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THE.ASCII.ART.EMPORIUM

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If you want to make ascii art the first thing you should know is that you don't
need a special program, or special skills to make it with. All you need is
somewhere to type text into - your e-mail program, notepad, wordpad, that sort
of thing - and an idea of what you want to draw. There are no secrets or rules
other than the following:
1.) Use a non-proportional or fixed width font. Click HERE for a page on this
site that will tell you what they are, or ask me for the text version of the
page via e-mail.
2.) Don't use tabs!! Always, but always use the space bar (or your cursor keys/
mouse if the program you're typing in supports that) for empty spaces. The
reason for this is that different computers and programs interperet the size of
a tab space differently, so although what you see on your screen looks fine, on
someone else's your pic may look all split up.
3.) Only use the keyboard characters on an American standard keyboard. That
means all the letters, numbers and punctuation that you can see printed on the
keyboard keys. You can use the shift key, but don't use the alt key to make
characters. The reason for this is similar to that for not using tabs -
different computers interperet alternative characters in different ways. The
idea behind ascii is that all computers can read it because it's made up of
characters that all computers will recognise.
4.) Don't leave empty spaces at the end of each line. Make sure every line that
you type ends on the last character, and not a few spaces after it. This can
cause problems on other systems, with line wrapping and so on.
Your First Ascii
The best way to make a start is to take someone else's picture and see if you
can copy it. That way you get a feel for how you can use different characters.
We'll start easy. Try copying these shapes, which only use the characters:
/ \ | _
___ ___
| | /\ / \
|___| /__\ \___/
Easy huh? Now try making the same shapes again using the characters:
- " . , ` : > <
This is what I came up with:
.---. . .--.
: : .' `. < >
"---" "---" `--'
Bit more tricky, and it doesn't look as neat, but some of these characters, and
knowing how you can use them can come in very handy at times, which we'll see
later. Have a go at copying these, just for practice. Change them if you like:
_ _ __ _ _ .^._ __
| |_| |_.' `._| |_| | /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / \| \ \
| _ _ _ _ | / \/ \/ \/ \ .' `. /_____V / /
|_| |_| `.__.' |_| |_| / /\ /\ /\ /\ \ < > |[]_[]| \ \
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ `. .' | |+| | / /
\/ `"""""' \_\
Curves
It's handy to know where the characters 'sit' on each line. Are they at the
top, in the middle or on the bottom of the line? A couple of ascii characters
vary in their position from computer to computer, but mostly they all sit in
the same place. Have a go yourself on your keyboard. Here are some examples.
Top of line: " ` '
Top or middle of line: ^ * ~ =
Middle of line: - +
Bottom of line: _ . ,
You can use all these characters on one line to make a pattern, like these:
_.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._
"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"
Now try making a simple sig with a decorative border, using all the characters
we've met so far. This is what I came up with:
_________________________
..,,++~~--==**''``^^"" Hayley Jane wakenshaw ""^^``''**==--~~++,,..
/|\ flump@quadrant.xs4all.nl /|\
< : > Flump's Fantastic Ascii Collection http://www.xs4all.nl/~klr < : >
\|/ "Daddy.. why doesn't the magnet pick up your floppy disks?..." \|/
""^^''``**--==~~++,,.._________________________..,,++~~==--**``''^^""
Using The Other Characters
The other ascii characters fall into three categories. Either they're the full
height of the line or they're half height. Capitals and numbers are always full
height. Compare them to some of the others - which are half height, and which
are full height? Some examples:
Full height: A 7 % @ ! # ) ; & $ ] } | / > l t f k h d ?