Important question

   I accessed this newsgroup for the first time today, and I am very
interested in it, because I collect and create ascii art myself. My
problem is this...I access through America Online, and when I read the
messages, they are in Arial 10 font...and none of the asciis look right.
Is it in this font for everyone, or is it just AOL? 
   My other question is in regards to the first. Because I am an AOL user,
and everything here shows up in Arial 10 font, I do my own art in that
font. If I post it here for others to see...what effect is that going to
have? (this is assuming that most people DON'T see these posts in Arial)
That means that my ascii art will look just as distorted to everyone else,
as theirs does to me, right?

To test the theory, I am going to Post my signature piece. Please contact
me at:
Jet...@aol.com, and let me know how it looks on your end. I am new to
newsgroups, and I am slightly confused!  ;-o

If this signature ascii looks odd to you, copy and paste it to a text
viewer, and change the font to Arial 10...
.                   ������
.                ,���^��'�"� 
.       *��������; �  �) ���)� 
.                {��/�  |  *(��� 
.                      (   ���)��
.                        �)� �)�"�
.        �RاƤ  "    �   " �

jet...@aol.com (JetteRose) wrote:

>...I access through America Online, and when I read the
>messages, they are in Arial 10 font...and none of the asciis look right.
>Is it in this font for everyone, or is it just AOL?

I don't know about AOL, but all the news client programs I know allow
you to use a proportional font (Courier, Monaco...) 

>   My other question is in regards to the first. Because I am an AOL user,
>and everything here shows up in Arial 10 font, I do my own art in that
>font. If I post it here for others to see...what effect is that going to
>have? (this is assuming that most people DON'T see these posts in Arial)

you bet they don't!

>That means that my ascii art will look just as distorted to everyone else,
>as theirs does to me, right?

you bet it does!

>To test the theory, I am going to Post my signature piece. Please contact
>me at:
>Jet...@aol.com, and let me know how it looks on your end. I am new to
>newsgroups, and I am slightly confused!  ;-o

I can see the unicorn in Courier, but distorted; it looks quite better
in Arial. Anyway, there is another problem with your sig: you use lots
of non-standard characters. I can see them in my system, but I guess
many other systems out there will have trouble with it. 

   I accessed this newsgroup for the first time today, and I am very
interested in it, because I collect and create ascii art myself. My
problem is this...I access through America Online, and when I read the
messages, they are in Arial 10 font...and none of the asciis look right.
Is it in this font for everyone, or is it just AOL? 
   My other question is in regards to the first. Because I am an AOL user,
and everything here shows up in Arial 10 font, I do my own art in that
font. If I post it here for others to see...what effect is that going to
have? (this is assuming that most people DON'T see these posts in Arial)
That means that my ascii art will look just as distorted to everyone else,
as theirs does to me, right?

To test the theory, I am going to Post my signature piece. Please contact
me at:
Jet...@aol.com, and let me know how it looks on your end. I am new to
newsgroups, and I am slightly confused!  ;-o

If this signature ascii looks odd to you, copy and paste it to a text
viewer, and change the font to Arial 10...
.                   ������
.                ,���^��'�"� 
.       *��������; �  �) ���)� 
.                {��/�  |  *(��� 
.                      (   ���)��
.                        �)� �)�"�
.        �RاƤ  "    �   " �

JetteRose wrote:
> 
snip
> That means that my ascii art will look just as distorted to everyone else,
> as theirs does to me, right?
> 

Jette, you have it right, the aol font (arial 10) will not work well as
ascii, too bad because your work is terrific!! 
Augustinus is right about the "special characters", they don't all work
outside aol.  May I suggest you post your website address here, that way
your work may be seen as intended by anyone interested.  Also you might
try your hand at using courier 10, I for one, would love to see some of
your work in ascii.