ASCII Art

by Dave Aronson

ASCII art is quite a different thing from most computer art. When you think "computer art", chances are that you think of something in GIF or similar format, either generated by a computer, or with software (e.g., a "paint" program), or at least a scanned-in photograph. Or maybe if you're used to BBSes, you might think of ANSI art, usually involving color and/or animation. Maybe you think of the simpler black-and-white screens... but even those are often built with IBM PC "Graphics Characters".

ASCII art, by contrast, uses only the "standard" ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters, from space to tilde -- that is, from codes 32 to 127 (decimal). This ensures that they can be reproduced properly on ANY computer that uses ASCII characters. EBCDIC (Extended Binary-Coded Data Interchange Code, I think; used almost exclusively by ancient mainframes) computers can also generally be accomodated, just by "translating" the character set.

There are several dichotomies in ASCII art. The first, is the printed versus the viewed-on-line. Both printers and monitors have standardized, over the past few decades, to printing at 10 characters per inch (at least, in fixed-spacing fonts), but printers generally print at 6 lines per inch, while monitors usually display approximately 4 lines per inch. The monitor version is usually limited to the screen size that has now become standard: 80 characters by 25 lines. However, the printed version not only can extend to 60 or maybe even 66 lines, but also often extends to 132 columns, the size of old-fashioned wide-carriage line printer paper. Furthermore, the printed is not always limited in length -- due to fanfold paper, as opposed to today's common sheet-by-sheet paper, a piece of printed ASCII artwork could have practically unlimited continuous length. It is also now common to be able to adjust the aspect ratio as needed.

The size ranges from the huge, down to just a few characters. In fact, the ever-popular "emoticon" (or "smiley"; symbols such as ":-)") are a subset of ASCII art.

The majority of my work has been one-offs, that I did not bother keeping. If anyone happens to have a copy of my printed "NONE SHALL PASS" knight (made at CMU in '82) or any of my "gifts" from "The Wooing of Therica" on the Rialto, I would greatly appreciate a copy. Thank you in advance.

And now, some of the ones I have saved. (More are coming.) Except where marked, these are intended to be viewed on a monitor. Unfortunately, most browsers have default fixed-font proportions much closer to those of a printer than a monitor, so these will generally look fat. B-( Maybe you can save it and then view it in a command-line session....


        / (no, that's not a tiny maraschino cherry...
      _/   it's just on a HUGE parfait!)
    @(_)@
   @@@@@@@
  @@@@@@@@@
 |~~~~~~~~~|
 \ ___---~~/
  |       |
  \ __--~~/
   |     |
   \ _--~/
    |   |
    \ _ /
     | |
 _---' `---_

            _____
          /~     ~\_
         |    (O) |_`\
         |       /_.\|
         /       |
        /      \  \
       /        |  |
      /        /   /
     /       /   /
    /      /   /
   /     / / /
  //////  |/|
 /////_/\/\/
  ///   ||||
 //    //\/\\

   .----------------------.
   | .------------------. |
   | |    ,_________.   | |
   | |  ~(_________--'  | |
   | |   )  /(_)        | |
   | |  /__/            | |
   | |                  | |
   | `------------------' |
   `----------------------'
  __________|___|___________
 | IBM     486/33   ======O |
 | |||||||   o o     ====.| |
 |__________________________|


    .-----------------.
    |.---------------.|
    ||  ,___________,||
    ||~(  `--'  ____]||
    ||  =----------  ||
    ||  ). /( /  Air ||
    || /. /~~~ & Sun ||
    ||/__/ BBS (703) ||
    ||      319-0714 ||
    |`---------------'|
    `-----------------'
  _________)___(_________
 |PC        486     ====-|
 |||||||||| o o   6======|
 ||||||||||        =====.|
 |_______________________|

 (FOR PRINTER)


    .-----------------.
    |.---------------.|
    ||Air 'n /\  Sun ||
    ||   ___/__\___  ||
    ||   \ /    \ /  ||
    ||    X      X   ||
    ||   /_\____/_\  ||
    || BBS  \  / 319-||
    || (703) \/  0714||
    |`---------------'|
    `-----------------'
  _________)___(_________
 |PC        486     ====-|
 |||||||||| o o   6======|
 ||||||||||        =====.|
 |_______________________|

 (FOR PRINTER)


                |
               |/~~
   .--.    .--./~~
  /    \  /    \
 (      \/      )
  \            /
   \          /
    \        /
     \/     /
     /\    /
   |/  \  /
   ~~   \/


        __
       / O\_
      (   _<
       )_(
      /  \\
     /   | |
    /   / /
   /  /  /
  / /  |/
 ////\//
  // ||
    /\\\

.------------------------------------------------------------------.
| .--                   FEDERAL REVERSE NOTE                   .-- |
| |_      ......    THE UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA               |_  |
| __)   ``````````             ______            B93810455B    __) |
|      2       ___            /      \                     2       |
|             /|~\\          /  _-\\  \          __ _ _ _  __      |
|            | |-< |        |  //   \  |        |_  | | | |_       |
|             \|_//         | |-  o o| |        |   | `.' |__      |
|              ~~~          | |\   b.' |                           |
|      B83910455B           |  \ '~~|  |                           |
| .--  2                     \_/ ```__/    ....            2   .-- |
| |_       ///// ///// ////   \__\'`\/      ``  //// / ////    |_  |
| __)                 F I V E  D U L L A R D S                 __) |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'

      _              _
   .-. |-.        .-| .-.        _           _____
 .-. | | |        | | | .-.     ( |      |--'  ()_)
 | | | | | _    _ | | | | |   ___\ \     |    ()__)
 | | | | || |  | || | | | |  (__()  `-|  |   ()___)
 |       |' |  | `|       |  (___()   |  |-.  ()__)
 |         /    \         |  (__()    |     \ \
  \       /      \       /   (_()__.--|      |_)
   \_____/        \_____/


  >>> Try to represent "Hold your tongue!"
  >>
  >> aha - a challenge!  howzabout :-|=()
  >
  > A fair try, but no cigar this time.

 hmmm, i'll have to go multi-line then....

       O     \__.-.-.-.-.
          @  |  | | | | |
       O     /~~|       |
                |______.'

 or, to turn it the right way,

                       O       O

                           @

                        \_____/
                       __|___|
                       |   ___)
                       |   ___)
                       |   ___)
                       \______)


            /\
           /  \
          / /\ \
 ________/ /__\_\________
 \  ____/ /___________  /
  \ \  / /      \ \  / /
   \ \/ /        \ \/ /
    \ \/          \ \/
    /\ \          /\ \
   / /\ \        / /\ \
  / /__\_\______/ /__\ \
 /_____________/ /______\
         \ \  / /
          \ \/ /
           \  /
            \/

        _____
     _-~.'|`.~-_
    /  /  |  \  \
   /  /   |   \  \
  |---+---+---+---|
   \  \   |   /  /
    \  \  |  /  /
 |~-_~-_~.|.~_-~_-~|
 |   ~-_~---~_-~   |
 |      ~-_-~      |
 |   |-_     _-|   |
 |   |  |   |  |   |
 |   |  |   |  |   |
  \_/   |   |   \_/
        |   |
         \_/

  Symbol (tm) Mensa
 Art by Dave Aronson

  /\__--~~~--__/\
 ||\           /||
 |/|(O)     (O)|\|
   \   .---.   /
    \ ( o o ) /
     \/`---'\/
      `-|||-' --- oink!
        `-'

 |~-_
 ||||~-_
 |    | ~-------|
 |::::::_-------|:.
 |:::_-~         ::
 |_-~          __::__
               | __ |
               | __ |
               |____|

  |(.) (.)|
   \     /
    )   (
   /     \
  (  \_/  )
  |   |   |


(Get your mind out of the gutter!  It's just not complete...)


  /\_-~~~-_/\
 |           |
 |.|(.) (.)|.|
 || \     / ||
 ||  )   (  ||
 || / ___ \ ||
 `'(  \_/  )`'
   |   |   |
   \__/ \__/ ---- (pant pant pant!)
    || | ||
    `| | |'
     `---'


        _________________________________________
       |_________________________________________|
       |_________________________________________|
       |                    |  |                 |
       /                    |  |                 \
      |                     |  |                  |
      /                     |  |                  \
     |                      |  |                   |
     /    K I S S I N '     |  |        F O O L !  \
    |                       |  |                    |
    /                       | /                     \
   |                        |/                       |
   /                       / \                       \
  |                       |   |                       |
  /                       /   \                       \
 |_______________________|     |_______________________|
 |_______________________|     |_______________________|

  _________________________________________
 |_________________________________________|
 |_________________________________________|
 |            /               \            |
 |           |                 |           |
 |           |                 |           |
 `-_        / \                 \        _-'
 |  ~-_     |  |                |     _-~  |
 |     ~-_  |  |                |  _-~     |
  \       -_|   \               |_-       /
   \        \    |              /        /
    \        \   |             /        /
     ~-_      \ /             /      _-~
        ~-_    |             |    _-~
           ~--_|_____________|_--~

  _______________________________________
 |---------------------------------------|
 `--_                                 _--'
 |   ~-_                           _-~   |
  \     ~-_                     _-~     /
   \       -_                 _-       /
    \        \               /        /
     \        \             /        /
      `-_      \           /      _-'
         ~-_    |         |    _-~
            ~-__|_________|__-~

 Drawing the contents is left as an exercise for the reader.



  iIi    #         A         Hail, citizen!       iIi
 ||||  __#__  Ave! |    Centurion Circus Maximus ||||   ___  Oy Vey!
 \__) /.-.-.\  /   |      and his twin brother   \__) {{{ }}}  /
 | |  |'o o`| /    |    Senator Gluteus Maximus  | |  | o o | /
 | |  |  @  |      |         welcome you to      | |  |  @  |
 | |  \`---'/      |       .------|>o------.     | |  \`---'/
 `  `==)___(==-\   A       | T I D M A D T |     ` `---)___(---.
  \  ||M   M||  \  H       `---------------'      \  |         |
   \/`'MM MM`'|\ \ H     (These Initials Don't     \/        | |
    |  M M M  | \ \H      Mean A Da*n Thing!)       | _-.___.' |
    |  M   M  |  \ H                                |(____|    |
    |===(*)===|   \()  (28.8k v.34, 16.8k HST)      |     \    |
    |HHHHHHHHH|    H      (closed 4-5 AM EST,       |      \   |
    |HHHHHHHHH|    H          5-6 AM EDT)           |       \__/
    |HHHHHHHHH|    H                                |         |
    |VVVVVVVVV|    H   Member of Fidonet, Reshet,   \      ___/
     | |   | |     H  Paul Revere Net, MedievalNet   \__--~| |
     |_|   |_|     H                                 |_|   |_|
    (__|   |__)    H   Maximus 2.02 under OS/2 3.0  (__|   |__)


     .-.
   .-. |
 .-. | |
 | | | | ___
 | | | |/ _ \     ___
 |       /o\_'||.' o `.
 |       \=/ /|| `---'
  \      ___//  \
   \____/   (`__')

         `--.____.--'  . . . Be seeing you!



                      O
  O    O    O    O   |/|   O    O    O    O
 |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|
 |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|
 |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |_|  |/|  |/|  |/|  |/|
 |_|  |_|  |_|  |_|  \_/  |_|  |_|  |_|  |_|
 \_/  \_/  \_/  \_/   |   \_/  \_/  \_/  \_/
  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
   \    \    \    \___|___/    /    /    /
    \    \    \_______|_______/    /    /
     \    \___________|___________/    /
      \_______________|_______________/
                      |
                      |
                     /^\
                   .'   `.
               _.-~_______~-._

For a truly AMAZING collection of ASCII art, see joan stark's gallery of original ASCII art.