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If you want to make ascii art the first thing you should know is that you don't
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need a special program, or special skills to make it with. All you need is
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somewhere to type text into - your e-mail program, notepad, wordpad, that sort
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of thing - and an idea of what you want to draw. There are no secrets or rules
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other than the following:
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1.) Use a non-proportional or fixed width font. Click HERE for a page on this
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site that will tell you what they are, or ask me for the text version of the
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page via e-mail.
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2.) Don't use tabs!! Always, but always use the space bar (or your cursor keys/
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mouse if the program you're typing in supports that) for empty spaces. The
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reason for this is that different computers and programs interperet the size of
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a tab space differently, so although what you see on your screen looks fine, on
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someone else's your pic may look all split up.
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3.) Only use the keyboard characters on an American standard keyboard. That
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means all the letters, numbers and punctuation that you can see printed on the
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keyboard keys. You can use the shift key, but don't use the alt key to make
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characters. The reason for this is similar to that for not using tabs -
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different computers interperet alternative characters in different ways. The
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idea behind ascii is that all computers can read it because it's made up of
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characters that all computers will recognise.
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4.) Don't leave empty spaces at the end of each line. Make sure every line that
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you type ends on the last character, and not a few spaces after it. This can
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cause problems on other systems, with line wrapping and so on.
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Your First Ascii
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The best way to make a start is to take someone else's picture and see if you
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can copy it. That way you get a feel for how you can use different characters.
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We'll start easy. Try copying these shapes, which only use the characters:
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/ \ | _
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___ ___
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| | /\ / \
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|___| /__\ \___/
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Easy huh? Now try making the same shapes again using the characters:
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- " . , ` : > <
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This is what I came up with:
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.---. . .--.
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: : .' `. < >
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"---" "---" `--'
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Bit more tricky, and it doesn't look as neat, but some of these characters, and
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knowing how you can use them can come in very handy at times, which we'll see
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later. Have a go at copying these, just for practice. Change them if you like:
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_ _ __ _ _ .^._ __
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| |_| |_.' `._| |_| | /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / \| \ \
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| _ _ _ _ | / \/ \/ \/ \ .' `. /_____V / /
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|_| |_| `.__.' |_| |_| / /\ /\ /\ /\ \ < > |[]_[]| \ \
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\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ `. .' | |+| | / /
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\/ `"""""' \_\
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Curves
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It's handy to know where the characters 'sit' on each line. Are they at the
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top, in the middle or on the bottom of the line? A couple of ascii characters
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vary in their position from computer to computer, but mostly they all sit in
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the same place. Have a go yourself on your keyboard. Here are some examples.
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Top of line: " ` '
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Top or middle of line: ^ * ~ =
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Middle of line: - +
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Bottom of line: _ . ,
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You can use all these characters on one line to make a pattern, like these:
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_.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._
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"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"
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Now try making a simple sig with a decorative border, using all the characters
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we've met so far. This is what I came up with:
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_________________________
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..,,++~~--==**''``^^"" Hayley Jane wakenshaw ""^^``''**==--~~++,,..
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/|\ [email protected] /|\
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< : > Flump's Fantastic Ascii Collection http://www.xs4all.nl/~klr < : >
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\|/ "Daddy.. why doesn't the magnet pick up your floppy disks?..." \|/
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""^^''``**--==~~++,,.._________________________..,,++~~==--**``''^^""
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Using The Other Characters
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The other ascii characters fall into three categories. Either they're the full
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height of the line or they're half height. Capitals and numbers are always full
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height. Compare them to some of the others - which are half height, and which
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are full height? Some examples:
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Full height: A 7 % @ ! # ) ; & $ ] } | / > l t f k h d ?
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