Original Usenet thread from alt.ascii-art, started 19 Aug 1998.
_ _ _ _ _ _ | | | |___ ___ _ __ ___| |_ / \ _ __ ___| |__ (_)_ _____ | | | / __|/ _ \ '_ \ / _ \ __| / _ \ | '__/ __| '_ \| \ \ / / _ \ | |_| \__ \ __/ | | | __/ |_ / ___ \| | | (__| | | | |\ V / __/ \___/|___/\___|_| |_|\___|\__| /_/ \_\_| \___|_| |_|_| \_/ \___|
ASCII Art not looking right? Read this!
alt.ascii-art
· 3 messages · 19 Aug 1998 - 11 Apr 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASCII ART NOT LOOKING RIGHT? READ THIS!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> If you can`t see what a picture is, take a read through this...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
First check... do the following two lines look the same length:
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII|
If they don`t, you are using the wrong font... use one of these, making
sure you have the right list for your system:
Windows: FixedSys (Supplied with Windows)
Courier New (Supplied with Windows)
Courier (Supplied with Windows)
Lucida Console (Supplied with Microsoft Win95 Plus!)
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus (in Resources)
Homerton (in Resources)
System (in Resources)
[Taken from the MiniFAQ]
If you can`t find any of the fonts listed, just try different fonts until
the MMM line and the III line above line up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second Idea: Are you using Outlook Express?
Microsoft, in their infinate wisdom, decided that noone ever needs a
single space at the start of a line, so they made Outlook Express zap it
when the message is displayed. In the following examples, assume the line
of 'i' is the left margin, as if I used the true margin outlook express
would just zap the lines!
With a 'normal' newsreader:
i |||||
i| o o |
i| > |
i| \_/ |
i \___/
With Outlook Express:
i|||||
i| o o |
i| > |
i| \_/ |
i\___/
Which of the above does the following look like to you?
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
If you _are_ using Outlook Express then I`m afraid there`s not much you
can do about it... it`s hard coded that way. You`ll have to copy it to
Notepad and put all of the spaces back in by hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next: Does it have lots of words in pointed brackets, like <HTML> and <B>?
If so, it`s an HTML Rich Message, and since your newsreader doesn`t seem
to support HTML, you`ll need to copy everything from the <HTML> to the
</HTML> into a text editor or wordprocessor, and save it in plain text
format with a filename ending in .HTM and view it in a web browser.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does every other line look sort of ok to make a pic? It`s possible that
you or the poster are experiencing Word Wrap, where long lines are
continued on the line below... causing effects like this:
Assuming the word wrap limit was set to eight (which is not likely, it is
usually set to about 80)
...this:
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
would become this:
|||
||
| o
o |
| >
|
| \_
/ |
\__
_/
because when the lines reach column eight, they are 'wrapped' onto the
next line.
You may or may not be able to fix this. If it is *your* word wrap settings
that are at fault, you can probably either turn off or increase the word
wrap limit in your newsreader. However, if the wrapping was done by the
newsreader of the poster, unfortuately there is nothing you can do and
everyone will be seeing it this way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next possibility is what we call 'Tab Damage', where the artist has
used the TAB key instead of pressing space repeatedly.
The reason this causes a problem, is because everyone can usually set
the size of their tabs to any number, so if I made this picture with TAB
setting of 8 characters, (and only used TAB on some of the lines)
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
it may come out like this with a tab setting of 4:
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
Yet again there`s not a lot you can do, apart from go through the pic and
change all of the TABs into the correct amount of spaces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The artist may have used 'extended ascii' characters, or some sort of
control codes. This is not the place to go into detail of what these are,
but all you need to know is that these differ from system to system and
can cause all manner of problems, from strange looking pics to crashed
newsreaders.
There is no fix, and if it crashes your newsreader, just delete the
message. :o(
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If all of these things don`t apply to you, then you need to post a plea
for help, stating which picture you are having problems with (if it is a
specific pic) and make sure you say you have read and tried this file, or
you will probably be told to read it. The final possibility I will suggest
is that it is not your fault at all... and It`s just a bad picture! If
this is the case, it`s the creator`s fault... you could have a go at
improving it for them! Note that if you do, It`s common practice to add
your initials/name to the picture in addition to that of the original
artist`s, for example if you were jms and you were diddling a pic by
mga, you would change the 'mga' to 'mga/jms'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICTURE VIEWING HELP, WRITTEN BY MARTIN ATKINS
LAST UPDATED THURSDAY JULY 13th 1998
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASCII ART NOT LOOKING RIGHT? READ THIS!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> If you can`t see what a picture is, take a read through this...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
First check... do the following two lines look the same length:
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII|
If they don`t, you are using the wrong font... use one of these, making
sure you have the right list for your system:
Windows: FixedSys (Supplied with Windows)
Courier New (Supplied with Windows)
Courier (Supplied with Windows)
Lucida Console (Supplied with Microsoft Win95 Plus!)
Topaz New
Monotype.com
Terminal
Lucida Sans Typewiter
OCR A Extended
OCRB
Amiga: Topaz (In ROM)
Courier (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
Pearl
Siesta
XEN (Comes with MagicWB)
XCourier (Comes with MagicWB)
ascii
tiny
AppleMac: Courier
Monaco
ZTerm
Acorn: Corpus (in Resources)
Homerton (in Resources)
System (in Resources)
[Taken from the MiniFAQ]
If you can`t find any of the fonts listed, just try different fonts until
the MMM line and the III line above line up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second Idea: Are you using Outlook Express?
Microsoft, in their infinate wisdom, decided that noone ever needs a
single space at the start of a line, so they made Outlook Express zap it
when the message is displayed. In the following examples, assume the line
of 'i' is the left margin, as if I used the true margin outlook express
would just zap the lines!
With a 'normal' newsreader:
i |||||
i| o o |
i| > |
i| \_/ |
i \___/
With Outlook Express:
i|||||
i| o o |
i| > |
i| \_/ |
i\___/
Which of the above does the following look like to you?
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
If you _are_ using Outlook Express then I`m afraid there`s not much you
can do about it... it`s hard coded that way. You`ll have to copy it to
Notepad and put all of the spaces back in by hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next: Does it have lots of words in pointed brackets, like <HTML> and <B>?
If so, it`s an HTML Rich Message, and since your newsreader doesn`t seem
to support HTML, you`ll need to copy everything from the <HTML> to the
</HTML> into a text editor or wordprocessor, and save it in plain text
format with a filename ending in .HTM and view it in a web browser.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does every other line look sort of ok to make a pic? It`s possible that
you or the poster are experiencing Word Wrap, where long lines are
continued on the line below... causing effects like this:
Assuming the word wrap limit was set to eight (which is not likely, it is
usually set to about 80)
...this:
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
would become this:
|||
||
| o
o |
| >
|
| \_
/ |
\__
_/
because when the lines reach column eight, they are 'wrapped' onto the
next line.
You may or may not be able to fix this. If it is *your* word wrap settings
that are at fault, you can probably either turn off or increase the word
wrap limit in your newsreader. However, if the wrapping was done by the
newsreader of the poster, unfortuately there is nothing you can do and
everyone will be seeing it this way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next possibility is what we call 'Tab Damage', where the artist has
used the TAB key instead of pressing space repeatedly.
The reason this causes a problem, is because everyone can usually set
the size of their tabs to any number, so if I made this picture with TAB
setting of 8 characters, (and only used TAB on some of the lines)
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
it may come out like this with a tab setting of 4:
|||||
| o o |
| > |
| \_/ |
\___/
Yet again there`s not a lot you can do, apart from go through the pic and
change all of the TABs into the correct amount of spaces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The artist may have used 'extended ascii' characters, or some sort of
control codes. This is not the place to go into detail of what these are,
but all you need to know is that these differ from system to system and
can cause all manner of problems, from strange looking pics to crashed
newsreaders.
There is no fix, and if it crashes your newsreader, just delete the
message. :o(
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If all of these things don`t apply to you, then you need to post a plea
for help, stating which picture you are having problems with (if it is a
specific pic) and make sure you say you have read and tried this file, or
you will probably be told to read it. The final possibility I will suggest
is that it is not your fault at all... and It`s just a bad picture! If
this is the case, it`s the creator`s fault... you could have a go at
improving it for them! Note that if you do, It`s common practice to add
your initials/name to the picture in addition to that of the original
artist`s, for example if you were jms and you were diddling a pic by
mga, you would change the 'mga' to 'mga/jms'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICTURE VIEWING HELP, WRITTEN BY MARTIN ATKINS
LAST UPDATED THURSDAY JULY 13th 1998
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
.----- On Sat, 10 Apr 1999 20:50:11 GMT, Martin Atkins posted: | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ASCII ART NOT LOOKING RIGHT? READ THIS! |-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | '------------------------------ Hmm... sorry everyone I accidentally turned this document on when I was tinkering with my autoposter to make it do stuff for the mirroring :o) No more documents other than the FAQ, I promise! -Martin |\/| _..__|_o._ /\_|_| o._ _ mart.atkins@-- | |(_|| |_|| | /--\|_|<|| |_> --bigfoot.com
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