Apr 2nd, 2013 at 07:03 PM

ASCII art

ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters (beyond the 128 characters of standard 7-bit ASCII). The term is also loosely used to refer to text based visual art in general. ASCII art can be created with any text editor, and is often used with free-form languages. Most examples of ASCII art require a fixed-width font (non-proportional fonts, as on a traditional typewriter) such as Courier for presentation. ___________________________________o88888o _________________________88o_____o88888888 _______________________o888o___o8888888888 _______o888ooo________o8888o_888888888888 __ooo8888888888888___88888888888888888888 ___*88888888888888o_88888888888888888888 ___o8888888888888__88888888888888888888 __o8888888888888__88888888888888888888 ___88888888888*__888888888888888888* ______*88888*___888888888888888* _______888888__88888888888888* ______o88888888888888888888* ____o888888888888888888888888888888888888888oo ___8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888o _o8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888* 888888888888888888888888888888888888888888** *8888888888888888888888888888888** _*88888888888*_88888 __8888888888*___*8888 __8888888888_____88888o __*888888888o_____88888o ___88888888888_____*8888o ___*888888888888o___*8888o ____*8888888888888o___*888o _____*88888888888888____8888 _______8888888888888o____*888 ________888888888888______*888o _________8888888888*_______*8888 _________*8888888888oo______*888 __________*8888888888888o ___________*88888888888888o ____________*888888888888888o ______________88888888___8888o _______________8888888_o88888 _______________*8888888888* _________________8888888* __________________88888888888o ___________________88888888__*o ____________________8888888o _____________________8888888 ______________________8888888 ______________________*8888888 ______________________888888888oo ______________________888__888888o _____________________o88___88888 _____________________*_____8888 __________________________o88 Arambilet: ASCII ART Conqueror/Saxophonist Created in 1975 with 80 column punched cards, IBM 370-115 CPU, IBM 3203 printer. Published in February 1978 by El Caribe newspaper, section: Arts and Cybernetics". Arambilet:ARTE ASCII/ASCII ART Among the oldest known examples of ASCII art are the creations by computer-art pioneer Kenneth Knowlton from around 1966, who was working for Bell Labs at the time.[1] "Studies in Perception I" by Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon from 1966 shows some examples of their early ASCII art.[2] One of the main reasons ASCII art was born was because early printers often lacked graphics ability and thus characters were used in place of graphic marks. Also, to mark divisions between different print jobs from different users, bulk printers often used ASCII art to print large banners, making the division easier to spot so that the results could be more easily separated by a computer operator or clerk. ASCII art was also used in early e-mail when images could not be embedded.