What font?

Andy Hood wrote in message ...
>I am just learning to draw ascii-art.  I didn't realise just how skilled
>it was, until I tried to do it, and failed miserably.  I have just one
>simple question, though:
>
>If I am going to post art, what font should it have been drawn in?
>Should the "til-duh" [what a daft argument!] be high, or low? Etc, Etc.
>
>I am sure that I cannot view some of the art on this NG in the light it
>was supposed to be viewed, as I am viewing with the wrong font.  I
>reallise that whatever is posted is just ascii, and the viewer has the
>choice of what font to view it in, but when creating the art, what is
>the bulk-standard font?
>
>Here is one of my first attempts, entitled "Get to your room!".  Please
>feel free to diddle.  Hell knows, it needs it!
>
>             ,',,
>             `,'|
>               \ \
>   ||     @    |'/
>   \o -;_/\    \ \
>    |    //    ||
>    -/   \\    -'ash
>
>p.s.  I drew this from University, running NSCA Telnet, and PINE.  I am
>not sure what font I am using myself.  I would like to know which font
>makes best viewing, as I could always copy some of the work from this NG
>and paste it in Word, or something.


You have done well.   It does not matter exactly what font you use, as long
as it is monospaced.

(The example being:
if the next two lines are the same length, you're all right!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
k? :)

PINE (at least my version) also runs monospaced, so you shouldn't have a
problem.  The location of the ~ varies in different fonts (in Courier New
that I am using, it's in the middle.. -~- is a wiggly line) so using "
instead is more encouraged.

Of course, some fonts also have ' as a mirror image of ` and it just goes to
show nothing's perfect.  Generally, if your picture depends on exactness
(say it's very small or something) you might not want to use those due to
the 'uncertainty principle' involved. :)

...all legitimate posts to this group are in monospaced fonts so if your
viewer uses them, you're seeing them the way they are meant to be.  Ok ? =D

>>BKNambo
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I am just learning to draw ascii-art.  I didn't realise just how skilled
it was, until I tried to do it, and failed miserably.  I have just one
simple question, though:

If I am going to post art, what font should it have been drawn in?
Should the "til-duh" [what a daft argument!] be high, or low? Etc, Etc.

I am sure that I cannot view some of the art on this NG in the light it
was supposed to be viewed, as I am viewing with the wrong font.  I
reallise that whatever is posted is just ascii, and the viewer has the
choice of what font to view it in, but when creating the art, what is
the bulk-standard font?

Here is one of my first attempts, entitled "Get to your room!".  Please
feel free to diddle.  Hell knows, it needs it!

             ,',,
             `,'|       
               \ \   
   ||     @    |'/ 
   \o -;_/\    \ \
    |    //    ||
    -/   \\    -'ash

p.s.  I drew this from University, running NSCA Telnet, and PINE.  I am
not sure what font I am using myself.  I would like to know which font
makes best viewing, as I could always copy some of the work from this NG
and paste it in Word, or something.

    ....                           ....
  .'    `,                       ,'    `,
 /  o  o  \                     /  o  o  \
 \\      //      Andy Hood      \\      //
  |  oo  |   ah7...@bris.ac.uk   |  oo  |
  ;  /\  ;                       ;  /\  ;
   `_==_'    "Its a dogs life"    `_==_'

On Thu, 29 Jan 1998 17:40:53 GMT, Andy Hood <ah7...@bris.ac.uk> wrote:

> If I am going to post art, what font should it have been drawn in?
> Should the "til-duh" [what a daft argument!] be high, or low? Etc, Etc.

Anything fixed-width. Usually courier is a good one since it's a
cross-platform standard, but really with any fixed-width font there won't be
a lot of variance

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Andy Hood wrote:
> If I am going to post art, what font should it have been drawn in?
> Should the "til-duh" [what a daft argument!] be high, or low? Etc, Etc.

From my point of view the tilde doesn't make much sense if it's
in the middle. So do characters like 'Y' in a font with
serifs. Some fonts have also a strange looking '^' or '*'.
I expect the '^' to be like an accent and not a reversed 'V'
and the '*' to be centerd in the middle and not somehow
squeezed in the upper half.

So I like fonts without serifs, with the slashes properly
aligned so that this

                /
               /
              / 

makes a nice line. And this 

              \
               )
              (
               \

a nice curve.
And I use the tilde 'up' and the asterix centered .

On the other hand you might want to make the drawings more
platform independent. Then don't use any of the diffficult
characters. That's possible for bigger pictures anyway. 
Joan's pictures are usually good looking in most fonts. 

BTW that's why I opened the eyes of this witch (one of my
first drawings):

                    _.      z z
               .__/|_. z z          z
                 -")\                      z
             __ //  )                                    nightflight
               ~~/  \-=,,._
                 ~;;~   `'~`    -.__             ___...__    - a:f -
                                     ~ ~ ~  --~~~         ~~ ``-

though it's a bit stupid, because the 'z's assume her
sleeping. But the original 

                    _.      z z
               .__/|_. z z          z
                 -~)\                      z
             __ //  )                                    nightflight
               ~~/  \-=,,._
                 ~;;~   `'~`    -.__             ___...__    - a:f -
                                     ~ ~ ~  --~~~         ~~ ``-

looks terrible with the tilde in the middle. :(

Nowadays I only use the tilde when it really makes the picture
look better - like in the tail of my horse 


      G .*=.       
     (\`~.\|  
     .>` (_--.    
  _=/d   ,^\        
 ~~ \)-'   '  
    / |       
   '  '   a:f

I don't like the tail with the tilde in the middle either
but the double quotes just won't do.



> I am sure that I cannot view some of the art on this NG in the light it
> was supposed to be viewed, as I am viewing with the wrong font.  I
> reallise that whatever is posted is just ascii, and the viewer has the
> choice of what font to view it in, but when creating the art, what is
> the bulk-standard font?

Its surely easier to recognize a picture while using the
same font but not much. What you need is practise. A 'trained
eye' . Sometimes it is also helpfull to know the style. I admit
that I had to learn to appreciate llizard's drawings. In the
early days I couldn't make head or tail of it.



> Here is one of my first attempts, entitled "Get to your room!".  Please
> feel free to diddle.  Hell knows, it needs it!
> 
>              ,',,
>              `,'|
>                \ \
>    ||     @    |'/
>    \o -;_/\    \ \
>     |    //    ||
>     -/   \\    -'ash
> 

:) Very nice. Though I'm not sure if I see what you see :
two kids playing something like 'taking hostages' and a
grown-up frowning at them and saying 'get to your room!'.
Right? 

I'm pretty sure abaout the kids, they are great. If I'm
right about the other guy too ... here's my rediddle :

              _
             ..\,
             \o||       
              .\ \   
   ||     @   :|>/ 
   \o -;_/\    \ \
    |    //    ||
    -/   \\    -'ash



> p.s.  I drew this from University, running NSCA Telnet, and PINE.  I am
> not sure what font I am using myself.  I would like to know which font
> makes best viewing, as I could always copy some of the work from this NG
> and paste it in Word, or something.

NSCA Telnet and Pine just use the font of the terminal from which
you start them. Is that DOS then? 

:)
Andreas
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