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From alexander.wild <ale...@metronet.de>
· alt.ascii-art
· 24 Jun 1998 00:00 · View full thread
· report
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.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
6. What should I know before posting 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 any piece of ASCII art.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.]
7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII?
---------------------------------------------------
Probably not, unless we're REALLY bored. The reason for this is
that 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. The ASCII text-art produced
by Figlet can be quite stunning, so it's best to try it first
before asking for help from the newsgroup.
The Figlet home page is at
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html. This site links
to the FTP site ftp://ftp.internexus.net/pub/figlet/, where you can
download versions of the program for many different platforms.
If you have a Web browser which has form support (most browsers
do), you can run Figlet on the Internet by going to one of the
following sites and choosing your text and options on the Web page.
Different sites offer different options (eg multiple fonts at once,
justification, line length etc). Some of these sites also provide
an e-mail Figlet service for people with browsers which don't
support forms.
* http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
* http://wwwcn.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html
* http://www.schnoggo.com/figlet.html
* http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet/
* http://saigon.mit.edu/dinhyen/figlet/figlet.html
* http://www.mediacube.de/cgi-bin/moniteurs/figlet/
* http://www.sconnect.net/figlet/index.cgi
* http://boulder.Colorado.EDU/~kai/figlet.html
* http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/cgi-bin/bwagner/FIGLET/figlet.pl
* http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~mcchau3/cgi-bin/express.html
* http://www.webserve.com/gateways/figletgateway.pl
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art with your request. Make sure that you
include:
* the fact 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.
8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture?
-----------------------------------------------
Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject
`REQ: 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 pictures you're looking
for.
9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------------------
There are computer programs available which convert graphics files
of a 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:
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
However, the output from these programs is often poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can 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 alt.ascii-art and wait for an artist to reply, then
e-mail the picture to them.
10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art?
------------------------------------------------
Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a discussion 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: 10 big myths about copyright explained' in
news:news.announce.newusers. (It is also available at
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.)
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, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. There are a few important conditions, however.
* 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.
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 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.
[Donovan]
11. 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 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 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. Some examples are at:
* http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~kenter/sigs.html
* http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/sigs.htm.
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 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 6].
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/.
To find out how to animate ASCII art using JavaScript, see
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/faq_hta.htm and
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/animlesson.htm.
THE END
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 Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
--
<`.THE PRINCE ,'>
`.`/""""""\,','
SEE HIS ( / \ \' SEE HIS
FACE \/<> <>\/ SMILE
/ W \http://www.inspace.net/~carcher/krogg/aani.htm
,'\_|||||_/`.Gory javascript animations for your enjoyment
,',' ||| `.`.kro...@inspace.net
<,' TIME TO DIE `.>Remove no.to.spam to reply
Original message headers
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_ _ (o)(o)--. \../ ( )hjw m\/m--m'`--.
_ _
/` \/ `\_ _
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'. .\ /
\/ '. .'
\/jgs __ . . __ (o.\ \/ /.o) \__\/\/__/ /O /==\ O\ (;O/ \/ \O;)
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