FAQ: New to rec.arts.ascii? Read me first!

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Subject:
FAQ: New to alt.ascii-art? Read me first!
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                      And rec.arts.ascii

Answers to frequently asked questions
by Matthew Thomas
Version 1.0.2
Last changed: 1997-11-25

NOTE: If you are new to Usenet News, please read the messages in
news.announce.newusers before posting to any newsgroups. Thanks.

This FAQ is regularly posted to the newsgroups news:alt.ascii-art and
news:alt.ascii-art.animation, and is also available at
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm and
http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm. 

Contents

   1.What is ASCII art, and why do people use it? 
   2.What is the alt.ascii-art newsgroup for? 
   3.Help! I can't tell what this picture is supposed to be ... 
   4.Can someone do my name / these words in ASCII, please? 
   5.Can someone convert this picture to ASCII, please? 
   6.Can someone draw me a ... 
   7.How do I start drawing ASCII art? 
   8.Ok, I've drawn an ASCII picture. Can I post it to alt.ascii-art? 
   9.Can I copy this ASCII picture? 
  10.What should I know about signature files? 
  11.What happened to rec.arts.ascii? 
  12.Where can I find more ASCII art?

   1.What is ASCII art, and why do people use it? 

     ASCII art is any kind of artwork -- pictures, charts, 
     cartoons, whatever -- drawn with the characters in the 
     ASCII character set.

     The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information 
     Interchange) character set is a set of 128 characters, 
     numbered from 0 to 127, which are standard on almost
     all types of computer. The first 32 characters (0 to 31)
     are various control codes for signalling things like
     and end of transmission, a beep, escape, backspace,
     and so on. The last ASCII character, 127, is another
     control code representing the Delete key.

     The ASCII characters used in ASCII art are the 95 
     characters from 32 to 126, as follows.

     032 [space] 048 0       064 @       080 P       096 `       112 p
     033 !       049 1       065 A       081 Q       097 a       113 q
     034 "       050 2       066 B       082 R       098 b       114 r
     035 #       051 3       067 C       083 S       099 c       115 s
     036 $       052 4       068 D       084 T       100 d       116 t
     037 %       053 5       069 E       085 U       101 e       117 u
     038 &       054 6       070 F       086 V       102 f       118 v
     039 '       055 7       071 G       087 W       103 g       119 w
     040 (       056 8       072 H       088 X       104 h       120 x
     041 )       057 9       073 I       089 Y       105 i       121 y
     042 *       058 :       074 J       090 Z       106 j       122 z
     043 +       059 ;       075 K       091 [       107 k       123 {
     044 ,       060 <       076 L       092 \       108 l       124 |
     045 -       061 =       077 M       093 ]       109 m       125 }
     046 .       062 >       078 N       094 ^       110 n       126 ~
     047 /       063 ?       079 O       095 _       111 o

     These characters are almost completely standard, except
     for a few slight variations which you should keep in mind
     when drawing ASCII art:

     # (hash/pound): 
          a hash sign on most computers,
          a pound (�) sign on some British ones 
     | (bar): 
          a solid line on most computers,
          but some split it in the middle 
     ^ (caret): 
          differs in size depending on the font used 
     ~ (tilde): 
          appears in the middle of the line in some fonts,
          at the top in others (this especially can make
          some pictures look odd) 
     ' (apostrophe/single quote): 
          tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, 
          is vertical in others (this may also apply 
          to the comma ,). 

     Here's a small example of ASCII art using some of 
    these variable characters: a snow-scene paperweight,
    drawn by Joan Stark. How good it looks will depend
    to some extent on which font and computer system you
    are using to view it. 

               ____
            .-" +' "-.
           /.'.'A_'*`.\
          |:.*'/\-\. ':|
          |:.'.||"|.'*:|
           \:~^~^~^~^:/
            /`-....-'\
       jgs /          \
           `-.,____,.-'

     There is another character set known as ANSI
     (after the American National Standards Institute),
     which consists of the ASCII set with another 128 
     characters added to it (128-255), for special 
     characters such as the copyright symbol and various
     accented letters. You should NOT use these characters
     in ASCII art, though, because they are not nearly as
     standardized -- some computers do not support ANSI
     characters, and those that do often have different
     ideas about which code stands for which character
     (the Macintosh ANSI characters, for example, are
     different from the Windows ones).

     People use ASCII art for many reasons. Some of them are: 

         a) it can be used everywhere -- e-mail messages,
             BBS and server login screens, .plan files 
             (for the finger command on UNIX), and so on --
             because it doesn't require the computer to
             have a graphics mode or to recognize a
             particular graphics file format 

          b) an ASCII art picture is literally hundreds
             of times smaller in file size than its GIF or
             BMP equivalent, while still giving a good
             idea of what something looks like 

          c) it's easy to copy from one file to another 

          d)it's fun to do! 

   2.What is the alt.ascii-art newsgroup for? 

     news:alt.ascii-art (sometimes shortened to a.a-a) is
     a newsgroup where people discuss ASCII art, post ASCII 
     pictures, post improved versions or variations of
     pictures other people have drawn, and generally have fun.

     Types of messages which we usually enjoy seeing include: 
          -look, here's an ASCII picture I drew ... 
          -REQ: xyz (ie, has anyone got any ASCII pictures of xyz?) 
          -suggestions on, or improvements of, other 
                   people's ASCII pictures 
          -hey-guys-love-your-work-type messages! 

     Types of messages which we usually don't enjoy seeing include: 
          -messages with the subject `ASCII art' 
                (try to be a bit more informative, please) 
          -make money fast!!! ... (yawn, yawn, snore) 
          -this is an advertisement for something to do 
                with art in general, so I'll post it here 
          -don't read this, this is a test (that's what 
                alt.test, misc.test, and many other 
               `test' newsgroups are for) 
          -MESSAGES IN ALL CAPITALS BECAUSE I SPILLED 
               SUPERGLUE ON THE CAPS LOCK KEY AND
               NOW IT'S STUCK DOWN, OR SOMETHING. 

   3.Help! I can't tell what this picture is supposed to be ... 

     If a picture you see posted to this newsgroup looks 
     like a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are
     several reasons why it may look weird.

          a) If none of the pictures in the newsgroup look 
             like what the sender describes them as, then 
             you're probably using a proportional font. To
             view (and draw) ASCII art, you must use a
             fixed-width font -- one where all characters are
             the same width (like on a typewriter). If you're
             not sure if your font is fixed-width or not,
             check the following two lines and see if they're
             the same length.

          iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|
          mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm|

             If they aren't, find the option in your news
             reader which lets you specify which font to use.
             If you just have a choice between proportional
             and fixed width, choose fixed width. If you have
             a choice of which font to use, try different ones
             until you find a fixed-width one (using the `i's
             and `m's above as a guide). Popular fixed width fonts
             include Courier, Monaco, and Fixedsys; anything
             with `fixed', `terminal', or `tt' in its name will
             also probably be fixed-width. 

          b) Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supply
             newsreaders to their customers which, strange as
             it seems, don't allow them to use a fixed-width font.
             If this applies to you, there's not much you can do
             except to ask them for a newsreader which does;
             or switch ISPs. 

          c) If there are a lot of almost-blank lines in the
             picture, then the message is probably suffering
             from `wrapping'. This wrapping may be being done
             by your newsreader; see if it has an option calle
             `wrap long lines' or similar, and make sure it is
             turned off. If this doesn't work, then the wrapping
             was probably done by the news program of the person
             who sent the picture, in which case there's not
             much you can do -- everybody else will be seeing
             the same thing. 

          d) If there are a lot of < and > symbols in the 
             picture, with words like HTML, FONT COLOR, B, 
             I, and so on inside them, then the picture has
             been sent in HTML format (see Question 8), and
             your newsreader does not understand HTML 
             (most newsreaders don't). 

          e) If you still can't work out what the picture is
             supposed to be, try reducing the font size (if you
             can), and moving a couple of metres away. If it
             still looks unrecognizable, then it's probably a
             problem with the news program used by the person 
             who sent the message -- or maybe it's just a
             really bad picture! 

   4. Can someone do my name / these words in ASCII, please? 

     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 (lettering styles).
     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://nicoh.com/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 

     (Thanks to Shimrod and Veronica Karlsson for the original list.)

     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:

          a) 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) 
          b) a description of the kind of lettering you want,
             along with any other symbols or logos which you
             would like incorporated into it. 

   5.Can someone convert this picture to ASCII, please? 

     Yes, but there are a few things you should know before
     making this sort of request. Firstly, there are computer
     programs 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 not good
     (fiddling with the picture in an image-editing program
     beforehand may help). In this case, you can post a request
     to the newsgroup 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, 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.

   6.Requests! Can someone draw me a ... ? 

     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.

   7.How do I start drawing ASCII art? 

     You don't need a special program to draw ASCII art with.
     It can be drawn using any text editor, such as the Windows
     or Macintosh Notepads, any of the various Emacs editors,
     nedit on Unix, BEd or AZ on the Amiga, edit in DOS, and so
     on. You can use a word processor to draw ASCII art, but 
     remember: (1) use a fixed-width font (see Question 3); 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/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 type to another (eg 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 3), 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_,     MT  palm tree ...
     ____@/|/________
     ::::@\O_,:::::::
     ::::::::::::::::

     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.

     Here are a couple links to existing ASCII art tutorials:
     http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/dcau.htm (Daniel Au's Tutorial)
     http://www.inetw.net/~mullen/asciiart.htm 
     (Allen Mullen's Site- several tutorials)

   8.Ok, I've drawn an ASCII picture. Can I post it to alt.ascii-art? 

     Yes! It doesn't matter if it's not 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.

          a)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.

          b) 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 3). 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.
          c) 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.

         d) 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 newsgroup (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.

   9.Can I copy this ASCII picture? 

     Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a
     newsgroup, 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 for your personal use. 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.

  10.What should I know about signature files? 

     A signature file (or `sig' for short) 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 summarize, (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 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 8. 

  11.What happened to rec.arts.ascii? 

     rec.arts.ascii is a moderated newsgroup, meaning that
     all messages sent to the newsgroup had to pass through an
     intermediary (the moderator) who checked them for
     appropriateness before sending them to the newsgroup proper.

     In the case of rec.arts.ascii, the moderator was
     Bob Allison (otherwise known as `Scarecrow'), and he
     retired from the job in November 1994. The newsgroup
     was inactive from December 1995 until November 1997.
     Don Bertino (ber...@netcom.com) is at the helm as 
     moderator. Post away.
 
  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 
     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. 

-- 

 
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