/ |
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| | O _ ___ _ _ ______ ___ ____ |
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| | /|\/ |_ _| \| | | ____! / _ \ / __ \ |
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__! !__, / | | || .` | | | | | | | | | | | |
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\ / \O / \ !___!_!\_! | |__ | !_! | | | | | |
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\ / \/| _/___\_ _ ___ ___ | __! | _ | | | | | |
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\ / | !_ _| |_| |_ _/ __! | | | | | | | | | | |
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\ / / \ | | | _ || |\__ \ | | | | | | | !__! | |
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Y _/ _\ !_! !_! !_!___!___/ !_! !_! !_! \___\_\ |
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1 What is ASCII art? |
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2 Why use ASCII art instead of a GIF? |
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3 What is ASCII art used for? |
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4 What are the different kinds of ASCII art? |
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5 What is the best way to view ASCII art? |
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6 How can I learn to make ASCII art? |
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7 Are there any ASCII tools? |
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8 Where can I get ASCII tools? |
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9 Where can I find ASCII art? |
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10 How do I use FTP, Gopher, World Wide Web, and FTP Mail Servers? |
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11 What does the Scarecrow recommend? |
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12 Is it OK to copy ASCII art? |
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13 How do I make those big letters? |
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14 Where can I get Figlet? |
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15 How can I make Gray Scale pictures? |
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16 Where can I get Gray Scale converters? |
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17 How can I make better Gray Scale conversions? |
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18 What do those filename extensions mean? |
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19 What is 'uuencoding'? |
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20 How do I save, 'uudecode' and uncompress a file? |
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21 How do I view animations and color images? |
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22 How do I put an animation in my plan? |
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23 How do I make a sig? |
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24 How do I have my sig automatically added to my posts and email? |
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25 What should I know about posting ASCII Art? |
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26 Where is this FAQ available? |
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27 Who made this FAQ? |
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__________________________________________________________________________ |
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___ _ _ ____ _ _ ______ _____ ____ |
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O ,/ _ \ | \ | | / ___! | | | | | ____! | __ \ / ___! |
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/\/| !_! | | \| | | (___ | | /\ | | | !__ | !__) | | (___ |
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/ | _ | | . ` | \___ \ \ \/ \/ / | __! | _ / \___ \ O , |
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/\ | | | | | |\ | ____) | \ /\ / | !____ | | \ \ ____) ||\/ |
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/_/_ !_! !_! !_! \_! !_____/ \/ \/ !______! !_! \_\ !_____/ |/\_ |
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1 What is ASCII art? |
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Standard ASCII art is made with characters, such as: |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 |
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a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
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\ | - _ + % @ < ; ! = # . , : > ( ] / & $ ^ ' ` " ~ ) [ { } ? * |
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These characters are part of the ASCII (as - kee, America Standard |
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Code for Information Interchange) set. This part of the ASCII set, |
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is called the 'printable set' (7 bits, characters 32 to 126). |
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There's also non-standard ASCII art, which contain 'contral codes'. |
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ASCII art is popular, with several ASCII art groups on the various |
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information services. Before computers, ASCII art was made on typewriters, |
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teletype machines (5 bit), and was created typographically. There are even |
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tee-shirts with the :-) smiley. |
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2 Why use ASCII art instead of a GIF? |
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ASCII art is used because: |
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o Standard ASCII art is the only type of graphics easily transmitted |
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and instantly viewable on any terminal, emulation, or |
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communications software. |
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o If you can view text, you can view ASCII art (as it is made up of |
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standard text characters). No conversion or special software |
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required to view. Non-standard ASCII art (8 bit with control |
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codes) requires that the file be saved and "cat'd". See Questions |
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20 and 21. |
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o ASCII art is compact, a few K, not 20, 50, 100 or more K! |
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3 What is ASCII art used for? |
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ASCII art is used for many things, like: |
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o EDUCATION - A periodic table or molecular model for example. |
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o CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION - Pictures are international. |
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o BBS & SERVER SCREENS - Login and logoff screens, MUDs, promos, etc. |
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o ENTERTAINMENT - Like a birthday 'card', holiday greetings, |
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invitations, congradulatory messages, children's picture stories, |
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etc. |
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o VISUAL AID - Such as a wiring diagram, floor plan, illustrated |
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instructions, or flow chart, to eliminate a long involved |
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explanation with a graphic. |
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4 What are the different kinds of ASCII art? |
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The first four use the standard printable set, and can be viewed |
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anywhere, anytime, on any equipment. They are: |
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o Line drawing - Such as the stickmen above. This type of image is |
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made using characters for their shapes. |
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o Lettering - Large and styled, like the title "ASCII ART FAQ" above. |
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o Gray Scale picture - These create the illusion of gray shades by |
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using characters for their light emitting value (assuming you are |
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viewing light characters on a dark background). For example: |
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$@B%8&WM#*oahkbdpqwmZO0QLCJUYXzcvunxrjft/\|()1{}[]?-_+~<>i!lI;:,"^`'. |
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Lighter <- viewing light characters on a dark background -> Darker |
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Darker <- viewing dark characters on a light background -> Lighter |
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o 3-D images - They can be viewed by people with similar vision in |
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both eyes. You try to focus as if you are looking at the back of |
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the monitor. The image should pop into focus and create a 3-D |
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illusion. Other 3-D images are viewed by putting your nose on the |
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monitor glass. See ASCII Art Resources for info on where to get |
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3-D programs. |
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Other forms of ASCII art using the standard printable set include |
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the following four: |
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o Geometric Article - Text is formed into interesting, meaningful shapes. |
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o Picture Poem - A geometric article that is also a poem. See the |
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swan in the examples in ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art |
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Reference (the Web version of the FAQ). |
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o Page Making - Text and graphics are intermixed, as in a magazine. |
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o Picture Story - A story told with accompanying ASCII pictures. |
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Created using ASCII art page making techniques. |
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There are also non-standard types of ASCII art which cannot be |
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viewed immediately upon receiving. They contain 'control codes' for |
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color or animation. They must be 'uuencoded' to be posted or |
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emailed. For further information, see Question 19. |
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The three types of non-standard ASCII art are: |
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o Animation - You see an animated image produced by a sequence of |
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changing ASCII pictures. Animation speed depends on the system |
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you are on, and modem speed, if used. "ANSI" (American National |
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Standards Institute) escape sequences can be found in ASCII Art |
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Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web version of the FAQ). |
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o Color Graphics - You can view color ASCII pics, if you have a |
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color screen and ANSI color compatible software. Check to see if |
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your software supports ANSI color, and how it is enabled. |
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o Color Animation - For an example of color and animation together, |
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take a look at the file called "Vortex" in the Scarecrow's FTP |
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site. |
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Examples are in ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the |
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Web version of the FAQ). |
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But wait, there are other kinds of ASCII art: |
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o Overstrike Art - It contains carriage returns without line feeds |
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at times. The print head can overstrike a line on the paper that |
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has already been printed on. This allows for darkening, and for |
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placing different characters at the same place on the paper. This |
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kind of art is obviously only printed. |
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o Srcoll Animation - This is an animation that is made to be viewed |
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by scrolling down. The image plays out as the screen is redrawn |
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with the next 'page' of the image. |
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5 What is the best way to view ASCII art? |
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For best results in viewing ASCII art, try: |
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o A 'non-proportional' font, also called a 'mono-spaced' font. This |
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is a font that displays the same number of characters per inch, no |
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matter what the actual width of the characters. If you are |
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viewing with a mono-spaced font, the two lines below should appear |
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the same length. |
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iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii |
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MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM |
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If they don't look the same length, try another font. Names to |
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look for on various systems include: Monaco, Courier, Courier New, |
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Video Terminal, System, TTY, VT100, Screen, Terminal, FixedSys, |
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Line Printer, etc. |
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o A small, say, 9 point font, will help to increase the apparent |
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resolution, and the illusion of gray scale images. |
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o Viewing from a distance of a meter or more. |
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o Using light characters on a dark background. Many ASCII pictures |
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are meant to be viewed light on dark. This allows the artist more |
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control over the light. Also, you see less glare than you would |
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from a light background. |
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And in some instances: |
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o While most gray scale pics are made to be viewed light characters |
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on a dark background, some will be made to view dark on light. |
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This is because they are meant to be printed with dark ink on |
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light paper. Use dark characters on a light background, or print |
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them out. |
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o While most ASCII pics are made to be viewed on a monitor that |
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displays 80 characters across, some ASCII pics are wider, say, 81 |
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to 132 characters across. They are meant to be printed. Use a |
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small, say, 4 point type, and view dark on light, or print them |
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out. |
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o While mast ASCII art is either ready to view, 'cat' or print, you |
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may find art that has been saved as a picture in a bitmap, EPS, |
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GIF, or other binary format. These must be viewed or printed with |
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the appropriate software. |
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There are a few important things to remember when making, viewing, |
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or talking about an ASCII art image. And they're obvious but almost |
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always forgotten. |
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o Even though different fonts may all be mono-spaced, they ARE |
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different, and can make a picture LOOK different. Some artists |
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may mention the font the picture was made with. |
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o A font may be serif or sans-serif (serifs are the little feet on |
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the characters). The ascenders and descenders may be straight or |
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curved. And characters may be wide or narrow. |
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o The weight, or heaviness of characters can vary. Serifs can make |
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them look heavier. Often effected by weight inconsistencies are |
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symbols like: # $ @ |
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o Shapes can vary too: |
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The more consistent shapes are: - / \ |
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The more inconsistent shapes are: ~ ^ * & | ' [ ] < > 0 l y |
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o Fonts from different countries may have different characters in them. |
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Characters that may not appear in a font are: ^ ` # | { } ~ \ [ ] $ @ |
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o Different systems display text differently. If you look at a |
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picture on a terminal at a Unix site, and then bring it home and |
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view it on a Mac, it will look different. On the Mac, it will be |
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displayed shorter top to bottom. In other words, it will have a |
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greater aspect ratio. Even though it contains the same number of |
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lines. |
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See ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web version |
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of the FAQ) for an aspect ratio chart. |
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6 How can I learn to make ASCII art? |
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Unfortunately, there aren't many text books on the subject. :-) A |
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good way to learn is to study how an artist has made a picture. |
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What characters are chosen. How are the characters laid out? How |
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is a texture made? |
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You can also modify existing art. Take a piece of art you think |
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could be improved. Make a copy. Now work on it. When you are good |
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at that, try to improve a really good pic. Diddle a GIF conversion. |
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Then see if you can fix a damaged file. Now take some small pics |
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and put them together into a big composite image. |
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If you're working from scratch, the following may help you: |
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o Decide what you want. Block out the sizes ond shapes of things so |
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you can get the proportions right. Do it now, not later, you'll |
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save work. |
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o Add detail. Concentrate on the focal point and important parts of |
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your drawing. ASCII art is low definition, so you'll have to make |
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the pic big if you want detail or real smoothness. Take a tip |
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from master cartoonists, just try to suggest things, don't try to |
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replicate them. Too much detail can end up looking confusing. |
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o One of the biggest helps is knowing how to shape things. For |
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example, you can curve a horizontal line with just: _ - " |
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_____-------"""""""--------_____-------""""""" |
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o Slanting vertical lines is easy. These four line are all made |
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with a few characters, like: / , _ - ' " |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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/ ,' ,-' ,_-'" |
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o Then there's smoothing, also called "anti-aliasing". This is |
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where special care is taken to use characters for their shapes. |
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With this technique, you can smooth out a font, or an object like |
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the one below. Notice how the sides on the object are curved |
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using: d b ( ) Y |
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XXXX d88b |
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XXXXXXXX <- Turn this d888888b |
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XXXXXXXXXX (88888888) |
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XXXXXXXX Into this -> Y888888Y |
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XXXX Y88Y |
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Popular fills are: 8 M H |
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o Use areas of characters for patterns, tones, and contrast. For |
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example, in this flower, notice the density of the letters |
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subtlely change to form the petals. I would like to see this |
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colorized. |
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. |
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.@. . |
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@m@,. .@ |
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.@m%nm@,. .@m@ |
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.@nvv%vnmm@,. .@mn%n@ |
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.@mnvvv%vvnnmm@,. .@mmnv%vn@, |
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@mmnnvvv%vvvvvnnmm@,. .@mmnnvvv%vvnm@ |
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@mmnnvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm@, ;;;@mmnnvvvvv%vvvnm@, |
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`@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvvnnmmm;;@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvnmm@ |
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`@mmmnnvvvvvv%vvvnnmmm;%mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm@ |
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`@m%v%v%v%v%v;%;%;%;%;%;%;%%%vv%vvvvnnnmm@ |
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.,mm@@@@@mm%;;@@m@m@@m@@m@mm;;%%vvvnnnmm@;@,. |
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.,@mmmmmmvv%%;;@@vmvvvvvvvvvmvm@@;;%%vvnnm@;%mmm@, |
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.,@mmnnvvvvv%%;;@@vvvvv%%%%%%%vvvvmm@@;;%%mm@;%%nnnnm@, |
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.,@mnnvv%v%v%v%%;;@mmvvvv%%;*;*;%%vvvvmmm@;;%m;%%v%v%v%vmm@,. |
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,@mnnvv%v%v%v%v%v%v%;;@@vvvv%%;*;*;*;%%vvvvm@@;;m%%%v%v%v%v%v%vnnm@, |
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` `@mnnvv%v%v%v%%;;@mvvvvv%%;;*;;%%vvvmmmm@;;%m;%%v%v%v%vmm@' ' |
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`@mmnnvvvvv%%;;@@mvvvv%%%%%%%vvvvmm@@;;%%mm@;%%nnnnm@' |
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`@mmmmmmvv%%;;@@mvvvvvvvvvvmmm@@;;%%mmnmm@;%mmm@' |
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`mm@@@@@mm%;;@m@@m@m@m@@m@@;;%%vvvvvnmm@;@' |
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,@m%v%v%v%v%v;%;%;%;%;%;%;%;%vv%vvvvvnnmm@ |
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.@mmnnvvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm%mmnnvvvvvvv%vvvvnnmm@ |
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.@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm'`@mmnnvvvvvv%vvvnnmm@ |
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@mmnnvvvvv%vvvvvvnnmm@':%::`@mmnnvvvv%vvvnm@' |
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@mmnnvvv%vvvvvnnmm@'`:::%%:::'`@mmnnvv%vvmm@ |
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`@mnvvv%vvnnmm@' `:;%%;:' `@mvv%vm@' |
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`@mnv%vnnm@' `;%;' `@n%n@ |
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`@m%mm@' ;%;. `@m@ |
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@m@' `;%; `@ |
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`@' ;%;. ' Top portion of a |
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` `;%; picture by Susie Oviatt. |
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Here are a few tips, that taken together, can make an instant |
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ASCII artist out of anybody: |
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o A quick way to make a pic is to photocopy a drawing onto plastic. |
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Place the plastic over your monitor to act as a guide for placing |
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characters. |
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o Ease your work by making a file full of lines of spaces. Now copy |
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that file. Open a copy and start working. You'll see that it's |
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easier because you can now go where you want and replace the |
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spaces with characters. You have eliminated endless space bar |
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pressing. Remember to strip all trailing spaces when you're done. |
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o Use a mouse to move more quickly from character to character and |
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to delete bunches of characters and large numbers of lines. |
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o To avoid variation in characters, weights, and shapes found between |
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different fonts, use the following characters: |
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/ ! ( ) ? = + - _ : ; , . |
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o Use 'block editing' if you can. Some software allows for a square |
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or rectangular chunk of text to be cut, copied and pasted. |
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o It may be better to work on your own computer (if it has more |
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appropriate hardware and-ar software), and then upload it to your |
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host. |
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Also, see Jorn's "asciitech" file, available at Jorn's FTP site |
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and Scarecrow's FTP, Gopher, WWW sites. |
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7 Are there any ASCII tools? |
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Not many. The Emacs editor offers some help, if you know how to |
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use it. There are a couple of bits of Emacs code in the Scarecrow's |
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FTP site. EmacsMouseCode let's you draw with a mouse, and |
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EmacsFigletCode let's you use Figlet within Emacs. |
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Q-Edit and "vedit" are ASCII editors with block cut and paste. |
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And TheDraw can do some ANSI tricks but is limited by RAM size. |
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There are Unix and DOS scripts for flipping an ASCII pic (like |
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"modasc" by Ric Hotchkiss). BBSdraw is available for the Amiga. So |
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is CygnusEd, which allows column editing. And also the TPU editor |
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for VAX. And then there's "mdraw.el" for GNU Emacs 19 under X, that |
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lets you draw ASCII with a mouse. |
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8 Where can I get ASCII tools? |
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You can get TheDraw at: |
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-> Host: oak.oakland.edu |
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Path: pub/msdos/screen |
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File: tdraw463.zip |
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URL: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/screen/tdraw463.zip |
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You can get "mdraw.el" at: |
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-> Host: ftp.cse.psu.edu |
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Path: pub/flee |
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File: mdraw.el |
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URL: ftp://ftp.cse.psu.edu/pub/flee/mdraw.el |
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You can get Q-Edit at: |
|
|
|
-> Host: oak.oakland.edu |
|
Path: /pub/msdos/qedit |
|
URL: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/qedit |
|
|
|
You can get Emacs Code at: |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Address: 198.49.174.1 |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow/Info |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Info |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Where can I find ASCII art? |
|
|
|
You can FTP and Gopher ASCII art (single pics and archives of |
|
dozens or hundreds of images). FTP'ing is easy. Gophering is |
|
easier. See Question 10 for further info. ASCII art is available |
|
from many sites, including: |
|
|
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's ASCII Art FTP |
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Address: 198.49.174.1 |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow |
|
Has Scarecrow's files, SAPs, animations, color, FAQs, Figlet, |
|
gray scale converters, 'how-to' files, and more. |
|
|
|
See Question 11 for a table of all the Scarecrow's files, showing |
|
file name, size (uncompressed), version, name it has at the |
|
Scarecrow's FTP site, and the subject line for email requests. |
|
|
|
-> Host: mordor.ind.wpi.edu |
|
Path: pub/ascii/art/pictures |
|
URL: ftp://mordor.ind.wpi.edu/pub/ascii/art/pictures |
|
|
|
Jorn's FTP site |
|
-> Host: ftp.mcs.com |
|
Path: mcsnet.users/jorn/ascii-art |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.mcs.com/mcsnet.users/jorn/ascii-art |
|
Has Scarecrow's files, plus other ASCII art files, and the |
|
technically oriented "asciitech.aa". |
|
|
|
Chris' FTP site |
|
-> Host: ftp.ncsu.edu |
|
Path: pub/ncsu/chking/Archive |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/ncsu/chking/Archive |
|
Contains all the Scarecrow's files, all of Steve Sullivan's |
|
files, and Gifscii for many systems. |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.netcom.com |
|
Path: pub/vz/vzvz/asciiart |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vz/vzvz/asciiart |
|
|
|
-> Host: tuda.newcastle.ac.uk |
|
Path: pub/local/n1ka0/animation |
|
URL: ftp://tuda.newcastle.ac.uk/pub/local/n1ka0/animation |
|
Animations |
|
|
|
-> Host: mordor.ind.wpi.edu |
|
Path: pub/ascii/art/movies |
|
URL: ftp://mordor.ind.wpi.edu/pub/ascii/art/movies |
|
Animations |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.uwp.edu |
|
Path: pub/msdos/demos/ansi |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/demos/ansi |
|
Color graphics |
|
|
|
|
|
o Gopher Servers: |
|
|
|
ASCII Art Bazaar |
|
-> Host: twinbrook.cis.uab.edu |
|
Items: 11, 1 |
|
Over 12 megabytes, thousands of pieces in many categories. |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's ASCII Art Gopher |
|
-> Host: gopher.wwa.com |
|
Items: 3 |
|
URL: gopher://gopher.wwa.com/11/ascii |
|
Has Scarecrow's files, SAPs, animations, color, FAQs, |
|
Figlet, gray scale converters, 'how-to' files, and more. |
|
Everything the FTP site has is available from the Gopher, |
|
with friendlier menus. |
|
|
|
TTU Gopher |
|
-> Host: gopher.cs.ttu.edu |
|
Items: 7, 1 |
|
URL: |
|
gopher://gopher.cs.ttu.edu:70/11/Art%20and%20Images/ClipArt%20%28ASCII%29 |
|
|
|
Stanford Gopher |
|
-> Host: medmail.Stanford.EDU |
|
Items: 2, 1 |
|
URL: gopher://medmail.Stanford.EDU/11/other.stuff/pictures/ |
|
|
|
|
|
o World Wide Web: |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's WWW Link |
|
-> URL: http://miso.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow.html |
|
Gateway to the wold of ASCII art, with links to everything. |
|
|
|
Chris' WWW Page |
|
-> URL: http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/users/c/chking/HTML/HTMLs/ascii.html |
|
|
|
-> URL: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vz/vzvz/WWW/homepage.html |
|
|
|
|
|
o Mailing list: |
|
|
|
ASCII Art listserv list |
|
-> Address: listserv@ukcc.uky.edu |
|
Message: subscribe asciiart |
|
|
|
|
|
o FTP Mail Servers: |
|
|
|
-> Address: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com |
|
Message: help |
|
|
|
-> Address: ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu |
|
Message: help |
|
|
|
-> Address: bitftp@pucc.bitnet |
|
Message: help |
|
|
|
|
|
10 How do I use FTP, Gopher, World Wide Web, and FTP Mail Servers? |
|
|
|
The following instructions are for most Unix based, live InterNet |
|
sites. If you are not on a live wire, you can still access FTP |
|
sites. See the section below on 'How to use FTP Mail Servers'. |
|
|
|
If you're on a commercial service, or other non-Unix based system, |
|
ask your sysadmin or service representative for information on |
|
obtaining files. If you are using InterNet software on your own |
|
computer via a PPP or SLIP connection, I assume you don't need my |
|
instructions. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to read a URL (Uniform Resource Locator): |
|
|
|
ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/ncsu/chking/Archive/Funnies |
|
|_| |__________| |_____________________| |_____| |
|
| | | | |
|
Connect Method Host Name Folder Path File Name |
|
|
|
Note: The connect method (the protocol> could also be "gopher" or |
|
"http" (http indicates a WWW page). Also, a URL my not have a file |
|
name at the end, but may just point to a folder. It may not even |
|
have a folder path, pointing only to a site. |
|
|
|
WWW URLs usually end with a file having a ".html" extension. And |
|
Web pages can also be stored on, and accessed from, FTP and Gopher |
|
sites. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to FTP: |
|
|
|
If you have FTP at your site, and you want to FTP over to say, |
|
Chris King's FTP site, you would, at the prompt: |
|
|
|
o Type: ftp ftp.ncsu.edu |
|
|
|
Notice that "ftp" was typed twice. The first is the command, the |
|
second is a port of the address. If you're already at an FTP |
|
prompt: |
|
|
|
Type: open ftp.ncsu.edu |
|
|
|
o When the connection opens, it'll ask for your name. This is |
|
'anonymous FTP' so: |
|
|
|
Type: anonymous |
|
|
|
o When you're asked for a password: |
|
|
|
Type: Your email address |
|
|
|
You should be in. |
|
|
|
o Now, to 'Change Directory' to Chris' ASCII art folder: |
|
|
|
Type: cd pub/ncsu/chking/Archive |
|
|
|
o Now to list the folder's contents: |
|
|
|
Type: ls |
|
|
|
o Let's say you want a file called "Funnies", you would: |
|
|
|
Type: get Funnies |
|
|
|
The file will be transfered to the host you FTP'd from, in the folder |
|
you were in when you started that FTP session. |
|
|
|
o When you're done: |
|
|
|
Type: bye |
|
|
|
It will say goodbye and quit. |
|
|
|
You may have to decompress or uudecode the file first. See |
|
Question 20 on how to do that. Now you can view or download the |
|
file from your host. For how to view animations and color pics, see |
|
Question 21. |
|
|
|
Two helpful things. Type "cd .." to go back out of a folder. |
|
Type "pwd" ('Print Working Directory') to see where you are. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to Gopher: |
|
|
|
Gopher is easy. Say you want to check out the Bazaar. You would: |
|
|
|
o Type: gopher twinbrook.cis.uab.edu |
|
|
|
o Use the up and down arrow keys or number keys to pick the menu |
|
item you want. |
|
|
|
o Use the right arrow (or return key) to enter a selection, and the |
|
left arrow to back out. |
|
|
|
o In this case we pick "The Continuum", which is #11, and press the |
|
right arrow or return. |
|
|
|
o After we enter The Continuum, we see the ASCII Art Bazaar, so we |
|
pick it (it's #1) and press the right arrow or return. |
|
|
|
Once in the Bazaar, you can browse the menus and view the art on |
|
screen without having to download anything just to see it. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to use the World Wide Web: |
|
|
|
Using the World Wide Web is as easy as Gopher. For example, let's |
|
say you want to check out the Scarecrow's WWW Link, you would do the |
|
following on a live Net site using lynx: |
|
|
|
o Type: lynx http://miso.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow.html |
|
|
|
o Use the up and down arrow keys to select what you want to see. |
|
|
|
o Use the right arrow (or return key) to enter a selection, and the |
|
left arrow to back out. |
|
|
|
You can do as with Gopher, but you can also access links to FTP, |
|
Gopher and WWW sites. For example, there are links that will take |
|
you to Chris King's Web archive of ASCII art, the Figlet server, the |
|
Bazaar, Joshua Bell's Star Trek ASCII art site, and practically |
|
everything in the ASCII art world. |
|
|
|
Important Note: You can use a Web browser to access FTP sites, to |
|
avoid logging in, and commands. For example, say you're using lynx, |
|
and you want to go to the Scarecrow's FTP site, you would type, at |
|
the prompt: |
|
|
|
lynx ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow |
|
|
|
As you can see, it's just "lynx" plus the URL for the site. You |
|
can do this with any FTP site, just type "lynx ftp://" plus the |
|
address/path, and you in like Flynn. |
|
|
|
|
|
Note: When using FTP, Gopher, WWW, or other live Net services, try |
|
to find files at sites that are close to you before accessing more |
|
distant locations. Also, try to use these services at off-peak |
|
hours, to not slow down the official operations of a school or |
|
business. And send a thank you note to the admins of sites you have |
|
used and benefitted from. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to use FTP Mail Servers: |
|
|
|
If you don't have FTP access, you can use an FTP Mail Server. |
|
There are a few listed in the answer to Question 9. To use them |
|
send a message to any of the listed addresses with "help" as the |
|
message. Here is an example of how to use ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com: |
|
|
|
o Address a message to: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com |
|
|
|
o Leave the subject blank. |
|
|
|
In the message: |
|
|
|
o Type: connect ftp.wwa.com |
|
|
|
The hostname could be any available host. |
|
|
|
o Type: chdir pub/Scarecrow |
|
|
|
Changes directory (folder) to the Scarecrow's ASCII art folder. |
|
The folder name could be any existing folder. |
|
|
|
o Type: binary |
|
|
|
For programs and compressed files. |
|
|
|
OR |
|
|
|
Type: ascii |
|
|
|
For text files, uuencoded files, etc. |
|
|
|
o Type: get MORE |
|
|
|
Transfers the flie called "MORE" to your computer. The name could |
|
be the name of any existing file in that folder. |
|
|
|
o Type: quit |
|
|
|
o Send the email message |
|
|
|
|
|
Your message will be acknowledged. It will be given a number |
|
which you should save in case of a problem. Within a day or two you |
|
should recieve either a file or an error message. If you get an |
|
error, make sure the following are correct: host name, pathname, |
|
filename, commands, cAsE. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 What does the Scarecrow recommend? |
|
|
|
The Scarecrow's recommendations: |
|
|
|
o If you're short on disk space, I would suggest you save this FAQ |
|
and get just those files containing the type(s) of art you are |
|
interested in. |
|
|
|
o If you have a bit more disk space, you may want to get the Best of |
|
the Scarecrow's ASCII Art Archive, and the ASCII Art Reference |
|
file. And select a number of files from Steve Sullivan's Small |
|
ASCII Pics. |
|
|
|
o If you have some disk space to spare, you should get all of the |
|
SAAAs, and the ASCII Art Resources file. You can also get all of |
|
Steve's Small ASCII Pics. Megabytes of art. With the SAAAs, AAR, |
|
and SAPs, you'll be an ASCII art expert and collector, instantly! |
|
|
|
Disk space is often limited, so store ASCII art compressed (it |
|
should compress 3:1). View it when it's compressed by typing: "zcat |
|
filename | more" for .Z and "gzcat filename | more" for .gz files. |
|
|
|
|
|
12 Is it OK to copy ASCII art? |
|
|
|
ASCII art that is posted is considered copyrighted by the poster. |
|
But since the post goes around the world, and copyright laws vary, |
|
you'd have trouble enforcing it in some places. The correct thing |
|
to do is ask permission before using a piece. |
|
|
|
|
|
13 How do I make those big letters? |
|
|
|
You can make lettering like the above subtitle "ANSWERS" by hand, |
|
or use a program called Figlet. With Figlet, the letters you type |
|
are automatically turned into big letters. Figlet stands for Frank, |
|
Ian and Glenn's LETters. ^ |
|
^ ^ ^^^ |
|
Figlet is available for use on some host systems. If it is not, |
|
you can obtain Figlet and fonts from the sites listed in Question |
|
14. There are about 100 fonts for use with Figlet. Figlet fonts |
|
have a .flf suffix. Figlet is currently in version 2.1, available |
|
for Unix, DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST. |
|
|
|
There are a number of examples of Figlet fonts in the ASCII Art |
|
Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web version of the FAQ). |
|
You'll also find info on Figlet utilities, methods of feeding Figlet |
|
output to files, modifying Figlet output, and a vi macro. |
|
|
|
Some other hosts have a program called "Banner" which performs a |
|
similar function. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 Where can I get Figlet? |
|
|
|
You can get Figlet, fonts, and utilities from: |
|
|
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
Official Figlet Site |
|
-> Host: ftp.nicoh.com |
|
Path: pub/figlet |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.nicoh.com/pub/figlet |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's FTP Site |
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow/Figlet |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Figlet |
|
Has Figlet, utilities, and all the fonts I've found. |
|
Also accessible through the Scarecrow's Gopher and WWW sites. |
|
If you have any Figlet fonts that are not on my site, please put |
|
them in my incoming FTP folder. Thank you. |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.netcom.com |
|
Path: pub/vz/vzvz/asciiart/fonts |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/vz/vzvz/asciiart/fonts |
|
Fonts only. |
|
|
|
|
|
o Figlet WWW Server: |
|
|
|
-> URL: http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet |
|
|
|
|
|
o Figlet Mail Server: |
|
|
|
-> Address: figlet@ottime.chi.il.us |
|
Message: HELP |
|
|
|
|
|
o Figlet WWW Home Page: |
|
|
|
-> URL: http://math.uiuc.edu/~chappell/figlet |
|
|
|
|
|
o Figlet Mailing List: |
|
|
|
-> Address: listserv@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu |
|
Message: SUBSCRIBE FIGLET-L |
|
Receive fonts, update notes, and Figlet chat. Run by Ian Chai. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 How can I make Gray Scale pictures? |
|
|
|
You can make them from scratch if you are a very good ASCII |
|
artist. An easier way is to use a converter program. There's |
|
ASCGIF, Gifscii (with versions for many systems), ANSIrez, |
|
"ansicv22", GIF2ANSI, and "gif2txt" for the PC. |
|
|
|
There's also the HyperCard stack called "asciipicter". It allows |
|
you to draw a picture, and convert it to ASCII art. This is for the |
|
Macintosh. |
|
|
|
These programs make an ASCII pic from any GIF (Graphics |
|
Interchange Format) image (or image you can convert to a GIF). Most |
|
converters require the GIF to be in 87a format. GIFs in 89a format, |
|
must be converted to 87a format first. |
|
|
|
The exception to the GIF converters is a bitmap converter for |
|
Windows called Pixel Characterizer (version 0.5) by Shi Y Chen. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 Where can I get Gray Scale converters? |
|
|
|
You can get Gifscii for many systems, and the source code from: |
|
|
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
Chris' FTP site |
|
-> Host: ftp.ncsu.edu |
|
Path: pub/ncsu/chking/Archive |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/ncsu/chking |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's FTP Site |
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii |
|
Also accessible through the Scarecrow's Gopher and WWW sites. |
|
|
|
Both Chris' and Scarcecrow's sites have Gifscii 2.2 for |
|
MSDOS, Unix (Sun), Macintosh, Amiga, Digital Alpha, |
|
Digital VAX, as well as the c-source code. Scarecrow's |
|
site also has "ansicv22.zip", "ansirez1.zip", and |
|
"asciipicter.sit.hqx" (HyperCard stack). |
|
|
|
|
|
You can get ASCGIF from: |
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
-> Host: usc.edu |
|
Path: archive/usenet/sources/comp.sources.misc/volume30/ascgif |
|
URL: ftp://usc.edu/archive/usenet/sources/comp.sources.misc/volume30/ascgif |
|
|
|
Scarecrow's FTP Site |
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow/Misc |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Misc |
|
Also accessible through the Scarecrow's Gopher and WWW sites. |
|
|
|
-> Host: wuarchive.wustl.edu |
|
Path: usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume30/ascgif |
|
URL: ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume30/ascgif |
|
|
|
|
|
You can get GIF2ANSI and "gif2txt" from: |
|
|
|
o BBS Sites: |
|
|
|
-> BBS: Exec-PC (414) 789-4210 |
|
File: GIF2ANSI.ZIP, in the "Mahoney MS-DOS" file collection. |
|
|
|
-> BBS: Aquila BBS (708) 820-8344] |
|
File: gif2txt.zip |
|
|
|
|
|
You can get the GDS GIF-JPEG to ANSI (for DOS) at: |
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.netcom.com |
|
Path: pub/ph/photodex |
|
File: gds31d.zip |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ph/photodex/gds31d.zip |
|
|
|
-> Host: oak.oakland.edu |
|
Path: SimTel/msdos/graphics |
|
File: gds31d.zip |
|
URL: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/graphics/gds31d.zip |
|
|
|
|
|
17 How can I make better Gray Scale conversions? |
|
|
|
Most of us start out thinking that you just put a GIF into a |
|
converter program and out comes a perfect ASCII pic. Would you |
|
believe ... there are some things you can do to improve the chances |
|
of getting a good conversion. |
|
|
|
The following is not a complete list, but it is what I have |
|
learned in making many conversions: |
|
|
|
o Use an 8 bit gray scale or color image instead of a 2 bit B&W image. |
|
|
|
o Use an image with a wide, even distribution of tones. |
|
|
|
o Keep it simple, like a face or close-up of an object. |
|
|
|
o Avoid busy backgrounds. With exceptions, avoid bright backgrounds. |
|
|
|
o Use an image that is tightly cropped, without a lot of waste. |
|
|
|
o Be prepared to quickly run through a series of conversions. You |
|
will probably not like 9 to 11 out of 12. |
|
|
|
o It helps to do touch-up work on the converted picture. |
|
Concentrate on the focal points and important areas of the |
|
picture. |
|
|
|
|
|
18 What do those filename extensions mean? |
|
|
|
A file may have some of the following elements in its name: |
|
|
|
|
|
File name (a file may Usually implies "uu" or "uue" for uuencode, |
|
have a different name ____ a color pic. __ "xx" or "xxe" for xxencode. |
|
after uudecoding). | | | |
|
| | | |
|
filename.vt.ansi.tar.Z.uu |
|
| | | |
|
Usally implies animation. ___| | |__ For Unix Compress, may also |
|
| be .gz, .zip, etc. A .zip |
|
Tape ARchive format may contain ______| file may contain more than |
|
more than one file. Must be 'untarred'. one file, must be 'unzipped'. |
|
|
|
|
|
For further information, on how to save, uncompress, untar, unzip, |
|
and view files, see Questions 20 and 21. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 What is 'uuencoding'? |
|
|
|
Color graphics and animations must be processed to change the |
|
control codes to regular printable ASCII characters before they can |
|
be sent as text (which any information service can handle). This |
|
processing is called 'uuencoding'. |
|
|
|
The file is processed back again after it is received. This is |
|
called 'uudecoding'. See Question 20 on how to save and 'uudecode' |
|
a file, and Question 21 on how to view animations and color images. |
|
A uuencoded file may look like: |
|
|
|
|
|
permission mode _______ ______ file name to be given to decoded file |
|
| | |
|
begin line ____ begin 644 filename |
|
M;2XN+BXN+R\N+B\O+BXN+BXN+R\N+B\O+BXO+RXO+RXN+B\ON+B\O+BXN |
|
encoded data __ M"AM;-#LV2"`@("`@+R`@7`H;6S$[,3%("AM;,CLQ,4@@("`@<("\*&ULS |
|
` |
|
end line ______ end |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 How do I save, 'uudecode' and uncompress a file? |
|
|
|
Type the name of the file where I have "filename". On a Unix |
|
system, the process is usually as easy as: |
|
|
|
|
|
To save a file: |
|
|
|
|
|
In most newsreaders, you: |
|
|
|
o Type: s filename (or a full pathname) |
|
|
|
|
|
In Elm: |
|
|
|
o Type: s |
|
|
|
You'll get a "save file to" prompt. |
|
|
|
o Type: filename (or a full pathname) |
|
|
|
In Pine: |
|
|
|
o Type: s |
|
|
|
You'll be asked for a folder name. Pine's 'folder' is a text file. |
|
|
|
o Type: filename (or a full pathname) |
|
|
|
|
|
To uudecode a file: |
|
|
|
o Type: uudecode filename |
|
|
|
This may change the resulting file's name. |
|
|
|
|
|
To uncompress a file: |
|
|
|
|
|
For a .Z (Unix compress) file: |
|
|
|
o Type: uncompress filename |
|
|
|
For a .gz (GZip) file: |
|
|
|
o Type: gunzip filename |
|
|
|
|
|
Sometimes a number of files will come packed together in a .zip or |
|
.tar file. You need to unzip or untar it. You will end up with a |
|
number of files. |
|
|
|
For a .zip file: |
|
|
|
o Type: unzip filename |
|
|
|
|
|
For a .tar file: |
|
|
|
o Type: tar -xvf filename |
|
|
|
To just read the contents of a .tar file: |
|
|
|
o Type: tar -tvf filename |
|
|
|
|
|
o On a DOS machine, to uncompress a .Z file, you'll need comp430d from: |
|
|
|
-> Host: oak.oakland.edu |
|
Path: pub/msdos/compress |
|
File: comp430d.zip |
|
URL: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/compress/comp430d.zip |
|
|
|
|
|
To uuencode a file, use the following syntax at the prompt: |
|
|
|
|
|
The uuencode The file you Writes resulting uuencoded |
|
command. want to uuencode. file to the last filename. |
|
| | | |
|
uuencode filename filename > filename |
|
| | |
|
Name to be put on the 'begin' line of the Name of the file that will be |
|
resulting uuencoded file. This name will written to disk so as to not |
|
be given to the file when it is uudecoded. overwrite the original file. |
|
|
|
|
|
To compress a file: |
|
|
|
For Unix compress: |
|
|
|
o Type: compress filename |
|
|
|
For Gzip: |
|
|
|
o Type: gzip filename |
|
|
|
|
|
To zip compress a number of files into one .zip file, use the following |
|
syntax at the prompt: |
|
|
|
zip filename.zip filename1 filename2 filename3 |
|
| | |______|______| |
|
Command. Name for file. Files to be zipped, can be any number. |
|
|
|
|
|
For info on viewing animations and color images, see Question 21. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 How do I view animations and color images? |
|
|
|
Type the name of the file where I have "filename". On a Unix |
|
system, the process is usually as easy as: |
|
|
|
|
|
To view an animation or color pic: |
|
|
|
o Type: cat filename |
|
|
|
You can view a compressed file without decompressing it. |
|
|
|
To view a .Z compressed file: |
|
|
|
o Type: zcat filename |
|
|
|
To view a .gz compressed file: |
|
|
|
o Type: gzcat filename |
|
|
|
|
|
To slow down an animation: |
|
|
|
o Type: cat -u filename |
|
|
|
Note: Host system speed, terminal speed, and modem speed all |
|
affect animation speed. To view color, you need a color screen and |
|
ANSI color capable software. |
|
|
|
See ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web version |
|
of the FAQ) for info on programs to slow animations, and how to view |
|
animations that you have downloaded to your PC or Amiga. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 How do I put an animation in my plan? |
|
|
|
On most Unix systems: |
|
|
|
o Name the file you want to be used as: .plan |
|
|
|
o Put it in the top level of your home folder. |
|
|
|
o Make your home folder 'world readable' by typing: chmod 711 . |
|
|
|
o Make your plan world readable by typing: chmod 644 .plan |
|
|
|
It does not work with all finger commands. Many systems will |
|
munch anything except CR and LF. To test your 'planimation', finger |
|
your account with your full address, not just your login. For |
|
example, type "finger foo@bar.edu" and not "finger foo". |
|
|
|
Putting an animation in your plan is not universally recommended. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 How do I make a sig? |
|
|
|
There are no rules for making sigs. Most sigs contain items like: |
|
|
|
o Name, nickname. |
|
o Email and mail addresses. |
|
o ASCII art pics, borders. |
|
o Work and school names, disclaimer. |
|
o Phone, fax, and pager numbers, PINs. |
|
o Quotes and jokes from the poster and other people. |
|
o Info about the poster's .plan, FTP site, WWW home page, PGP key. |
|
|
|
You might simply 'Figletize' your name, pop in your addy and a |
|
pic, and presto, instant sig: |
|
|
|
|
|
| 'Go Johnny Go' || ___| johnsmith@foo.bar.edu |
|
| | || / _) | | |
|
| _ __ __ \||/ __ __ `__ | __| __ |
|
\ | ( | | | | | /()\ | | | | | | | | |
|
___/ ___/ _| _| _| _| \__/ _____/ _| _| _| _| __| _| _| |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're going to have your sig automatically included in your |
|
posts and email, remember that some systems only allow up to 4 lines |
|
in the sig. For info on how to have your sig automatically |
|
included, see Question 24. |
|
|
|
If you want to use a larger sig on systems that only allow 4 |
|
lines, you will have to insert it manually. On most Unix based |
|
systems, using pico editor, press control-r when you want to insert |
|
the sig, and then type the name (or full pathname) of the file to be |
|
inserted, using vi, ex, ed, the command is ":r <filename>", using |
|
emacs, it's control-x control-r <filename>. |
|
|
|
Speaking of sig length, there is a rule of thumb of 4 to 6 lines. |
|
Try to keep sigs around this length for posts, reserving the long |
|
ones for email, and post to the ASCII art groups. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 How do I have my sig automatically added to my posts and email? |
|
|
|
On a Unix system, the process is usually as easy as: |
|
|
|
For posts: |
|
|
|
If you are using most newsreaders: |
|
|
|
o Name the file you want to be used as ".signature" |
|
|
|
o Put it in the top level of your home folder. |
|
|
|
Your news software should pick it up. Note: some systems are set |
|
up to allow only four lines in a posted sig. |
|
|
|
If you are using tin: |
|
|
|
o Make a folder in the top level of your home folder called ".Sig". |
|
|
|
o Fill it with sigs. |
|
|
|
The files in that folder will be used randomly by tin when |
|
selecting a sig for your post. You can call the folder something |
|
other than ".Sig", but you must change the 'signature path' line |
|
in your tinrc in your .tin folder. |
|
|
|
To have a file included above your random sig: |
|
|
|
o Make a file in the top level of your home folder called ".sigfixed". |
|
|
|
|
|
For email: |
|
|
|
o Name the file you want to be used as ".signature" |
|
|
|
o Put it in the top level of your home folder. |
|
|
|
If you have done this for the above use in news posts, you need |
|
to, in additon, do one of the following: |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're using Elm for your email, and elm doesn't pick up your sig: |
|
|
|
o You need to put the following in ypur elmrc: |
|
|
|
localsignature = ~/.signature |
|
remotesignature = ~/.signature |
|
|
|
If you don't have an elmrc yet: |
|
|
|
o Open Elm |
|
|
|
o Press the 'o' key to get to the options screen. |
|
|
|
o Press the '>' to save your configuration. |
|
|
|
o Press 'i' to go back to the index. |
|
|
|
o Quit. |
|
|
|
This will create the elmrc file in the .elm folder. |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're using Pine (with Pico) for your email: |
|
|
|
o Place the following in your .pinerc file: |
|
|
|
signature-file=~/.signature |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're using vm (in emacs) for your email: |
|
|
|
o Place the following in your .emacs file: |
|
|
|
(setq mail-signature t) |
|
|
|
|
|
Note about sig usage: Try to use short sigs for posts to |
|
newsgroups. If you have any long sigs, try to only use them for |
|
email and posts to the ASCII art groups. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 What should I know about posting ASCII Art? |
|
|
|
You can post any of the following types of ASCII art to |
|
rec.arts.ascii or alt.ascii-art or alt.binaries.pictures.ascii |
|
groups: |
|
|
|
o All forms of ASCII art including: |
|
- Standard ASCII art (line pics, 3-D, oversize printer art, GIFs, etc). |
|
- Non-standard ASCII art (animations, color pics, color animations). |
|
o Discussion about pieces of art. |
|
o Requests for specific pieces of art, and their fulfillment. |
|
o Questions and answers covering: |
|
- Creating and viewing ASCII art. |
|
- Locating FTP sites for ASCII art and related files. |
|
o Dicussion about artists in the field. |
|
|
|
Animations can also be posted to alt.ascii-art.animation. 3-D art |
|
can also be posted to alt.3d. |
|
|
|
|
|
To make it easier for everybody, please put one of the following |
|
Subject IDs at the beginning of the subject line of your post: |
|
|
|
Line - Standard ASCII line art. Line pictures and large lettering. |
|
GIF - Gray scale image. |
|
Animation - Animation. Usually uuencoded. |
|
Color - ANSI Color image. Usually uuencoded. |
|
3-D - Three dimensional art. |
|
Font - Alphabets and Figlet fonts. |
|
Binary - Binaries (software like Figlet and Gifscii). Usually uuencoded. |
|
Big - Wider than 80 columns and-or longer than 24 lines). |
|
|
|
Repost - Repost of a previously posted pic, not new art. |
|
Request - Request for a picture, Figletized name, sig, etc. |
|
|
|
Talk - General discussion, no pics included. |
|
Question - A question concerning any of the ASCII art topics. |
|
Answer - An answer to a question asked by a poster. |
|
Info - Web URLs, email addresses, Gopher and FTP sites, font lists,etc |
|
Announce - Announcements of events, new sites, Web pagse, etc. |
|
|
|
FAQ - Used for the weekly posting of Frequently Asked Questions |
|
|
|
If you are following up a post, please change the Subject ID to |
|
reflect the contents of the post. This way if you are fulfilling a |
|
request, change: |
|
|
|
Request: Marilyn Monroe |
|
TO |
|
GIF: Marilyn Monroe |
|
|
|
This allows readers the option of reading the group in a |
|
newsreader's selector, sorted by articles. They can then read only |
|
what is of interest to them, trusting the IDs to accurately identify |
|
the contents. Some people do not have the time (or money if they |
|
are paying by the hour or byte) to read everything in every group |
|
they like. |
|
|
|
|
|
Here are some guidelines: |
|
|
|
|
|
Posting to the ASCII groups: |
|
|
|
o If someone requests a picture only days after it has been posted, |
|
and you would like to fill that request, please email the picture |
|
to the person requesting it. It's better than reposting so soon. |
|
|
|
o Try to eliminate unnecessary blank space to the left of the pic, |
|
and trailing space to the right. This reduces waste. |
|
|
|
o If you're posting a collection of pics, try to keep each pic on |
|
its own lines (and separated from other pics by a couple of |
|
lines). |
|
|
|
o Replace tabs with spaces. Otherwise tab damage can occur. |
|
|
|
|
|
When following up an article: |
|
|
|
o Read all the articles in a thread before posting. Most |
|
newsreaders will let you re-read news you've already seen. |
|
|
|
o Decide whether it's better to post or email your message. |
|
|
|
o Check the attributions. |
|
|
|
o Try to keep quoted materials to a minimum. |
|
|
|
o Summarize where possible. |
|
|
|
o Change the Subject ID. |
|
|
|
|
|
Most general guidelines for posting apply here too: |
|
|
|
o Try to stay on topic (ASCII art). It's easy to get sidetracked |
|
into other things, especially when a cross-posted thread gets |
|
going. |
|
|
|
o If you disagree with someone, disagree with their words, don't |
|
flame them. |
|
|
|
o Ask permission before quoting somebody's email message. |
|
|
|
o Type your post in upper-and-lower case. ALL UPPER CASE IS HARD TO READ. |
|
|
|
o Cross-post an article instead of posting it separately to many |
|
newsgroups. You cross-post by adding group names to the |
|
"Newsgroups:" line in the header (if you are using the editor in a |
|
newsreader). Or by typing names when prompted in "Pnews". |
|
|
|
When you cross-post, only one copy is sent around. And only one |
|
copy is kept on each machine. And as a reader, you only see the |
|
cross-posted article once, no matter how many groups it was cross- |
|
posted to. |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're a new reader: |
|
|
|
o Read the ASCII groups for a week or two to familiarize yourself |
|
with them before posting. |
|
|
|
|
|
If you're a new user: |
|
|
|
o Familiarize yourself with newsgroups, their customs, terminology |
|
and abbreviations. Check out the guidelines, posted in the |
|
newsgroups news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions. |
|
|
|
One exception to the usual rules is the use of sigs. Because the |
|
groups rec.arts.ascii, alt.ascii-art and alt.binaries.pictures.ascii |
|
are about ASCII art, it is within the scope of these groups to post |
|
longer sigs. |
|
|
|
|
|
Be an Art Detective. |
|
|
|
Let's say you're reading another group, say, rec.nonsense, and |
|
while reading the posts, you see a pic or sig. You would like an |
|
easy way to show it to us on rec.arts.ascii, without saving it, |
|
quiting from rec.nonsense, going to rec.arts.ascii, starting a post, |
|
inserting the pic or sig, quiting your newsreader, deleting it, etc. |
|
|
|
It's easy to be an Art Detective. While in the original newsgroup: |
|
|
|
o Follow-up the article, making sure it is quoted. |
|
|
|
o Replace any newsgroups named in the "Newsgroups:" with "rec.arts.ascii". |
|
|
|
o Delete all extraneous materials from the post, leaving the pic or sig. |
|
|
|
o Add any commentary you think appropriate. |
|
|
|
o Send it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26 Where is this FAQ available? |
|
|
|
Tha FAQ is available from newsgroups, FTP, Gopher, WWW, finger: |
|
|
|
|
|
o Newsgroups: |
|
|
|
rec.arts.ascii, |
|
alt.ascii-art, alt.binaries.pictures.ascii, alt.ascii-art.animation |
|
comp.graphics, news.answers, alt.answers, rec.answers, comp.answers |
|
|
|
|
|
o FTP Sites: |
|
|
|
-> Host: ftp.wwa.com |
|
Path: pub/Scarecrow |
|
File: FAQ |
|
URL: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/FAQ |
|
|
|
-> Host: rtfm.mit.edu |
|
Path: pub/usenet-by-group/rec.arts.ascii |
|
File: FAQ_-_ASCII_Art_Questions_&_Answers_(*.*_-_*_K) |
|
URL: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/rec.arts.ascii |
|
|
|
-> Host: src.doc.ic.ac.uk |
|
Path: pub/usenet/news.answers/rec.arts.ascii |
|
File: FAQ_-_ASCII_Art_Questions_&_Answers_(*.*_-_*_K) |
|
URL: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/usenet/news.answers/rec.arts.ascii |
|
|
|
|
|
o Gopher Servers: |
|
|
|
-> Hast: gopher.wwa.com |
|
Items: 3, 3 |
|
|
|
-> Hast: jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca |
|
Items: 10, 12, 1 |
|
|
|
-> Host: cc1.kuleuven.ac.be |
|
Items: 3, 3, 858 |
|
|
|
|
|
o World Wide Web: |
|
|
|
-> URL: http://miso.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow.html |
|
Select: ASCII ART FAQ (this file) |
|
Select: ASCII Art Resources (text version with samples of everything) |
|
Select: ASCII Art Reference (Web version with links to everything) |
|
|
|
|
|
o Finger by typing the following at a prompt on mony sites: |
|
|
|
finger asciifaq@wwa.com (turn on text capture first) |
|
OR |
|
finger asciifaq@wwa.com | more (you can read it a page at a time) |
|
OR |
|
finger asciifaq@wwa.com > faq (saves it to a file called 'faq') |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Who made this FAQ? |
|
|
|
It is made by your old friend, the Scarecrow. Materials for the |
|
ASCII ART FAQ, ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web |
|
version of the FAQ) were gratefully received from the following nice |
|
people: |
|
|
|
|
|
JORN BARGER _______________________ |
|
ROWAN CRAWFORD / \ |
|
NORMAND VEILLEUX | That's all folks! | |
|
GLEN A MILLER | See ASCII Art Resources | |
|
JUDY ANDERSON | and ASCII Art Reference | |
|
MICHAEL A GODIN | for many examples. | |
|
STEVEN M SULLIVAN \__ __________________/ |
|
LARS ARONSSON | / |
|
CHRIS PIRILLO |/ |
|
CHEVALIER / |
|
Q ALEX ZHAO |
|
DOV SHERMAN |
|
GREG GULIK |
|
A RICH |
|
C GROOM |
|
MATT RYAN |
|
FELIX LEE |
|
DAVE VRONA |
|
PAUL KLINE |
|
R L SAMUELL |
|
DANNI BAUER |
|
NICK RUSNOV |
|
DON BERTINO |
|
TODD D HALE |
|
JOHN PAYSON |
|
PAUL FAWCETT |
|
MATT MESSINA |
|
SUSIE OVIATT |
|
RICHARD KIRK |
|
SIMON BRADLEY |
|
PAUL FOERSTER |
|
RIC HOTCHKISS |
|
WINSTON SMITH |
|
O'NEIL PARKER |
|
GLENN CHAPPELL |
|
DANIEL HOLDREN |
|
DAVID CONNELLY |
|
OTTO J. MAKELA |
|
JOEL ROTHSCHILD |
|
BENJAMIN THOMAS |
|
BRIAN DEVENDORF |
|
EVAN M CORCORAN |
|
MEINDERT DE JONG |
|
MATT E THURSTON |
|
CHRISTOPHER KING |
|
JONATHAN PETERSON |
|
RUDRIK GREYSHADOW |
|
|
|
|
|
__________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
|
|
Version: 4.9.2 |
|
Released: April 9, 1996 |
|
|
|
|
|
|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | || |
|
END O F T H E A S C I I A R T FAQ |
|
|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | || |
|
|
|
File: academy/faqs/faq_barger.txt |
|
http://www.ascii-art.de/info/faq_barger.txt |
|
|
|
From: cfbd@southern.co.nz (Colin Douthwaite) |
|
|
|
============================================================================ |
|
|
|
ASCII ART FAQ by Jorn Barger 11 December 1993 |
|
|
|
============================================================================ |
|
|
|
|
|
ASCII ART FAQ |
|
by Jorn Barger |
|
|
|
Purpose: to promote more creative use of the ASCII character set on |
|
Internet, especially for _page layout_ and _animation_, and the |
|
development and distribution of tools to facilitate this. |
|
|
|
Justification: Ascii art will continue to be the appropriate, |
|
populist technology for graphics on Internet, for some years to |
|
come... so we might as well get good at it! (There's still lots of |
|
untapped potential...) |
|
|
|
There's such a range of newsreading environments, that few of the |
|
ideas offered here will work the same for everyone. If we want to do |
|
this right, we need to get a sense of where these differences are |
|
most serious. (White-on-black displays vs b-on-w, for one...) |
|
|
|
|
|
****************** |
|
Contents of FAQ: |
|
****************** |
|
|
|
- Samples of page-layout and animation |
|
- The ASCII character set: problems and potential |
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- The line-draw character palette |
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- Line-draw ascii fonts |
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- Esthetics: texture, gesture |
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- Greyscale character palettes |
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- ASCII anti-aliasing |
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- An 'asciify' algorithm for anti-aliasing pbm bitmaps, with sample |
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This last topic may have the most *practical* utility-- it should |
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allow archives of GIFs and JPEGs to offer compact catalogs of |
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thumbnails *in the form of simple text files*. |
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Thruout the faq, I'll be raising questions about things I don't |
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know, that I'd like to be able to answer in future updates. |
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Feedback is *very* welcome. |
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Here's some samples of ascii page-layout: |
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1 9 9 3 |
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The central |"| |
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bargraph shows >>>>>>>> |m| < =--------- |
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the total |m| 1 This rightmost bargraph, |
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number of |"| |m| < . turned sideways, shows |
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newsgroups, | | < |m| 2 . the *distribution* of daily |
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log 10 | | 9 |m| < . volume for all newsgroups. |
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(groups_total) | | < |m| 3 ] (msgs_per_group) |
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(~5000) | | < |m| < ] |
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|m| 6 | | 4 ]] Here, most newsgroups are |
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>>>>> |m| < | | < ]] still way under 100 msgs |
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This leftmost |m| < | | 5 ]]]] per day. One group in ten |
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bargraph is |m| 3 | | < ]]]]]]] tops this level. |
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a logarithmic |m| < | | 6 =--------- |
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display of |m| < |_| 0 100 200 |
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total Usenet |m| 0 msgs/day/group |
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readership, |_| |
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(subs_total) 5000 groups |
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(~1,000,000) 1 million readers |
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1 9 8 8 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 8: the nightmare? |
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(wild guesses) |
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|"| |"| |"| |
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|m| < =--------- |m| < =--------- |m| < =--------- |
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|m| 1 |m| 1 |m| 1 ] |
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|"| |m| < |"| |m| < . |"| |m| < ]] |
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| | < |m| 2 | | < |m| 2 . | | < |m| 2 ]] |
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| | 9 |m| < . | | 9 |m| < . | | 9 |m| < ]] |
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| | < | | 3 . | | < |m| 3 ] |m| < |m| 3 ]] |
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| | < | | < . | | < |m| < ] |m| < |m| < ]]] |
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| | 6 | | 4 ] |m| 6 | | 4 ]] |m| 6 |m| 4 ]]]] |
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| | < | | < ] |m| < | | < ]] |m| < |m| < ]]]]]] |
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|m| < | | 5 ]] |m| < | | 5 ]]]] |m| < | | 5 ]]]]]]]] |
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|m| 3 | | < ]]]] |m| 3 | | < ]]]]]]] |m| 3 | | < ]]]]]]]]] |
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|m| < | | 6 =--------- |m| < | | 6 =--------- |m| < | | 6 =--------- |
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|m| < |_| 0 100 200 |m| < |_| 0 100 200 |m| < |_| 0 100 200 |
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|m| 0 msgs/day/group |m| 0 |m| 0 |
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|_| |_| |_| |
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500 groups 5000 groups 50,000 groups??? |
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100,000 readers 1 million readers 100 million readers |
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Current editors/ word processors assume that you want your text |
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elements to hug the left margin, effectively a 'sideways gravity' |
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that must be carefully counteracted. It's easy to screw up (which |
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the warlorders call 'tabdamage'). If your wp offers typeover-mode, |
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that's likely to work better than insert-mode, for preventing |
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tabdamage. |
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Here's a primitive animation (that also illustrates the use of |
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lineweight to simulate depth). The protagonist is just a circle |
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with a heavy ascii lineweight, abstractly representing a character |
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named Joy Hoy: |
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_+m"m+_ |
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Jp qh |
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O O |
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Yb dY |
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"Y5m2Y" |
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The faster your modem, the nicer this works: |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
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| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:. /.../..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ \ | . . . I://.//./ /::I , |
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| ] :/ \ | . H:.: /.//...:H .. |
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| ] / / \ \ | :. I.:/.//.//..:I .: . |
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_+m"m+_ | ]/ / \ | . , H:../// /./::H . .. |
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Jp qh | / \ \ | ., . I./:/../// .:I , . , |
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O O ___|/ / \ \|____;__H:. ////:/./:H_________ |
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Yb dY |
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"Y5m2Y" / |
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__________________ / __________ |
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_______"_____ =======_=======_===_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
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| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:.//... ..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ \ | . . . I://.//. //::I , |
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| ] :/ \ | . H:.://.//...:H .. |
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] / / \ \ | :. I.:/./ .//..:I .: . |
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_+m"m+_ / / \ | . , H:../////./::H . .. |
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Jp qh J888888888888h | ., . I./:/../ //.:I , . , |
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______ O O / 88 \\\ \ \ \ 88 |____;__H:.// //:/./:H_________ |
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Yb dY 88 \\\\\\ \\\ \ 88 |
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"Y5m2Y" / 8 \\\\\\\\\\ \\ 8 |
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_________________ / J888888888888888888h __________ |
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______"______ 8OO8XX [YBNNDY] XX8OO8 ==_======_====_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
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| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:.//.../..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ \ | . . . I: /.//.// ::I , |
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| ] :/ [==] \ | . H:.://.//...:H .. |
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| ] / / [d==b]\ \ | :. I.:/.//.//..:I .: . |
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| ]/ / " " \ | . , H:.. ////./::H . .. |
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| / _+m"m+_ \ \ | ., . I./:/..////.:I , . , |
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__________|/ / Jp qh \ \|____;__H:./ ///:/./:H_________ |
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O O |
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/ Yb dY |
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_________________ / "Y5m2Y" __________ |
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_______"_____ =======_=====_=====_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
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| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:.//.../..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ w \ | . . . I://. /.///::I , |
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| ] :/ \ | . H:.://.//...:H .. |
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| ] / / \ \ | :. I.:/.//./ ..:I .: . |
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| ]/ / \ ' . , H:../ ///./::H . .. |
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| / \ _+m"m+_ . I./:/..////.:I , . , |
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__________|/ / Jp qh __H:./// /:/./:H_________ |
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O O |
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/ Yb dY |
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_________________ / "Y5m2Y" __________ |
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_______"_____ ___===_====_======_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
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| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:.//.../..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ \ | . . . I:/ .//.// ::I , |
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| ] :/ \ | . H:.://.//...:H .. |
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| ] / / \ \ | :. I.:/.//.//.. ! .: . |
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| ]/ / \ | . , H:../// _+m"m+_ . . |
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| / \ \ | ., . I./:/.. Jp qh . , |
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__________|/ / \ \|____;__H:./ // O O ____ |
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Yb dY |
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/ "Y5m2Y" |
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_________________ / __________ |
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_______"_____ =======_===_=======_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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************************* |
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The ASCII character set |
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************************* |
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The American Standard Code for Information Interchange supplies a |
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character-assignment for each number from zero to 127 (7F in |
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hexadecimal). As I understand it, Internet protocols are optimized |
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for this seven-bit range--if you're trying to ftp an eight-bit-wide |
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file, you have to specially request 'binary' transmission. (So the |
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opposite of binary, here, is *ASCII*.) |
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Only the numbers from 32 to 126 (20 to 7E hex) are defined as |
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*printable* characters (the others are defined as control codes): |
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F |
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=-------------------------------- |
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2 | ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / <- <- <- 20 hex is the |
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3 | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? blankspace |
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4 | @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O |
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5 | P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ |
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6 | ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 7F is non-printing |
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7 | p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ <- in the US ("rubout") |
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Unfortunately, this narrow standard ignored the needs of many other |
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cultures: the British 'pound' sign, letters with accents in French |
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and Scandinavian alphabets, etc., which led them to introduce slight |
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modifications to the standard, making the following symbols (at |
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least) non-universal: |
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{^ ` { curly brace 1 ^ caret ` backquote |
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#| } # hatch/hash mark | pipe } curly brace 2 |
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~\ ~ tilde \ backslash |
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]$[@ [square brackets] $ dollarsign @ at-sign |
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[The test-graphic is vaguely a woman with a rose in her teeth, on my |
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screen anyway...] |
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Furthermore, even within the US, different typefaces assign |
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significantly different shapes to some characters, for example: |
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"|" (C7) is sometimes drawn as a continuous line, sometimes broken |
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in the middle. |
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...@... ...@... (So this becomes a |
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"^" (5E) may be anything from ..@.@.. to ..@.@.. 'Pinocchio' smiley: |
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....... .@...@. { ;^) |
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Similarly with "<" and ">". ....... @.....@ (...doesn't it?)) |
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Depending on your character set, any of these may be the blackest |
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black: @#%* (I'm often seeing people choosing "#", which on my |
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screen looks totally blotchy.) |
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Any of these may display at different heights: ~^*-=+ |
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Lettershapes may have serifs or not, and ascenders and descenders |
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may be straight or curved. (Proportionally-spaced fonts, as opposed |
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to monospaced, are of course *hopeless*. On the Mac, I favor Monaco |
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9, for its simplicity. Courier is another normally-monospaced |
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family.) |
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Even monospaced fonts may display with different aspect ratios |
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(v:h), at least within GUIs, which can turn circles into ellipses |
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and squares into rectangles. Different newsreaders may space the |
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lines differently, too, with the same outcome. (What was the IBM- |
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monochrome aspect-ratio?) |
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For Internet transmission, you can assume the display is 80 |
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characters wide, although if you trim this a bit it will allow |
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images to be e-quoted without wrap-around. (If you use all 80, can |
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the CR cause wraparound in some pagers?) |
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Normal screen height is 24 or 25 lines, but when you're laying out a |
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page you should assume you'll use a control-L before and after each |
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screenful of text, to maintain the alignment, and this turns out to |
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limit the height to 22 lines. |
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********************************************* |
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Line-draw vs. greyscale character palettes |
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********************************************* |
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Most ascii art so far has leaned almost entirely on less than twenty |
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of the available characters-- what might be called the 'line-draw' |
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character palette: |
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/ \ | - _ = |
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. : ' ` " ~ |
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< > ( ) [ ] |
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Here's a cute example of the potential of this palette, a pastiche |
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that re-combines an incredibly cool self-portrait by Jonggu Moon and |
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a state-of-the-art dragon (off rec.games.mud, I think, but I got it |
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2ndhand and missed the credit). Notice, though, how the lines are |
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mostly the same weight, creating a flatness: |
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_ __,----'~~~~~~~~~`-----.__ |
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. . `//====-_ ___,-' ` |
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-. \_|// . /||\\ `~~~~`---.___./ |
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______-==. _-~o~ \/ ||| \\ _,'` |
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__,--' ,=='||\=_ ;_--~/_-'|- |`\ \\ ,' |
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_-' ' | \\`. '-'~7 /- / || `\. / |
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.' //// || | \\ \_ / /- / || \ / |
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/ ____ O-O--= | \\.`-_/ /|- _/ ,|| \ / |
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,-' ( ^ _/\_ --_ \ `==-/ `| \'--===-' _/` |
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/\~-\/ \ `-| /| )-'\~' _,--~' |
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/|`/ _ \_ \ '-~~\_/ | | `\_ ,~ /\ |
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/ | : U_/ / / \ \__ \/~ `\__ |
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\(__:__ \_/ _,-' _/'\ ,-'~____-'`-/ ``===\ |
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=@===== ((->/' \|||' `. ~`-/ , _|| |
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| | \_ ~\ `^---|__i__i__\--~'_/ |
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/ | | __-^-_ `) \-.______________,-~' |
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/ /| | //,-'~~`__--^- |-------~~~~~' |
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| | | | //,--~~`-\ |
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|__| |__| |
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/#_) |#\ |
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Tools for pasting clip-art *with appropriate 'hidden-line removal'* |
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do not exist, so one must settle, for now, for a word processor with |
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rectangular cut and paste. (Nisus on the Mac, MS Word in recent |
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upgrades?) |
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The animation sample at the beginning of this FAQ uses mostly |
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linedraw, but also a bit of greyscale in the foreground (darker |
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lineweight) and in the far-background (lighter weight). *Greyscale |
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ascii art normally assumes you're displaying dark letters on a light |
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background*. This won't be true for many pc-monochrome monitors. |
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(Here's a page, again. Notice also how a degree of 'random noise' |
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adds to the sense of realism, like avoiding using too-straight lines |
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or too-symmetrical shapes.) |
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========================================================================== |
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. |
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:: |
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:: .. : |
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. .::::.: :: |
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- :. :':::::.:::: /-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/-\_/ |
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| :':'::.::::::.: - . , . . . |
|
| \- - :''::':'::: ... _/ | . . <^o^o^^o^> . . |
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| ] \- -::'::'::.::/ | . <^o^^o^^o^^o^> , |
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| : ..\:::':'::/ | . . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> . |
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| ] : .. _ -=_ | , H.:.//... ..:H . . |
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| ] : ./ \ | . . . I://.//. //::I , |
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| ] :/ \ | . H:.://.//...:H .. |
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] / / \ \ | :. I.:/./ .//..:I .: . |
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_+m"m+_ / / \ | . , H:../////./::H . .. |
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Jp qh J888888888888h | ., . I./:/../ //.:I , . , |
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______ O O / 88 \\\ \ \ \ 88 |____;__H:.// //:/./:H_________ |
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Yb dY 88 \\\\\\ \\\ \ 88 |
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"Y5m2Y" / 8 \\\\\\\\\\ \\ 8 |
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_________________ / J888888888888888888h __________ |
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______"______ 8OO8XX [YBNNDY] XX8OO8 ==_======_====_===__________ |
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========================================================================== |
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************************ |
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ASCII fonts (linedraw) |
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************************ |
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Here's some ascii fonts that use only the linedraw palette. (I'd |
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like to collect full alphabets for these.) Notice that they all use |
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the underscore for the topline of the letters, so an almost-full |
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line of blank must be left above them: |
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___ _ _ _ _ _____ |
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| || |_ ___ _| ||_| ___ __ _| |_ / ___\ ___ __ ___ ___ |
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| | || .\/ ._\/. || |/ ._\| \|_ _| | / __ / _ \ | / \ / _ \ |
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|___||___/\___/\___||_|\___/|_|_| |_| | \_\ \ | __/ | /\ | | __/ |
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\_____/ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |
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_ __ __ __ _ __ ___ __ __ ___ _ _ |
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| |/ / / _| / _|| | / \ | __|/ _|/ _|| __|| \| | |
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| ( ( (_ ( (_ | |_ | __ || __|\_ \\_ \| __|| | |
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|_|\_\ \__| [] \__||___||_||_||___||__/|__/|___||_|\_| |
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___ __ __ ___ ____ ___ ____ _____ ___ _____ ___ ____ |
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/ \| | |/ \| \ / \ / ___| ___|/ \|_ _|/ \| | |
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| =+= | =+= | =+= | =+= | =+= | \__ \| ___| +=+ | | | | +=+ | +=+ |
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\___/|__|__|__|__|__|\_\__|__| |___/|_____|__|__| |_| |__|__|____| |
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|
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/\ |
|
___/\___ ___ __ __(__) __ _______ |
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_/ __/\ \/\ / \ | |/ ___\/ \/ ___/ |
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\___ \_/ \/ _/\ \| _/ /| | \ / ____ |
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_/ | \ \/ \ \_/ / \_ \| | | \ \/ _/ |
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\ ___/\__|| \____/| |\__/__|__| \_ | |
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\/ |____/ |__| |____/|__| /\ |
|
___ (__)_____________ ___________ |
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\ \/\ | |____ \____ \/ \_____ \ |
|
_/ \ | | _|/ / _|/ / _/\ \__|/ / |
|
\ \/ \| | \_ \_\_ \_\_/ /\_ \_ |
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\__|| |__| |\___/ |\___/____/ |\___/ |
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|____/ |__| |__| |__| |
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|
|
Here's an especially readable box font (in tumbling-dice mode): |
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__ ____ __ ____ __ __ |
|
/\ \ / \_\ / /\ / \ \ / |\ / /\ |
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/ \_\ / /\ |_| / / /| /\ \ \ / ||/ / / |
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/ /\ | |\ \/ /_/_ / / / \ \/ \ \ / |/ / / |
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/ \/ |_| \ __ \_\ /_/ / \ /\ \_\ / /| / / |
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/ /\ ./_/ \ \ \/_/_\_\/ \ \ \/_// / | / / |
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\ \/ |_| \ \_\ /_/\ \ \_\ /_/ /|_/ / |
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\__/_/ \/_/ \_\/ \/_/ \_\/ \_\/ |
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|
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And an impressively tiny one: |
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________ ________ |
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/ /_ __/\ /\ \__ _\ |
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/___/_/_/\/ \ \___\_\_\ |
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\___\_\_\/ \/___/_/_/ |
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|
|
Warlorders call most ascii fonts "BUAFs", for butt-ugly ascii font. |
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(buaG substitutes G-for-graphic.) I'm on the lookout for fonts that |
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might pass for butt-beautiful, and I'll settle for butt-bearable... |
|
:^) Here's my new favorite (anybody know Jules?): |
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|
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_| _| _| _| _|_|_ _|_|_ |
|
_| _| _| _| _| |/ \|_ |
|
_| _| _| _| _| _|/ \| |
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\|_|_/ \|_|_/ _|_|_| \|_|_| \|_|_/ |
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|
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For page-layout, the linedraw palette is useful for making boxes and |
|
frames, which adds to a screen's 'page-appeal' in the same way a |
|
picture-frame sharpens the look of a wall-poster. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
********************* |
|
Texture and gesture |
|
********************* |
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|
|
I experienced a personal ascii-art epiphany last winter, on seeing a |
|
few signatures where people used this: _/ as a tile, which provides |
|
an amazing sense of *texture*: |
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_/ |
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_/ _/ |
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_/ _/ _/ |
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|
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Another (flatter) sort of |
|
texture: The same, randomized: |
|
|
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*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* ::*:::::***::::::::::: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* :::::::**::::::*::::*: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* :*::*:*::*::::*::::*:: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* :::*::::::*::*:*:::::: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* ::*:*::::*:*:::::::::: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* ::::::*:*::::*:::::::: |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* *::::::::**:::::::::** |
|
*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* ::::*::::::*:::::*:::: |
|
|
|
If your wp's macro-language includes a random-number function, you |
|
can generate textures by writing a 'Spatter' macro that fills a |
|
rectangle with the letters of any string, randomly scattered. |
|
|
|
|
|
_/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ _/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ _/ |
|
_/ _/_/ _/ _/ |
|
_/ _/ _/ |
|
As far as I know, _/ _/ _/ |
|
the first appli- _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ |
|
cation to allow _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ |
|
the use of a mouse _/ _/ _/ |
|
to draw ascii _/ _/_/ _/ _/ |
|
*gesturally* will _/ _/ _/ _/_/ |
|
be Matt Mora's _/ _/ _/ _/ |
|
AsciiPaint (for Mac), _/ _/ |
|
now in beta. (Watch _/ |
|
for announcements.) _/_/ |
|
It made this easy: _/ _/ _/ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
***************** |
|
ASCII greyscale |
|
***************** |
|
|
|
ASCII art has its roots in the technology of *mosaics*. Most |
|
mosaics use small elements with a single, solid colorshade. By this |
|
standard, ASCII offers 95 shades of grey! (When I was small, a |
|
design firm in my town built a hi-tech mosaic mural for the Wright |
|
Brothers museum in Dayton, Ohio, a wall-sized version of that |
|
classic b&w photo of their first flight, built out of inch-square |
|
tiles in about eight shades of grey-- only instead of solid greys, |
|
they used (fractally) tiny black-and-white 'icons', which |
|
represented other scenes from the Wrights' career, covering a scale |
|
from very light to very dark...) |
|
|
|
Here's an approximate, partial greyscale ascii palette (still |
|
assuming white background): |
|
|
|
.'`,^:";~ |
|
-_+<>i!lI? |
|
/\|()1{}[] (I'm looking for feedback about where this doesn't work, |
|
rcvunxzjft for non-Mac-Monaco displays.) |
|
LCJUYXZO0Q |
|
oahkbdpqwm |
|
*WMB8&%$#@ |
|
|
|
(If an eighth bit were available to toggle the background color |
|
between black and white... would this help a lot?) |
|
|
|
Of course, more than eight shades of grey is probably overkill, not |
|
least because the lettershapes contribute so much distracting |
|
'noise' that fewer is probably better. |
|
|
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J............@@@@@@JJJJJJ@@@@@@@@@@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J.................@@JJJJ@@@@JJ@@@@ |
|
@@@@@@..@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ...........@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ@@@@ |
|
@@@@@@J.JJJJ@@@J@@@@@@@@J........@@.JJJ..@@@@JJJ.JJJJ@@ The more you |
|
@@@@..JJ....@@JJ@@@@@@@@J........@@.J..JJ@@@@@@J...JJ@@ squint, the better |
|
@@@@JJ....J.J.....J.@@@@...........JJJ.JJ..........JJ@@ this looks! |
|
@@@@JJ....J.J.....J.@@@@............JJJ............JJ@@ Notice that it |
|
@@JJJJ..J..........J@@@@...............JJJJ........JJ@@ uses only three |
|
@@JJJJ..J..........J@@@@..................J........JJ@@ greys (or a |
|
@@JJJ..............J@@@@J..........................JJ@@ 'black', a white |
|
@@JJJ.............JJ@@@@J..........................JJ@@ and one grey.) |
|
@@JJJJ.........J.J@@@@J...........................JJJ@@ |
|
@@JJJJJ.......J.JJ@@@@J...........................JJJ@@ [This example is |
|
@@JJJJJ.......J.@@JJ@@....J........................@@@@ far from being |
|
@@JJJJJ.......JJ@@JJ@@..JJJ........................@@@@ optimized, even at |
|
@@JJJJJ.........JJ@@..............................J@@@@ this low res...] |
|
@@JJJJJJ...J.JJJJJ@@.............................JJ@@@@ |
|
@@@@@JJJJJJJ@@JJJJ@@@JJJ@@@JJJ..................J@@@@@@ (Aren't the J's |
|
@@@@@@JJJJJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJJJ.J.....JJ@@@@@@ annoying?) |
|
@@@@@@@@JJJJJJJJ.J@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ...............@@@@@@@@ |
|
@@@@@@@@JJJJJJJJJ.JJ@@@@@@@@J................@@@@@@@@@@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@JJJJ.J.JJ........................@@@@@@@@@@@@ |
|
|
|
|
|
....................J@@@@@@@@@@@@@......JJJJJJ.......... |
|
.....................J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@..JJJJ....JJ.... |
|
......@@.............JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@..............JJ.... |
|
Here's the ......J@JJJJ...J........J@@@@@@@@@..@JJJ@@....JJJ@JJJJ.. |
|
same image ....@@JJ@@@@..JJ........J@@@@@@@@@..@J@@JJ......J@@@JJ.. |
|
in negative, ....JJ@@@@J@J@@@@@J@....@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ@JJ@@@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
for pc-monos: ....JJ@@@@J@J@@@@@J@....@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
..JJJJ@@J@@@@@@@@@@J....@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJJ@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
(The whites ..JJJJ@@J@@@@@@@@@@J....@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
just aren't ..JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J....J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
very white!) ..JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ....J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ.. |
|
..JJJJ@@@@@@@@@J@J....J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ.. |
|
..JJJJJ@@@@@@@J@JJ....J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJJ.. |
|
..JJJJJ@@@@@@@J@..JJ..@@@@J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.... |
|
..JJJJJ@@@@@@@JJ..JJ..@@JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.... |
|
..JJJJJ@@@@@@@@@JJ..@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J.... |
|
..JJJJJJ@@@J@JJJJJ..@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@JJ.... |
|
.....JJJJJJJ..JJJJ...JJJ...JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@J...... |
|
......JJJJJJ.......................JJJJJ@J@@@@@@JJ...... |
|
........JJJJJJJJ@J...........JJJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@........ |
|
........JJJJJJJJJ@JJ........J@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.......... |
|
..........JJJJ@J@JJ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@............ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
********************* |
|
ASCII anti-aliasing |
|
********************* |
|
|
|
The oddities of the ascii lettershapes, though, need not be purely |
|
noise. One can also view ascii as a palette whose elements combine |
|
both linedraw and greyscale effects. This might be thought of as |
|
anti-aliased greyscale, and ought to allow at least doubled |
|
resolution, both horizontally and vertically. (I wonder how this |
|
works on other screens?): |
|
|
|
|
|
(((&(&(&(&(&(((&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(((((((((((((((((((((((@ |
|
((&(((&((&(&((@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&(((((((((((((((((((((@ |
|
(&(&((&(&&((@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&((((((((((((((((((@ |
|
((&(&(@&@&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&&(((((((((((((((@ |
|
&(((&&&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(((((((((((((((@ |
|
(&(&(@@@&&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@5::""=@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&((((((((((((((@ |
|
((&(&&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:::::::m88CCC8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&(((((((((((@ |
|
(&(&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#88@@88b_::::::mm@9998C8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@((((((((((@ |
|
((@&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#L""#58@@@)::..8<"_@@9>"C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&(((((((@ |
|
(@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3::))::)@@::: :Yh":::::C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@m((((( |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@33:)::::(@@:::. :"?::::C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@((K(((( |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3)::::::d@@|::. ..::::C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@((@(((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3J)::::/J@@|::.. ..:::(C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@((@@&((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3J)::::6@C8:=).. .:::::@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&((((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@33J):;;cO8::::.... :::::_@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&((((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@833O8mm@@m888mme_=;:::_@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&@(((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@88OOOO:@@@88P":::::::w@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@@@(@((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@88OOJJ):::::::::::_@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@@@(&((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&&88888):::::__wm@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@@@@((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&&88888 @@@@@&&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@@@&((@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&8@888883 888888@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&@ |
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&@&8&8888833 88888&@@&@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@&@@ |
|
|
|
|@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@| Here's a superb white-on-black |
|
|@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@| anti-aliased image I just got |
|
|@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@| in the mail. |
|
|@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@| |
|
|@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@| |
|
|@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@| |
|
|@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@| |
|
|@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@| |
|
|@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@| |
|
|@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@| |
|
|@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@| |
|
|@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@| |
|
|
|
Here's a playful anti-aliased ascii font (3*3): |
|
|
|
! i-, ,=_ :\ = - --= ,-, i i ! i ! / i \ / |
|
i=: :=\ : | ) |- |- | _ :_: : | =: : !""! |
|
j t |_) Y_- :=' o-= o Y-) ! ! i \-Y i \ =-- + + |
|
|
|
= : ,-, i- ,-, :-, ,-> ==- i i i i ! ! \ / i i <-= |
|
|\| [ ) :_) [ ) i_; "-, | | | \ / :/\: = ':' / |
|
: + "=" | "=t ! \ o_) ! "=" + ! ! j t ! o-= |
|
|
|
An anti-aliasing character palette should include these 'diagonals': |
|
JhjtY |
|
|
|
|
|
A new anti-aliasing algorithm! |
|
|
|
Happily, as I was working on this faq, I ran across Rob Harley |
|
(robert@vlsi.cs.caltech.edu), who had some handy code for converting |
|
b&w bitmaps according to a mapping like this: |
|
|
|
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. |
|
.. .. .. .. .@ .@ .@ .@ @. @. @. @. @@ @@ @@ @@ |
|
.. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ |
|
, . _ - i v g - c i s = e z m |
|
|
|
.@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ .@ |
|
.. .. .. .. .@ .@ .@ .@ @. @. @. @. @@ @@ @@ @@ |
|
.. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ |
|
' ! / 2 ! ] / d / ( / K Y 4 Z W |
|
|
|
@. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. @. |
|
.. .. .. .. .@ .@ .@ .@ @. @. @. @. @@ @@ @@ @@ |
|
.. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ |
|
` \ | L \ \ ) G ! t [ b + N D W |
|
|
|
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ |
|
.. .. .. .. .@ .@ .@ .@ @. @. @. @. @@ @@ @@ @@ |
|
.. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ .. .@ @. @@ |
|
~ T 7 X V Y Z 8 f 5 P K * M A @ |
|
|
|
The most important factor in these assignments is not the letter |
|
shape alone, but the overall pixel density. On my Mac, these rows |
|
form an approximate greyscale, from 2 pixels per char, to six: |
|
|
|
2 _ivc=!/|\~ |
|
3 gjez2]/(YL\)t[+T7Vf |
|
4 mdK4ZGbNDXY5P* |
|
5 W8KMA |
|
6 @ <-- remember, this choice varies widely: @#%&* |
|
|
|
Theoretically, these substitutions could turn 22*80 ascii resolution |
|
into 66*160. See rec.misc for the sourcecode and further details. |
|
Here's the output: |
|
|
|
i`it)v|[[[[(//s+)`(-\\/JJgbdd@@@@@@@dmKK(c!(/-[2=/cct/!-v\!_L\)| |
|
]-!/(!-)\L\)v|c5(!,!Ldd@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@dK/]!c\\\v|i\/cT\v((c- |
|
]!`/v\//(-|t\VvcL!m@@@@@M@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@bLt\\|)c/2-vv)/it\. |
|
--/-,\,\v\,|)/v/m@@@@@@K@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@bK!v!-( )-!.[/cT |
|
//.\--'--|-/c(e@@@@@@@DD@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s\\\\-||/v!c\. |
|
-,-|\`||\-\/id@@@@@@@@N@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@b.),`-,-/c-`i |
|
!,\!-!-!'!-!d@@@@@@@P[+~**AAA@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@b/./`c-/.\7- |
|
--'.-- -/,id@@@*P!` \'Z8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@i.\\'.\.c |
|
',`,`\'-,-J@@5`- -- `-iYA@@@@@@@@@@b@@@@@@@@@_\-|-\c- |
|
'. -.,`/.G@@K- ` - )7KM@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c-----/ |
|
- `- --i@@Ai -!ZZ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@b! \`|-` |
|
`-,'- G@@@[, '.D8K@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[/-,-/. |
|
-` .-/v@@@A) -)ZdMd@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@\' _\ |
|
- ` ,iVJ@@@! '-!(K5K@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[(/s[. |
|
- i\G@@@Z- ' ! -i55ZZ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@)(4)` |
|
, -|b@@@@!\ ' ` |-tYG@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XNYZ- |
|
tt@@@@A-, ' `)(d@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@D)8A[ |
|
)8@@@@@\ ,-'-/Kd@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@KD@[ |
|
]]Z@@@@d|- ,ii.c,, -.icLZKK@@@@@@8@K@@@@@@@@@(@8[ |
|
KN8@@@@@( .i!vGG_ J4Kb8ZKb@bbK@d@88@@@@@@@b@@@@@@@@@@dK@- |
|
)/8K@@@K@b@dP~~~T4( Jd@@7`___s@M@@@@MM8d@@@d@@@@@@@@@@@@LM8[ |
|
\!48@K@@@@8@@d*@@@bVi bAKLY~~@@@@@@*ff/\NM8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@db@[ |
|
,\\Kb@@@d@.~t` !*~!`. -MA) '~'.).` `,'K@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@AKb[ |
|
,`8M@@@@@@ -`,,gvZ`` A//- ..c\+\` i]d@@@@@@M@@@@@@@@@@@8[ |
|
i\@8@K@@@D \!' !iZ8@@@8A@@@@@8d@b@@@8M[ |
|
e8d5@@@@@@ '!- '-)8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@M8i |
|
8dZ8@M@@@@- v , ,\tK@@@@@@@@@@@@A@@@@@@Z2| |
|
@b@AK@@@b@[ // cctbA@@@AK@@d@@d@@@K@@@bmi |
|
@@8@M@8@@@P- -=/. /iD8d@@@@@@@@@@@@@@A@@@d@@[ |
|
@8@@@MA@@@@\- . _)g2i -((dKK@@@@@d@@@@d@@K@@@@@@K[ |
|
@@@bAK@@K@@)i 'c,,Kb@@bK )X)Kb@M@@d@@@Mb@@A@d@@@@@@8@[ |
|
@K@b@@@@A@AA/i- ~M@@@@Mc .,\c=)D8d@@b@@@d@@@@@@@@@@8d@@A[ |
|
@@@@Mb@@@@@@('c\` PPK((,i]v|-\-v)8XNAdMK@@@@@@@b@@MK@A@@@@@[ |
|
@@8@@MK@d@A@L!--c)s_, ,(ZsbLb@\`- .-N]/KM@@@@@@@d@@@A@@@@@@@@d@[ |
|
@@Kb@@@K@b@@@/- !''~~Vff*N5f -` -,\))KK@@@@@@@MK@@d@@@M8d@b@@@[ |
|
@b@@@KAK@@@@@@2-- ,,_JJ/i)/- |/v)NK@8d@@@@@@@@@@8@@@@@@@@M@K[ |
|
@@8d@K@@@b@@@@@d!, 'VV\)\\)\7(-)4Jb@8@A@@@K@d@@@@@@@8@@@@@@@@[ |
|
M@@@@8@@K@Kb@@@d@v. `-\\/v)88b@M@A@K@@M@@@A@@M@8@@A@d@8@M[ |
|
Zb@d@M@K@@@@@@@@@@m -)!/stbb@b@@A@b@@@@@Kb@@@@@@@b@@@K@@@[ |
|
K@@d@@@@@d@M@8@@@@@Ks ,-/vJD@@8d@K@@@@@@8@@@@@@@@@@MK@@@b@@M@[ |
|
tN@b@@d@d@M@@@@@@@@@@LL4JKd@A@@d@@K@@@@MK@@@@8@@@@@@@@@@@b@@@@@[ |
|
)NM@8b@@A@@@A@@@@@@@@@@@@@@A@@A@@8@@K@d@@@@M@@K@@K@A@@@8@@M@@@@[ |
|
(tMM@@@d@@M8@@@@A@@@@A@@@A@@@@@@@@@A@@@@8b@@8d@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@M[ |
|
tNZ@@K@@@d@@@@A@@@@@8@@@/4N@@8@b@@d@@M@8@MK@M8@K@@@@@@d@@@@@@@@[ |
|
M/KA8@@@MA@@@M@@@@@@@@@@[|t*Z@N@@@@8@@M8ZAZZ@M@@@A@d@@@@@K@@@d@[ |
|
bYJ4M@@@@@@A@@@@@@@@@@@@D.\'(YKKZD@8dK@5A84YZ@dM@@@@@@@@@@@@d@@[ |
|
K5dM8@8d@d@@@@@@@@8@@@@@@..-!/))ZK5AK4)AY(/XY/Z@@@A@@@d@@@M@@@@[ |
|
Y8dNA@@AK@@d@@@b@@@@@@@@@L,-,\!]]\X(5)Z/7c\\t5/K@@@@@@@@b@@@@@@[ |
|
8M8@@@A@@@A@@8@@@@@@@@@KDLt! !,-|t'(-\\!,\/,\!ZJG@@@d@Md@@@G@@@[ |
|
|
|
=----------=- ,!. --=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----= |
|
Jorn Barger j't Anon-ftp to genesis.mcs.com in mcsnet.users/jorn for: |
|
<:^)^:< K=-=:: -=-> Finnegans Wake, artificial intelligence, Ascii-TV, |
|
.::.:.::.. "=i.: [-' fractal-thicket indexing, semantic-topology theory, |
|
jorn@mcs.com /;:":.\ DecentWrite, MiniTech, nant/nart, flame theory &c! |
|
=----------= ;}' '(, -=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----= |
|
|
|
============================================================================ |
|
|
|
[ Note: There has been some reformatting of the text to make it fit |
|
within 76 columns to avoid linewrap, and, the sub-headings |
|
have been re-done to make them clearer. Otherwise the |
|
original text has remained unchanged. ] |
|
|
|
Bye, |
|
|
|
File: academy/faqs/faq_randall.txt |
|
http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/faq.html |
|
|
|
Archive-name: ascii-art/faq |
|
Posting-Frequency: monthly |
|
Version: 3.0.3.18 |
|
Last-changed: 2003-05-10 cjr |
|
Compiler: CJRandall |
|
Copyright: Public display of this document in proportional-fonts is forbidden |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
| | : : :: \ \ ;; |
|
J J : : :: \ \ ;; |
|
L L : : __ _ _________ \ \ ;; |
|
| | : : / |`| |`|___ ___|`-.\ \ ;; |
|
J J : : / . | | | `-.| |`-. `-.`\ \ ;; |
|
L L : : / /| | | | | | `-. `-\ \ ;; |
|
| | : : / /_| | | | | | `-. \ \. ;; |
|
J J : : / ___ | | | | | `-\ \`-. |
|
L L : : / /`-.| | | |___ | | _ \ \-.`-._ |
|
| | : : /_/____|_|_|_____|_|_|_(_) _ \ \ `-._`: |
|
J J : : |__________________________| `-. \ \-.,-' |
|
L L : : _ _ _ _ _ ___ `-. `-. \ \ | |
|
| | :_: /\(_ / ` | | _ /\ | ) | `-. `-. `-. \ \| |
|
J J | | /--\_)\_,_|_|_-/--\|_\__|__ `-. `-._`-\ \ |
|
L L|_| |___________________________|`-. `-._ `-.\ \ |
|
| | | _____ ___ ___ `-.`-._ `-._ \ ,!`-. |
|
J J | | ___|`/ _ \`-._/ _ \`--. `-._`--._`-'||`-' |
|
L L | | |_ / /_\ \ / / \ \ `-._ `--. `-,+.`-._ |
|
__-------_ | _|`/ _____ \ \ \_/ /_._ `--._ `-.|X||-./ |
|
| |/|_|_./_/_____\_\_\_____/=\`-._ `-. |X||.| |
|
| _,--------------.____ -========\_(A)`-.._ `-|X||\ |
|
Ool | _| ` |_`--. `-- |X||/ |
|
/VK | | | ALT.ASCII-ART: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / ||-. |
|
======================================================================== |
|
[Subject:] (FAQ) Welcome to ASCII art |
|
======================================================================== |
|
|
|
__ __ __ _, |
|
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___ |
|
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\ |
|
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_// |
|
|
|
___ ___ ____ ____ |
|
/\ (( / // | || || ___ _,_ _/|_ |
|
/_\\ \\ (( || || __\\'||\) || |
|
_/ _\\_/__)) \\__,_||_ _||_ ((_||_||_ \|_ |
|
|
|
|
|
Answers to frequently asked questions about ASCII art |
|
======================================================================== |
|
On the Web, the FAQ and other useful documents can be found in the |
|
ASCII art Documentation Archive (ADA), at the following locations:- |
|
======================================================================== |
|
*** There is a wealth of information about ASCII Art *** |
|
*** in the ASCII Documents Archive *** |
|
======================================================================== |
|
International Mirrors |
|
======================================================================== |
|
http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/ascii/ada/ (Helsinki, Finland) |
|
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/q/ada/ (Lulea, Sweden) |
|
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/ada/ (Langley, UK) |
|
http://website.lineone.net/~martin.atkins/ada/ (London, UK) |
|
http://www.bluedwarf.net/~mikechat/ada/ (California, USA) |
|
http://votrezone.com/ada/ (Calgary, Canada) |
|
http://martweb.hypermart.net/ada/ (Seattle, USA) <==spyware |
|
======================================================================== |
|
-*+!%$%!+*-.-*+!%$%!+*-.-*+!%$%!+*-.-*+!%$%!+*-.-*+!%$%!+*-.-*+!%$%!+*- |
|
======================================================================== |
|
Contents |
|
======================================================================== |
|
[1] What's alt.ascii-art? |
|
[2] What is ASCII art? |
|
[3] What does ASCII mean? |
|
[4] Why do all the pictures look strange? |
|
[5] What font do you use for ASCII art? |
|
[6] What program do you use for ASCII art? |
|
[7] How do I draw my own ASCII art? |
|
[8] Can someone do me some kewl lettering? |
|
[9] Where can I find Figlet's address? |
|
[10] Can I copy or post that ASCII picture for myself? |
|
[11] What way works best to ask for a picture of something? |
|
[12] What should I know before posting to alt.ascii-art? |
|
[13] What to NOT post to alt.ascii-art? [da roolz] |
|
[14] How do I convert a picture or graphic to ASCII art? |
|
[15] I have a picture or graphic and I would like it Asciified? |
|
[16] What are ASCII art signature files? |
|
[17] What is ASCII art animation? |
|
[18] What does ObAscii mean? |
|
[19] The ASCII Art Rough-Guide to m$.Outlook? |
|
[20] Where can I find pictures/tutorials/infos/chatrooms/experts? |
|
[21] Historacle's What types of ASCII art are there? |
|
[X1] The Ascii Art 10-Commandments |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[1] What's alt.ascii-art? What's going on here? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
You're probably reading this because it's been posted to |
|
news:alt.ascii-art, news:alt.ascii-art.animation or rec.arts.ascii. |
|
If you're not, jump in and take a look. In these Usenet groups |
|
people discuss ASCII art, request ASCII art, post ASCII art, post |
|
improved versions or variations of other people's ASCII art, and |
|
generally have fun. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[2] What is ASCII art? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
ASCII art is any sort of pictures or diagrams drawn with the |
|
printable characters in the ASCII character set. |
|
(For a definition of ASCII, see Question 3.) |
|
|
|
:-) Probably the most common ASCII art picture is the smiley (-: |
|
but it can get a lot more sophisticated than that. |
|
____ |
|
.-" +' "-. Here's a small ASCII picture of |
|
/.'.'A_'*`.\ a snow-scene paperweight, |
|
|:.*'/\-\. ':| drawn by Joan Stark: |
|
|:.'.||"|.'*:| |
|
\:~^~^~^~^:/ If this picture looks very strange and |
|
/`-....-'\ you can't really tell what it is, |
|
jgs / \ don't panic -- see Question 5. |
|
`-.,____,.-' |
|
|
|
People use ASCII art for a number of reasons. Here are some of them. |
|
* 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 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's easy to copy from one file to another (just cut and paste). |
|
* It's fun! |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[3] What does ASCII mean? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) |
|
7-bit as defined in ISO-646 is a basic set of 128 numbered symbols |
|
which almost all kinds of computer can display. Here are the ones |
|
that are used for 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 |
|
|
|
There are other characters in the set (with the numbers 0 - 31 and |
|
127), but they can do bad stuff to Usenet readers, so PLEASE DON'T |
|
USE THEM in your pictures (except characters 10 and or 13 which |
|
are used to insert a new-line by a variety of Operating Systems). |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[4] Why do the pictures look strange? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
If one particular picture posted to this group looks faulty, but the |
|
rest of them look fine, then its most likely a problem with that |
|
particular picture, or with the poster's Usenet program. But if |
|
*all* the pictures look bad, then your Usenet reader may be set to |
|
display messages in a proportional font (see Question 5). |
|
|
|
* 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 and your newsreader |
|
does not understand HTML (most newsreaders don't). |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[5] What font do you use for ASCII art? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
ASCII art is created using a fixed-width font (like on a traditional |
|
typewriter), because this is the only way to make it portable. |
|
However, several Usenet readers now display messages in a |
|
proportional font (where different characters are different widths). |
|
|
|
The following two lines tell you which kind of font you're using. |
|
The arrow ends up in a different place for different font types and |
|
is right most of the time: |
|
|
|
You are using a [Proportional] [Monospaced] font |
|
................................. --^-- |
|
|
|
Also, to see what your program is doing, look at these two lines: |
|
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii| |
|
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW| |
|
If they look the same length, you're using a fixed-width font and |
|
all should be ok. If the second line is longer than the first, you |
|
need to change your settings to use a fixed-width font. |
|
|
|
In Netscape Messenger, this option is set in |
|
Edit > Preferences > Mail & Newsgroups. |
|
In Outlook Express, the option is set in |
|
View > Options > Fonts (see Question 19) |
|
In Forte Agent, the option is set in |
|
Options > Display Preferences > Fonts |
|
and Free Agent, the option is set in |
|
Options > General Preferences > Fonts |
|
The AOL newsreader can not, at the time of writing, |
|
display Usenet messages in a fixed-width font at all. |
|
|
|
Detailed information on how to configure other Usenet readers is |
|
available at the: |
|
ASCII-Art Documentation Archive (see the beginning of this FAQ). |
|
If all else fails, copy the text of the picture from |
|
your program and paste it into a text editor (such as Notepad). |
|
It's a hassle, but at least you'll get to see the pictures. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[6] What program do you use for ASCII art? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
You can create ASCII art in any text editor, [jorn barger] |
|
such as: Notepad in Windows, |
|
SimpleText or BBEdit in MacOS, |
|
nedit, vi, vim, or pico in Unix, _+m"m+_ |
|
BEd or AZ in AmigaOS, edit in DOS, Jp qh |
|
or any of the various Emacs editors. O O |
|
Yb dY |
|
A 'quick-start' program for learning "Y5m2Y" |
|
is JavE, a free Java program that can be |
|
obtained from:- http://www.jave.de |
|
|
|
Some editors have features which make them more |
|
suitable for ASCII art than others, but that is |
|
largely a matter of personal opinion. Features which |
|
are both useful for ASCII art and available in many |
|
text editors, include the following:- |
|
|
|
* 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 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). |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[7] How do I draw my own ASCII art? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
Unfortunately, there aren't many text books on the subject. :-) |
|
A good way to learn is to study how someone has made a picture. |
|
What characters are chosen and how the characters are laid out. |
|
How a texture is made. |
|
|
|
#########::::::::::######## The best way to learn is to Practise. |
|
##########::::::::######### Draw your cat, your toaster, your |
|
###########::::::########## partner, your musical instruments, |
|
###########,---.########### 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 recognizable) is up to you. |
|
#####:::::: ) ( o:::::##### If you're interested in tutorials, |
|
####::::: .-(_)-. :::::#### there are many available from the |
|
###:::::: '=====' ::::::### ASCII-art Documentation Archive. |
|
########################Mk# |
|
_ |
|
A good way to begin drawing 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 the picture will get. `-.-' `-. |
|
Turn Overtype on and place the | ` `. |
|
cursor somewhere in the middle :. . \ |
|
and begin drawing. This can save | \ . : .-' . |
|
using Delete, Backspace, Enter : )-.; ; / : |
|
and Space-bar keystrokes. : ; | : : ;-. |
|
Saving this empty `canvas' as a ; / : |`-: _ `- ) |
|
read-only file for future use can ,-' / ,-' ; .-`- .' `--' |
|
save you even more time later. `--' `---' `---' bug |
|
|
|
Another method is by tracing a picture either onto clear-plastic |
|
and sticking it onto the screen then opening an editor to trace |
|
under or using an editor which allows the loading of a background |
|
image to trace over, a process known as `water-mark'. |
|
|
|
You can also modify existing art. Take a piece of art you think |
|
could be improved. Make a copy. Now work on it. When you are |
|
good at that, try to improve a really good pic. Then see if you |
|
can fix a damaged file. Now take some small pics and put them |
|
together into a big composite image. |
|
|
|
When drawing ASCII art be aware that there are a few characters |
|
that differ in size, shape and position among fonts: |
|
' apostrophe -- tilts southwest-northeast or vertical |
|
^ caret -- differs in size and shape |
|
~ tilde -- appears in the middle or top |
|
I aye -- straight line in sans-serif, with strokes in serif |
|
try using the vertical bar (|) instead. |
|
# hash -- hash symbol on most, currency on some old computers. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[8] Can someone do me some kewl lettering? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
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 (see Question 9). |
|
The ASCII art text produced by Figlet can be quite stunning, |
|
so try it first before asking for help from the newsgroups. |
|
|
|
IF, however, Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, |
|
THEN post to alt.ascii-art or rec.arts.ascii with your request and |
|
ensure that you include: |
|
* 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. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[9] Where can I find Figlet ? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
The Figlet home page is at:- http://www.figlet.org/ |
|
and links to the FTP site:- ftp://ftp.figlet.org/pub/figlet/ |
|
where you can download versions of the program or source-code |
|
for many different platforms. |
|
|
|
You can run Figlet on the Web by going to one of the following sites |
|
and choosing your text and options on the Web page. Different sites |
|
offer different options (e.g. multiple fonts at once, justification, |
|
and limited line length). Some of these sites also provide an e-mail |
|
Figlet service for people with browsers which don't support forms. |
|
|
|
* http://schnoggo.com/figlet.html |
|
* http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ |
|
* http://home.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[10] Can I copy or post that ASCII picture for myself? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
. |
|
/ \ Don't assume that if somebody posts |
|
| | something to a Usenet 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: |
|
(Oo / _I_ `10 big myths about copyright explained' |
|
+\ \ || __| in news:news.announce.newusers. |
|
\ \||___| |
|
\ /.:.\-\ It is also available at:- |
|
|.:. /-----\ http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html |
|
|___|::oOo::| |
|
/ |:<_T_>:| Generally, ASCII artists don't mind |
|
|_____\ ::: / if you copy their pictures and |
|
| | \ \:/ re-post them or put them on your own |
|
| | | | Web site, as long as you don't |
|
[nosig] \ / | \__ make any money out of them. |
|
/ | \____\ |
|
`-' |
|
Here are a few important considerations:- |
|
|
|
* 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. |
|
|
|
* If you find a picture you want to use, or post, but it doesn't |
|
have initials on it, a common method of marking has been to use |
|
the tag: Unknown. More recently the tag: [nosig] has been used. |
|
|
|
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 [nosig] |
|
initials and you have an original copy |
|
with initials on, feel free to re-post the original version. |
|
* The re-post ought not to be taken personally, as we all |
|
know that ASCII art often loses proper credits. |
|
Responses to the re-post are not necessary. |
|
|
|
One contributor, name of Krogg, suggested the following: |
|
|
|
1.) Ultra polite:...ya make yer own ascii and use it. |
|
2.) Very polite:...Ya contact the author and ask if ya |
|
can use it... |
|
3.) polite:...Ya use it but you keep the Credits |
|
in there like they should be. |
|
4.) rude:...Ya use it and strip credits. |
|
5.) Very rude:...Ya use it and claim that it Is |
|
_Your_ very own creation... |
|
|
|
You choose ... I think the default choice is #3 but you should |
|
make up yer own mind.... |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[11] What way works best to ask for a picture of something? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
Give your request the subject: `REQ:' or `[req]' |
|
Whatever you're looking for a picture of, in the message describe |
|
more exactly what you're looking for. Generally, the more specific |
|
you are, the more likely you are to get some response. |
|
If you just say something like: |
|
`can someone draw me a fish, please' |
|
then you may not get many replies, because people may not know |
|
what size or feel 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. |
|
If someone is rude back to you directly, then please be patient, |
|
since it may just be a troll trying to wind you up. |
|
__ |
|
.' )) __-:!:- If you have a picture |
|
.' .' )) and want it Ascii-fied |
|
((__,' .' ASCII! -:!:- see Question 14 and 15. |
|
-:!:- ((__,'* |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[12] What should I know before posting to alt.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 to news:alt.ascii-art any piece of ASCII art |
|
(see also Question 13). |
|
|
|
* 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, then select |
|
the option which tells it to send messages as PLAIN TEXT only |
|
and turn off "send MIME message". |
|
|
|
If you have a picture which uses HTML for a particular |
|
feature (such as colors or animation), put it on a Web page |
|
and post the URL of the page to alt.ascii-art |
|
|
|
* 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. |
|
|
|
* If it IS over 72 characters wide? |
|
Then a warning in the subject line [wide:110] or whatever the |
|
original picture width and Check Your Post Output Line-Wrap |
|
settings. [for Outlook see Question 19] |
|
Previous versions of this FAQ used a system to prefix posts |
|
such as: [pic] [info] [req] [big] which may be used as a guide |
|
when providing warnings. |
|
|
|
* Have you used any TAB characters or Control Codes? |
|
Inserting control codes (ASCII characters 0 to 31) in a picture |
|
can sometimes achieve interesting effect on your computer screen |
|
or news reader, such as reversing text or changing its colour. |
|
DO NOT post any of these pictures to news:alt.ascii-art, post to |
|
news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii instead 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.] |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[13] What to NOT post to alt.ascii-art? [da roolz] |
|
======================================================================== |
|
[13.1] ASCII art is a very simple medium. |
|
_ _ _ _ |
|
___ (~ )( ~) The following List of Items (~ )( ~) ___ |
|
/ \_\ \/ / should NOT be posted to \ \/ /_/ \ |
|
| D_ ]\ \/ the Usenet groups:- \/ /[ _G | |
|
| D _]/\ \ / /\[_ G | |
|
\___/ / /\ \ news:alt.ascii-art / /\ \ \___/ |
|
mark (_ )( _) news:alt.ascii-art.animation (_ )( _) JavE |
|
~ ~ news:alt.ascii-art.endless.blabla ~ ~ |
|
|
|
news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii |
|
|
|
NOTE: alt.binaries.pictures.ascii supports posting of ASCII |
|
software tools or fonts (in ZIP format) and binary images |
|
of ASCII or other FontSet (in GIF format) and any other |
|
ASCII art related material, but no Spam, in relation to |
|
discussions in the alt.ascii-art newsgroups. |
|
|
|
-= List of Items =- |
|
|
|
* Binaries, Trojans, Zombies, Virus, Spam. |
|
|
|
* ANSI,`extended ASCII' or `high ASCII', and non-Western font art. |
|
Many computer systems have an extended character set of 256 or |
|
more characters, based on the ANSI, Unicode or BIG5 character |
|
sets and having the first 128 characters possibly identical to |
|
ASCII. These characters should not be sent to news:alt.ascii-art |
|
because many computer system types do not display them properly, |
|
even those that do, do not display them in a standard way, for |
|
example, the Windows ANSI character set is different to the |
|
Macintosh ANSI character set. Capture and send a GIF of it to |
|
news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii or put it on a Web page |
|
instead, and post a reference to it to news:alt.ascii-art. |
|
Alternatively, post it to news:rec.arts.ascii (see [13.2]). |
|
|
|
* 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 Usenet readers. |
|
However, to many they just appear as a jumble of <TAGS> and are |
|
totally unrecognizable, so don't post HTML to Usenet. Put it on |
|
a Web page instead, and post the address to news:alt.ascii-art. |
|
See http://llizard.crosswinds.net/ascii-art/asciionpage.htm |
|
for instructions on how to do this. |
|
|
|
* ASCII art animated using Java or JavaScript. |
|
This relies, not only on the newsreader being able to display |
|
HTML, but also being able to run Java or JavaScript. |
|
Put it on a Web page instead, and post the address to |
|
news:alt.ascii-art.animation and news:alt.ascii-art |
|
|
|
* Proportional Font ASCII art screws up on many readers' displays |
|
Send a GIF of it to news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii or |
|
put it on a Web page instead and post a reference to it to |
|
news:alt.ascii-art or post it to news:rec.arts.ascii |
|
|
|
Finally, do not use any control codes, non-ASCII characters, |
|
or word-processor-type formatting in your postings. These are |
|
particular to your editor or computer system they will almost |
|
certainly not have the intended effect on the systems the rest |
|
of us use (they may even crash some Usenet readers). |
|
|
|
==================================================================== |
|
[13.2] What can I post to rec.arts.ascii? |
|
==================================================================== |
|
The official charter for rec.arts.ascii, as sent in the newsgroup |
|
control message, is: |
|
|
|
The group news:rec.arts.ascii will be an appropriate group for |
|
postings to include, but not be limited to, the following: |
|
|
|
o All forms of ASCII art including, but not limited to: |
|
- Standard ASCII art. |
|
- Animations. |
|
- ANSI color graphics. |
|
o Discussion about pieces of art. |
|
o Requests for specific pieces of art, and their fulfilment. |
|
o Questions and answers covering: |
|
- Creating and viewing ASCII art. |
|
- Locating FTP sites for ASCII art and related files. |
|
o Discussion about artists in the field. |
|
|
|
rec.arts.ascii is a moderated group meaning that all posts are |
|
reviewed before being sent to the group. That work is done by a |
|
robo-moderator which filters Spam and checks the posts have the |
|
correct format before approving them. It can also target a |
|
specific poster's traffic for human moderator approval. |
|
|
|
Subjects must be tagged either: |
|
[PIC] for pictures |
|
[REQ] for requests for others to draw pictures |
|
(people replying with pictures change the tag to [PIC]) |
|
[DIS] for general ascii art related discussion and replies. |
|
[ADMIN] for the moderator to post important information. |
|
|
|
>> NOTE: Please read:- |
|
>> |
|
>> http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/asciiart/guidelines.txt |
|
>> |
|
>> for concise up-to-date list of permitted subject tags |
|
>> and usage before posting. |
|
|
|
The robo-mod also checks that the posts are in PLAIN TEXT only, |
|
that line length is set to LESS than 80 characters UNLESS the |
|
phrase [long lines] is in the BODY of the post, when the LIMIT |
|
is then raised to 200 characters. |
|
|
|
Cross-posting is permitted provided that: |
|
o - it is to no more than three groups |
|
o - the followup-to header is set to only one group. |
|
Cross-posting to other moderated groups is NOT permitted. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[14] How do I convert a picture to ASCII art? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
[14.1] programs: |
|
There are computer programs available which convert graphics files |
|
of a variety of formats (often 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.simtel.com/. |
|
http://www.jave.de/. <== new |
|
|
|
Many think that you just put a GIF into a converter program and |
|
out comes a perfect ASCII pic. Here are some things you can do |
|
to improve the chances of getting a good conversion:- |
|
|
|
o Use an 8 bit grey scale or color image instead of a 2 bit B&W. |
|
o Use an image with a wide, even distribution of tones. |
|
o Keep it simple, like a face or close-up of an object. |
|
o Avoid busy backgrounds. Generally avoid bright backgrounds. |
|
o Use an image that is tightly cropped, without a lot of waste. |
|
o Be prepared to quickly run through a series of conversions, |
|
you will probably not like 9 to 11 out of 12. |
|
o It helps to do touch-up work on the converted picture, |
|
concentrate on the focal points and important areas. |
|
|
|
[14.2] tracing: |
|
Another method is by tracing a picture, either onto clear-plastic |
|
and sticking it onto the screen then opening an editor to trace |
|
under or using an editor which allows the loading of a background |
|
image to trace over, a process known as `water-mark'. |
|
|
|
[14.3] image2html: |
|
There are computer programs and web-servers available which convert |
|
graphics files of a variety of formats (often GIF) to HTML colored |
|
TEXT art for use on web-pages. Do a quick search on your favourite |
|
web search-engine. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[15] I have a picture and I would like it Asciified? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
In this case, 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 the newsgroups and wait for someone to reply, then post |
|
the picture to news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii or e-mail to them. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[16] 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 can add to the end of every |
|
message a person sends -- the equivalent of a letterhead for dead |
|
tree (paper) mail (or snail-mail). Usually it contains little more |
|
than the person's name, organization and e-mail address, maybe an |
|
inspirational quote of some sort and some people like to incorporate |
|
ASCII art into their signature files as well. |
|
|
|
_ _ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ \|/ ____ \|/ |
|
| | | ___| | (_) \| | __/ __| @~/ ,. \~@ |
|
|_ _|___| |__| | .` | _|\__ \ /_( \__/ )_\ Mike |
|
|_| |____|_|_|\_|___|___/[Figlet] \__U_/ Jittlov |
|
|
|
The 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. |
|
_______________________________________________ |
|
(@) (@) `) There are a lot of web-pages on this with ) |
|
^ < > ^ ( google search ascii sig. _______) |
|
=== `----Richard James-----------------' |
|
|
|
Some e-mail/news programs don't allow you to have a signature file |
|
which is longer than four lines, while others just complain. Five or |
|
six lines may be 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 8). |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[17] What is ascii-animation? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
An animated image produced by a sequence of changing ASCII pictures. |
|
The speed will depend on the system you are using. |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
o \ o / _ o __| \ / |__ o _ \ o / o |
|
/|\ | /\ __\o \o | o/ o/__ /\ | /|\ |
|
/ \ / \ | \ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \ |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
Ascii-Animation transports vary a lot. The earliest known portable |
|
types used the Control-Codes of the (often .VT or .ANS) terminal |
|
screens for either `paging' or `direct cursor addressing'. |
|
Sometimes found as c-code in .sigs, which, when compiled and run |
|
produce moving patterns or images. |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
o _ _ _ |
|
_o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) |
|
_< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ |
|
(_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
Most Web Ascii-Animation uses Java or Javascript. |
|
|
|
* To find out how to animate ASCII art using JavaScript, see:- |
|
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/faq_hta.htm |
|
http://llizard.crosswinds.net/ascii-art/animation/animlesson.htm |
|
|
|
* To find out how to animate ASCII art using Java, see:- |
|
http://www.jave.de/. |
|
http://www.jave.de/javeplayer/. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[18] What does ObAscii mean? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
ObAscii = Obligatory Ascii |
|
|
|
Obligatory: [adj] compulsory (of a ruling) having binding force |
|
|
|
Ascii: [slang] ascii-art picture |
|
|
|
A funny way to remind people to put a drawing in their post. |
|
|
|
This means an ascii in every post! (especially off-topic threads) |
|
Failure to comply can result in flaming! This implies that if you |
|
don't include an ascii in your post you deserve to get flamed! |
|
|
|
It is to be a new ascii-art which takes longer but allows time to |
|
collect your thoughts and gives bystanders something to look at. |
|
|
|
==================================================================== |
|
The concept of ObAscii has been around since the creation of the |
|
usenet group news:alt.ascii-art and it's purpose is to provide some |
|
on-topic content to an otherwise off-topic posting. |
|
|
|
==================================================================== |
|
*NOT* The 1st ever! ObAscii : |
|
==================================================================== |
|
From: Matthew Thomas <mpt26@spamfree.land> |
|
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 13:50:09 +1300 |
|
Organization: University of Canterbury.nz (opinions are my own) |
|
|
|
^ |
|
,' \ [snip - 3rd party flame ] |
|
L""/ |
|
` | BOLLOCKS!!! |
|
J | |
|
J L I am staying out of this as much as |
|
| | . , possible, Colin, because I really ... |
|
| | `v_L.' |
|
// ,>'--\'_ :. |
|
\`' \ - /-. [snip - rant/rave] |
|
/ /`""| :. |
|
),' `- |
|
( ,-' \ Anyway, I think a lot of this |
|
) ,' ,' h flaming would decrease if everyone |
|
/ / / `)--.. was required to post a (different) |
|
\/ / \ <) obligatory ASCII pic in each message |
|
< , L<' -- at the very least, it would slow |
|
F/ _/ ,' the flames down. |
|
L ,-' \ |
|
| ___L So, to start the trend, here's my |
|
/ ( F |
|
J ___,' L ObAscii: the Statue of Liberty. |
|
| ,' | |
|
F ,' | |
|
(_,--..__ mt-2|_ |
|
,' `"`--.._\ |
|
,' / \ |
|
/ (_ |
|
[snip - .sig of Matthew Thomas] |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[19] The ASCII Art Rough-Guide to m$.Outlook? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
Microsoft's Outlook Express program has a number of flaws, including |
|
* deleting spaces from the beginning of lines, and |
|
* inserting the word `file://' in unexpected places |
|
which make it very difficult to send ASCII art properly. Whether |
|
these are bugs or features we don't know, but we do know that |
|
Microsoft would rather ASCII art as a medium just disappeared (see |
|
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,13735,00.html |
|
for more information). A registry patch to fix some of the flaws |
|
in Outlook Express is available from the ADA. |
|
|
|
|
|
how to get rid of blue-lines in OE5: |
|
|
|
1. Press the decode button twice when viewing a blue-struck image. |
|
Because, after ROT13, OE will not parse links and so 2 x ROT13 |
|
returns everything back to normal, but without the blue lines. |
|
2. Create a button in your toolbar so you can do it quickly. |
|
|
|
In OE 5.5-6.0 the URL parsing code is slightly better and |
|
doesn't foul as many images as previous versions. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to stop Ms.Outlook giving wrapped output |
|
|
|
or the ascii-art you are sending is wider than 72 characters: |
|
|
|
1. Tools menu |
|
2. Options |
|
3. Send |
|
4. Both of these Mail and News format |
|
5. Plain text settings ____ |
|
6. Automatically wrap text at |____| |
|
|
|
|
|
How to set your Outlook Express 6 to view ASCII art correctly: |
|
|
|
1. On the TOOLS menu, click OPTIONS |
|
2. Select the READ tab |
|
3. International settings |
|
4. "Use default encoding for all incoming messages" [tick] |
|
5. Set the FONTS to display as western european. |
|
set both the PROPORTIONAL font and FIXED-WIDTH font to |
|
LUCIDA CONSOLE, and FONT SIZE to SMALLER |
|
6. Click OK, then OK again. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to set your Outlook Express 5 to view ASCII art correctly: |
|
|
|
1. On the TOOLS menu, click OPTIONS |
|
2. Select the READ tab |
|
3. Click the FONTS button near the bottom of the box |
|
4. For the languages UNICODE, WESTERN EUROPEAN and USER DEFINED |
|
set both the PROPORTIONAL font and FIXED-WIDTH font to |
|
LUCIDA CONSOLE, and FONT SIZE to SMALLER |
|
5. Click OK, then OK again. |
|
|
|
|
|
How to set your Outlook Express 4 to view ASCII art correctly: |
|
|
|
1. On the TOOLS menu, click OPTIONS |
|
2. Select the READ tab |
|
3. Click the FONTS button near the bottom of the box |
|
4. For the languages UNIVERSAL ALPHABET, USER DEFINED and WESTERN |
|
set both the PROPORTIONAL font and FIXED-WIDTH font to |
|
LUCIDA CONSOLE, and FONT SIZE to SMALLER |
|
5. Click OK, then OK again. |
|
|
|
|
|
NOTE : If LUCIDA CONSOLE is not available as a font, pick another |
|
from the list of available FIXED-WIDTH fonts. |
|
|
|
Examples of fixed-width fonts 1. ANDALE MONO |
|
commonly available with ms.windows: 2. COURIER NEW |
|
3. LUCIDA CONSOLE |
|
4. LUCIDA SANS TYPEWRITER |
|
5. OCR A EXTENDED |
|
|
|
If you have followed the above steps correctly, you should now |
|
be able to view and create ASCII art as it should be. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[20] Where do I find ASCII art pictures, tutorials and information? |
|
======================================================================== |
|
There are a number of ASCII art Usenet groups:- |
|
|
|
news:alt.ascii-art |
|
news:alt.ascii-art.animation |
|
news:alt.ascii-art.endless.blabla |
|
news:alt.binaries.pictures.ascii |
|
news:rec.arts.ascii |
|
|
|
are English-speaking ones that are widely used. |
|
|
|
alt.ascii-art [original ASCII art discussion group] |
|
alt.ascii-art.animation [is about animating ASCII art] |
|
alt.ascii-art.endless.blabla [an off-topic follow-up troll-trap] |
|
alt.binaries.pictures.ascii [ASCII art sofware/image drop-zone] |
|
rec.arts.ascii [primary moderated ASCII art group] |
|
|
|
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: |
|
|
|
The DMOZ Open Directory Project ASCII art sites: |
|
http://dmoz.org/Arts/ASCII/. |
|
|
|
Allen Mullen has links to many of these sites at: |
|
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm. |
|
|
|
The Ascii-Art Library at: The Ascii-Art dot com at: |
|
http://www.ascii-art.de http://www.ascii-art.com |
|
|
|
The Ascii-Art Document Archive (address as listed in the header) |
|
|
|
There is an on-line panel of experts at: The ASCIItorium |
|
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/asciichat/ |
|
|
|
And webrings: |
|
http://artcode.org/ascii/index.php |
|
http://webring.org/ascii/ |
|
|
|
Also IRCascii.8bit: |
|
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/ascii.htm |
|
http://www.bluedwarf.net/ (irc.bluedwarf.net#ascii) |
|
http://www.remorse.org/ (irc.efnet#ascii) |
|
|
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[21] Historacle: from the old-old FAQ v1.2 March 14, 1994 |
|
======================================================================== |
|
What types of ascii-art are there? |
|
|
|
o Linedrawing - like stickmen |
|
o Lettering - like Figlet does |
|
o Grey scale pictures - These create the illusion of grey shades |
|
by using letters for their light emitting value. |
|
Here is an example of how they break down by light intensity: |
|
(Jorn Barger's light value scale) |
|
|
|
Darker .'`,^:";~ Lighter |
|
bright /|\ -_+<>i!lI? /|\ dark |
|
letters | /\|()1{}[] | letters |
|
on rcvunxzjft on |
|
dark | LCJUYXZO0Q | bright |
|
background \|/ oahkbdpqwm \|/ background |
|
Lighter *WMB8&%$#@ Darker |
|
|
|
o 3-D images - Can be viewable by people with similar vision in |
|
both eyes. You try to focus as if you are looking at the back |
|
of the monitor. The image should pop into focus and create a |
|
3-D illusion. Other 3-D images are viewed by putting your nose |
|
on the monitor glass. |
|
o Geometric Article - Text is formed into meaningful shapes. |
|
o Picture Poem - A geometric article that is also a poem. |
|
o Page Making - Text and graphics are intermixed, as in a magazine. |
|
o Picture Story - A story told with accompanying ASCII pictures. |
|
o Color - You can view color ASCII pics, if you have a color screen |
|
and 'ANSI' color compatible software, or Web access using HTML. |
|
o Color Graphics - You can view color ASCII pics if you have color |
|
o Animation - take a look at [dead-link snipped] |
|
o Color Animation - take a look at [dead-link snipped] |
|
o Scroll Animation - This is an animation that is made to be viewed |
|
by scrolling down. The image plays out as the screen is redrawn |
|
with the next 'page' of the image. |
|
o Overstrike Art - It contains carriage returns without line feeds |
|
at times. The print head can overstrike a line on the paper that |
|
has already been printed on. This allows for darkening, and for |
|
placing different characters at the same place on the paper. |
|
This kind of art is obviously only printed. |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
|
[X1] |
|
-------------------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______| |
|
|
|
======================================================================== |
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|||| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||| |
|
END O F T H E A S C I I A R T FAQ |
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|||| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||| |
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|
|
File: academy/faqs/faq_thomas.txt |
|
http://www.ascii-art.de/info/faq_thomas.txt |
|
|
|
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ |
|
FAQ: New to ASCII art? Read me first! |
|
|
|
__ __ __ _ |
|
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___ |
|
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\ |
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\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_// |
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|
|
|
|
___ __ ___ () () ___ _,_ _/|_ |
|
__\\ (/_'// \)'||'|| ==== __\\'||\) || |
|
((_||_,_/)\\__,_||_||_ ((_||_||_ \|_ |
|
|
|
Answers to frequently asked questions in the ASCII art discussion groups |
|
* news:alt.ascii-art * news:alt.ascii-art.animation * news:rec.arts.ascii |
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|
|
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.ascii-art.de/ascii/faq.html |
|
* http://fmf.ml.org/~shimrod/asciiart/FAQ.html |
|
* http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html |
|
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ |
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|
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Contents |
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|
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1. What is ASCII art? |
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2. What isn't ASCII art? |
|
3. What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups? |
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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? |
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7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII? |
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8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture? |
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9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art? |
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10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art? |
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11. What should I know about signature files? |
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12. Where can I find more ASCII art? |
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|
|
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ |
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|
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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 |
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033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q |
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034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r |
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035 # 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 c 115 s |
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036 $ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t |
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037 % 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u |
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038 & 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v |
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039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w |
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040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x |
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041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y |
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042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z |
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043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 [ 107 k 123 { |
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044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 | |
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045 - 061 = 077 M 093 ] 109 m 125 } |
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046 . 062 > 078 N 094 ^ 110 n 126 ~ |
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047 / 063 ? 079 O 095 _ 111 o |
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|
|
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 (Β£- 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 / \ |
|
`-.,____,.-' |
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|
|
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. |
|
|
|
1. 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). |
|
2. 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. |
|
|
|
3. 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: |
|
|
|
β‘ look, here's an ASCII picture I drew ... |
|
β‘ REQ: xyz (ie, has anyone got any ASCII pictures of xyz?) |
|
β‘ suggestions on, or improvements of, other people's ASCII pictures |
|
β‘ hey-guys-love-your-work-type messages! |
|
|
|
Types of messages which we usually don't enjoy seeing include: |
|
|
|
β‘ messages with the subject `ASCII art' (try to be a bit more |
|
informative, please) |
|
β‘ make money fast!!! ... (yawn, yawn, snore) |
|
β‘ heres the adress of my web site, come see it pleez (why should |
|
we?) |
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
1. news:alt.ascii-art is the main group, where most of the discussion |
|
takes place. |
|
2. 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 <bertino@netcom.com>. |
|
|
|
3. 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. |
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
β‘ 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). |
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
β‘ 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. |
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
β‘ 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. |
|
β‘ 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 |
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read it ok. |
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[See Question 10 for advice on posting someone else's ASCII art.] |
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7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII? |
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Probably not, unless we're REALLY bored. The reason for this is that |
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there is a program called Figlet which does that sort of thing |
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automatically -- you type in `Jane Smith', and you get back |
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___ __, |
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( / ( o _/_ / |
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/ __, _ _ `. _ _ , / /_ |
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_/_(_/(_/ /_(/_ (___)/ / /_(_(__/ /_ |
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// |
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(/ |
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|
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in this and a whole lot of other fonts (lettering styles). The ASCII |
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text-art produced by Figlet can be quite stunning, so it's best to try |
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it first before asking for help from the newsgroup. |
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|
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The Figlet home page is at http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/ |
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figlet.html. This site links to the FTP site ftp://ftp.internexus.net/ |
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pub/figlet where you can download versions of the program for many |
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different platforms. |
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If you have a Web browser which has form support (most browsers do), |
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you can run Figlet on the Internet by going to one of the following |
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sites and choosing your text and options on the Web page. Different |
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sites offer different options (eg multiple fonts at once, |
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justification, line length etc). Some of these sites also provide an |
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e-mail Figlet service for people with browsers which don't support |
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forms. |
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β‘ http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/ |
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β‘ http://wwwcn.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html |
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β‘ http://www.schnoggo.com/figlet.html |
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β‘ http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet/ |
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β‘ http://saigon.mit.edu/dinhyen/figlet/figlet.html |
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β‘ http://www.mediacube.de/cgi-bin/moniteurs/figlet/ |
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β‘ http://www.sconnect.net/figlet/index.cgi |
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β‘ http://boulder.Colorado.EDU/~kai/figlet.html |
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β‘ http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/cgi-bin/bwagner/FIGLET/figlet.pl |
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β‘ http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~mcchau3/cgi-bin/express.html |
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β‘ http://www.webserve.com/gateways/figletgateway.pl |
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(Thanks to Shimrod and Veronica Karlsson for the original list.) |
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If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you can |
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post to the newsgroup with your request. Make sure that you include: |
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β‘ the fact that you have already tried Figlet, or don't have access |
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to it |
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(otherwise you will probably just get told to use it) |
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β‘ a description of the kind of lettering you want, along with any |
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other symbols or logos which you would like incorporated into it. |
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8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture? |
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Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject `REQ: |
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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 |
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pictures you're looking for. |
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9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art? |
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There are computer programs which convert graphics files of a |
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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: |
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β‘ gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70 |
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β‘ ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/. |
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However, the output from these programs is often not good (fiddling |
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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. |
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|
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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). |
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|
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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 |
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the picture to them. |
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10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art? |
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|
|
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.) |
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|
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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. |
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|
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β‘ 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. |
|
β‘ 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. |
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|
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As for posting other people's ASCII art, after a discussion in |
|
news:alt.ascii-art the following rules were agreed upon: |
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|
|
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. |
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|
|
[Donovan] |
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|
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11. What should I know about signature files? |
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|
|
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: |
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|
|
β‘ http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~kenter/sigs.html |
|
β‘ http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/sigs.htm. |
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|
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. |
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|
|
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. |
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|
|
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/. |
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|
|
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. |
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|
|
THE END |
|
|
|
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ |
|
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]---------- |
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|