Re: Attn artists: help... (FAQ)

FrEdDo. wrote:
> 
> I love the artwork that appears in this newsgroup... it's way kool...
> but what I would like to know is how.... how do you do what you do and
> how do I learn to do it too??  please help.

The following is an extract from the ASCII ART Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ). The FAQ is posted to this group weekly; whenever you
visit a Usenet group for the first time it's a good idea to `lurk' for a
while, just reading all the postings, and with luck you will get to see
the FAQ for the group posted.

The full ASCII ART FAQ can be found at
http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/art/ascii/

----
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 and word processors which can
    help when drawing ASCII art.
    *   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.
    *   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).

    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_,         palm tree ...
    ____@/|/________
    ::::@\O_,:::::::
    ::::::::::::mt-3

    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.
----

And here's where you can find some tutorials:
----
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.
----

Hope this helps.
-- 
   .._o  Matthew Thomas (mpt26 @ student . canterbury . ac . nz)
 ..://\/ http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/ (Site for sore eyes)
..:_/\   <-- If this looks a mess, change your font to Courier
  ..:/   PS: `Cool' does not have a `k' in it.

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