Ascii Art

Before the days of even the most basic computer graphics there was art made from text, otherwise known as ascii art. Ascii is a abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and refers to the the basic letters and symbols that all computers and other electronic devices use and recognize.

There are several types of ascii art, each with a unique look and feel.

The first is known as the oldskool style, which is done as an outline of what you are drawing. This is most commonly used to draw text and logos, but it can also be used for more complicated pictures if you have lots of patience.

 ___        ___  ___          __
|\  \      |\  \|\__\        |\ \
 \\  \___  _\\  \\__/_  ______\\ \  ___
  \\  __ \|\  __ \|\  \|\  __ \\\ \/  /
   \\ \_\ \\\ \_\ \\\  \\\ \\\ \\\  _ \_
    \\_____\\\_____\\\  \\\_\\\_\\\_\\__\
     \_____/ \_____/ \\  \\_/ \_/ \_/\__/
                   __|/  /
                  |\____/
                   \___/

       _,~'`.               ,~*`'*-,
   _,~'      `.           ,!~.,     `*,
,~'            `.      ,*`     `*,     l
`.           _,~'     f  ,*"`"*,  l     l
} `.     _,~'   {    f  f   f   l  l    1
{   `.,~'       }    I f    1    l I    1
 }   !         {     I I    1    I I    1
 {   !       _,}     I I    1    I I    1
  `. !   _,~'        I I    1    I I    1
    `!,~'            I I  ,~`    I I  ,~`
                     I_I~`       I_I~`

The second is known as the newskool style, where the object is filled in and shaded by the characters. And while this style is much more difficult to draw by hand, there are several programs which can convert a regular image into a newskool ascii picture.

              _
             ;$  ,
            ;$; ;$
         _,;$$$$$;
         `'"!$$$$'
           ,$$$$$1
         ,;$$$$$$$$!
      ,;$$$$$$$$$$$$	This is my first attempt at
    ,;$$$$$$$$$$$$$;	doing a newskool drawing.
  ,$$$$$$$$$$$$$$'
 $$$$$$$$$$$$"$$&	Guess what it is, and I will
$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$'	tell you at the bottom of this
!$$$$$$$$$$$! $$	post.
 !$$$$$$$$$$; $!,
  !$$$$$$$$$$&$$$.	Hint: It's not a kangaroo.
    `"*!$$$$$$$$&.
         `"*!$$$$$$$.
             `"*!$$$$$.
                 `*$$$$!
                   *$$$;
                  ,$$$;
               `'"*"^

The third style I want to talk about is one-line ascii art, which is used primarily in instant messaging and forums. I will omit the standard smileys that almost everyone is familiar with and show some of the more interesting samples.

O_o		Confused

o_~		Wink

>'.'<		Cat

>;<		Butterfly

~~\o/~~		Drowning

@}-,-'--	Rose

<GEFILTE><	Fish

Many great sites can be found by just searching Google for the phrase ‘ascii art’, but there is one site that is an amazing treasure of one-line ascii art which was a little hard to find.

One Line Ascii Art

The newskool picture is supposed to be a howling wolf. If you guessed it, let me know, ’cause I really didn’t think anyone was gonna get it.

Tags: amiga, Art, ascii, ascii art, emoticons, new school, newskool, old school, oldskool, smiley