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THE.ASCII.ART.EMPORIUM

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If I come across an area which has no "ultimate" choice of characters,
I may decide to add an extra detail there. For example, "near" vertical
lines are virtually impossible in ascii. Here's some options:
| | | | |
| l l. \ l
| I `| Y `L
| | | | |
START ^----------OPTIONS----------^
As you can see, none of them produce the "perfect" results I'd like.
In this case, I would try adding some form of detail in there thus
removing the problem. It doesn't always work, but it's worth a try.
Near-horizontal lines are much easier (thankfully). Using these
chars: ( ~"-.,_ ) you can quite easily produce a reasonably decent
line. The previous (horizontal) example would become:
__
"~~"----..,___
Or at least something to that effect. I usually get very "nit-picky"
and arrange the comma just before an underscore since it sits down
one pixel lower than the full-stop ("."). I also like to carefully
select between the " and ~ since they each have their own distinct
properties. Avoid using this technique at angles around 30 degrees
(looks a bit odd), and very slight angles (because it results in a
long line of dots, and that doesn't look good).
Actually, the selection of the picture is very important in determining
how the resulting pic will look. You also have the option of changing
certain parts of the pic, so that they work better in the ascii format.
For example, instead of trying to do a near-vertical line, just make it
perfectly vertical.
Curves also play an important role in ascii art. Although the standard
ascii character set does not directly support curves (apart from "(" and
")" of course :), you can get some nice curves with a little bit of work.
Here's the most often used chars for curve creation:
/ \ - _ ~ " . , ' ` ! I l Y
And here's a couple of sample curves to demonstrate the idea:
___
.-~" "~-. /
/ \ _.-~
Y Y ,^
| | /
l ! /
\ / __.-~
"-.,___,.-"
CIRCLE SUBTLE CURVATURES
Some people wouldn't like the use of "Y" and "^", but to me, the
advantages outweigh the negative aspects. Also note the use of "l" and
"!" to make the transition from vertical to angled less pronounced.
I also consider the choice between "." an "," important because it
affects the smoothness of the line. For example, in the part on the
above curve: _.- :it looks like a "," may have been a better choice:
/ But as you can see here, using the
_,-~ comma has altered the flow of the
,^ line somewhat. It now appears as
/ more of a "step" rather than an
/ angled line.
_,-~
CURVE USING COMMA
Intersections require yet another strategy. Often you'll find that one
line must join onto another at a place where the join isn't neat:
"-._ / "-._ / Here the incoming line should join
/ 7 onto the main part halfway through
/ / a "/". That's where you can use some
other chars. In this example, a "7"
INTERSECTION FIX would work well, as seen in the
example to the left.
You could also try "Z" "X" "T" "Y" as a replacement, but it depends
entirely on what is happening around that point as to which char works
the best. Other chars which work well in these situations are "K" "<" ">"
"r" "L" "j" "J" and "I" because they all point in at least 3 directions.
After practice, the anti-aliasing can be done as you are drawing the
main outline. Not that it really makes any difference.
That basically covers the outline techniques. The smaller details are
the next, and final, step. Adding details isn't always necessary, but
it will be in most cases. Eyes, noses, finger nails, switches, knobs,
handles, plus a host of other things are usually confined to just one
or two character spaces, so the choice of chars is quite important.
Eyes are a common example. You have quite a few different characters
available which work well as eyes, but it's up to you to decide which
work best. You need to decide what "emotion" you want to portray, and
then find an appropriate character.