History - history of ASCII art (part 1).

Many of us have probably seen more than once in text mode  
interesting pictures drawn using a variety of  
letters and symbols of pseudographics.   All this is called  
ASCII-art, and this type of cyber art will be discussed in  
our article.                                                 
                                                              
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)  
is a standard developed by the AUSI (American  
National Standards Institute).  It specifies a set of numeric  
codes corresponding to letters, numbers, various characters  
punctuation, etc. Every character you see on  
screen, has a corresponding numeric code, and standard  
ASCII determines which one.  Under the word ASCII-art  
(short for ASCII artwork) understand the picture,  
drawn without the use of any graphics.  When  
To create such a drawing, a palette consisting of  
ASCII characters.  Usually use alphabetic, numeric  
symbols and punctuation symbols - 95 colors in total  
ASCII palettes.  However, 160 characters are not usually used,  
because they are displayed differently on systems. Drawings in  
text have been used by mankind since time immemorial  
times.   Suffice it to recall the pictographic letter  
ancient Egyptians.   Stepping further through world history  
civilization and focusing on the development of writing, we arrive at  
ancient handwritten scrolls and manuscripts, a combination  
images and letters in which was an integral part  
registration  Bizarre and confusing initial letters, in which  
the will of the manuscript writer's imagination intertwined the drawings and letters  
alphabet and which often occupied most of  
handwritten sheet can be called one of the first manifestations  
ASCII-art.    Close to ASCII-art images began  
appear in the 19th century.  One of their manifestations was the figure  
text in poetry - calligrams. A well-known example would be  
become the poetry of Guillaume Apollinaire, who actively used  
calligrams in his poems. Here is one well-known example -  
the work of Lewis Carroll (for example, in the work "Alice  
in Wonderland").  With the invention of the typewriter in  
mid-19th century creating images using letters has become  
be perceived as a form of art.   In the 1890s  
typewriter manufacturers and recruitment agencies andsecretary training held competitions for the fastest  
typing, as well as the best drawing created with  
using a typewriter.  One of the earliest surviving  
examples of such art are a drawing of a butterfly created in  
1898 by Flora Stassey and published in Pitman`s magazine  
Phonetic Journal October 15, 1898 Picture compiled  
from many brackets, hyphens, asterisks, periods and several  
capital letters "o".                                           
                                                              
                                                              
























                                                              
                                                              
Images created on a typewriter (called  
typewriter art), gained popularity in the 1950s and 1970s  
years.  Some of them become colored thanks to  
using colored ribbons on a typewriter. ASCII-art in  
differs in many ways from typewriter art. On the one hand, with  
creating a drawing on a typewriter, any error or  
a typo leads to damage to the drawing.  Scroll miss  
paper can also be disastrous for the result. From another  
sides, the artist has complete freedom in positioning  
its "brush" - unlike ASCII-art, it is rigid  
limited by lines andcolumns.  Typewriter art more  
flexible and provides more options, but it  
requires extreme care, and here it is really possible  
apply the slightly paraphrased rule "measure seven times"  
- Hit it once."   In general, ASCII-art is cumbersome and  
limited, but it is forgiving of errors and allows  
vary the result.   The next step on the way to  
ASCII-art became art known as RTTY-art  
(from Radio TeleTYpe), - creating images using  
teletype.    The main difference from ASCII-art was  
use of various standards for data transmission. B  
teletypes used the Baudot code, encoding numbers,  
capital letters of the alphabet and several punctuation symbols,  
which greatly limited the possibilities for creating drawings.  
However, they were close to modern examples  
ASCII-art.   One of the first manifestations of computer  
fine art steel images on punched cards  
and punched tapes.    The holes made in them  
formed, although primitive, but still interesting  
images.  In the early 1960s, a standard was created  
ASCII, which was officially standardized in 1968. This one  
year can be considered the birth of ASCII-art, but the real  
distributionand this art received recognition only with  
development of the Internet.  Until the advent of the World Wide Web at the end  
The 80's Internet was all text and ASCII art  
used both to create diagrams and drawings on  
servers, and for issuing emails. Art  
ASCII drawings were also used in the still popular  
MUD'ah (Multi-user Dungeons) and MUG'ah (Multi-user games),  
which even now do not lack textual design. There are even  
text version of the three-dimensional "action" - ASCIIDoom,  
performed by a domestic programmer.  There is only one way  
distribution of text drawings - electronic boards  
soobsentsii - BBS, which became popular in the late 70s. Many  
Spectrum groups used and still use ASCII images  
for the design of archives and programs distributed by them.  
Even now, competitions are held for the best and most  
small text splash screen, many of which  
are truly masterpieces.  "Cousins"  
ASCII-art are text images created using  
AUSI codes (color text drawings), AOL Macro art and  
mIRC chat screensavers.  AOL Macro art is different from regular art  
ASCII-art only because it is in America Online (AOL) programs  
only one font is used and it is not fixedcharacter size.      This forces artists  
adapt to such inconvenience, and also does not allow  
It's normal to view AOL pictures in other programs. B  
mIRC chat screensavers also use ASCII images,  
often colored and including special characters that  
also limits the transfer of drawings to other programs.  
Thanks to the ever-increasing development of networks and increasing speeds  
data transmission, ASCII-art in the present time gradually  
goes underground.  Many email programs are now  
use the transmission of letters in HTML format, which allows  
use graphics when writing letters.  About Web design  
We'll even mention it. And yet text drawings have  
some advantage over graphics. Firstly, they are very  
unusual, and secondly, the size of the graphic file and  
text drawing are incomparable.   Text drawings  
used as in advertising (many banners on the Internet are made with  
using ASCII-art) and in design (for example,  
music CD covers, software boxes  
products and much more).   How to create your own  
your own drawing?  Professionals in the field of text  
paintings do this in ordinary text editors, which  
use fixed size fonts.  Ifdo you want  
try to create something similar yourself, then  
some advice from recognized experts in the field  
ASCII arts:                                              
*Before drawing anything, get as much as possible  
text drawings.                                           
* Take a closer look at them and note for yourself which symbols are used  
used by artists to reproduce this or that  
area of the drawing.                                              
* Use fragments of a finished drawing for your own purposes.  
* Modify ready-made drawings.                              
* Start with something simple and gradually increase complexity  
take your drawing.                                              
* Use a ready-made graphic drawing or model in  
as a good example.                                
* Read as many tips and FAQs as possible regarding the use of  
art of text drawing.                                   
* Send the finished drawing to a professional and treat it  
critical comments with understanding.                          
* Don't delete your drawings - you can always brag later: 
“And this was my first ASCII drawing!”  When creating  
text pattern in modern operating systems  
with a graphical interface veryit's important to use fonts  
with a fixed size of characters as when creating a picture,  
and when viewing it. If you are not an artist, then use  
text pictures you really want, then there are several  
ways to solve this problem. The first way is to simply  
contacting a professional text artist - for  
it is enough to make a request in the appropriate  
USEUET or FIDOnet teleconferences, or write  
an email to one of the craftsmen.  Another way is in  
using special graphics converter programs  
drawings to text.  In this case it is possible to use  
one of the drawings presented on many sites,  
dedicated to text painting.  Best result for  
a layman will achieve by mixing all these  
methods:                                                      
* The original image is created using one of the graphics  
ical editors.                                            
* The program for converting a graphic drawing into  
text (for example, ASCIIPic (PC)).                           
* Correct some of them yourself in a text editor  
ry roughness and irregularities caused by the converter.        


* The necessary labels are added.                            
* Individualelements of the picture (for example, a flower) can be taken  
from ready-made ASCII drawings (just don’t forget to indicate  
author of the original drawing).                                
                                                              
We'll finish here. In the next issue we will talk  
directly about converter programs and  
ASCII editors.                                             
                                                              
Information taken from the site Submarine.ru                
                                                              
 Correct technical sheet ABS GROUP 2004  
                                                              
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