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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
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Contents
1. What is ASCII art?
2. What isn't ASCII art?
3. What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups?
4. How do I view ASCII art?
5. How do I draw my own ASCII art?
6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII?
8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture?
9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art?
10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art?
11. What should I know about signature files?
12. Where can I find more ASCII art?
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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
033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q
034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r
035 # 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 c 115 s
036 $ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t
037 % 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u
038 & 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v
039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w
040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x
041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y
042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z
043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 [ 107 k 123 {
044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 |
045 - 061 = 077 M 093 ] 109 m 125 }
046 . 062 > 078 N 094 ^ 110 n 126 ~
047 / 063 ? 079 O 095 _ 111 o
These characters are almost completely standard, except for a few
slight variations which you should keep in mind when drawing and
viewing ASCII art:
# (hash/pound):
a hash sign on most computers, a pound (£- currency) sign on some
British ones
| (bar):
a vertical line in most fonts, but in some it is split in the
middle
^ (caret):
differs in size depending on the font used
~ (tilde):
appears in the middle of the line in some fonts, at the top in
others
' (apostrophe/single quote):
tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, is vertical in others
(this also applies to the comma ,).
Here's a small example of ASCII art using some of these variable
characters: a snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark. How good it
looks will depend to some extent on which font and computer system you
are using to view it.
____
.-" +' "-.
/.'.'A_'*`.\
|:.*'/\-\. ':|
|:.'.||"|.'*:|
\:~^~^~^~^:/
/`-....-'\
jgs / \
`-.,____,.-'
People use ASCII art for a variety of reasons, some of which are:
* it is the most universal computer art form in the world -- every
computer system capable of displaying multi-line text can display
ASCII art, without needing to have a graphics mode or support a