Question: How do I make ASCII art with a scanner?

	Hi!  My name is Lani Mitchel, I'm new to this newsgroup,
and I need help!  I don't mean to boast, but I can draw well, better
than anyone in my class, and I need to know how to make ascii art
with a scanner.  I don't have a clue on how you use a scanner, let
alone how to make ascii art, but my room is full of masterpieces of
cartoon charactors I've drawn, and I need to know how to make ascii
art for all my penpals and the Fanimaniacs on alt.tv.animaniacs!
So could someone please e-mail me step-by-step
directions on how to use a scanner, what programs I'll need on my
computer (I use a Macintosh) for ascii art, what kind of scanner
I'll need, and EVERYTHING I'll need to know about making ascii art!

I would be so grateful if you would, that I'll even do requests on
Animaniacs Ascii Art.

Thank you!

Forever Faithful Fanimaniac,

Lani

-- 
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you
can't pick your friend's nose.  
Yeah, but can your friend pick your nose?
*MWAH!* Goodnight, everybody!

The tabloids say that Lani Mitchel <ba7...@yfn.ysu.edu> wrote:
>
>	Hi!  My name is Lani Mitchel, I'm new to this newsgroup,
>and I need help!  I don't mean to boast, but I can draw well, better
>than anyone in my class, and I need to know how to make ascii art
>with a scanner.  I don't have a clue on how you use a scanner, let
>alone how to make ascii art, but my room is full of masterpieces of
>cartoon charactors I've drawn, and I need to know how to make ascii
>art for all my penpals and the Fanimaniacs on alt.tv.animaniacs!
>So could someone please e-mail me step-by-step
>directions on how to use a scanner, what programs I'll need on my
>computer (I use a Macintosh) for ascii art, what kind of scanner
>I'll need, and EVERYTHING I'll need to know about making ascii art!
>
>I would be so grateful if you would, that I'll even do requests on
>Animaniacs Ascii Art.
>
>Thank you!

   First, for the scanner route, I would say to find a scanner somewhere 
to use on another machine (at school, or a walk-in rent the computer by 
the hour place).  Unless you want to buy a scanner for your computer anyway.

   If you want to get a scanner anyway, don't bother with a hand held 
type, get a flat bed scanner.  It should come with software to interface 
with the scanner.

   Whether you use your own, or use somebody elses, what you want to do 
is scan the artwork and save it as a GIF format picture.  If the scanner 
software doesn't save as a GIF, then save it to some other format, and 
convert it to a GIF with software meant to convert pics (like Graphic 
Converter for the Mac).

   Then you'll need a GIF -> ASCII converter.  There are versions of 
Gifscii for several systems, including the Mac.  I have used the Mac 
version to make many nice conversions (see my GIF Gallery).

   Converting GIFs can be frustrating.  They sometimes require a bit of 
touch-up.  See one of the long versions of the FAQ for info.

   An alternative to scanning is to photocopy your artwork onto plastic.  
Place the plastic over the screen, using it as a guide to typing the 
characters you want.  Starting with a file full of spaces also helps.  
For more info, see one of the versions of the FAQ.

   If you are an artist, and you try your hand at touching up 
conversions, and using the tracing technique, you might want to try 
making art from scratch.  There are a number of info files at my FTP and 
Gopher site, in the Info folder.  There are how-to files by Row, Normand 
and Susie (three of our best artists).

   If you are interested in ASCII art, you should take a few minutes and 
read one of the versions of the FAQ.  The short text version, which is 
posted is OK, but the longer text version is better.  The best is the Web 
version.  It has info, illustrations, links to examples, and all the 
ASCII art sites I know.

   For more info, look into:

ASCII ART FAQ finger: asc...@wwa.com
ASCII ART FTP: ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow
ASCII ART GOPHER: gopher.wwa.com (select #3)
ASCII ART WWW: http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow.html
ASCII ART FAQ, Web version: http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/faq.html

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