Incredible ASCII Art

Art by Numbers and Letters

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In the early 1990's, many sites were dedicated to ASCII art (Text Art). ASCII art, which has been around since the 1960's when computers were run by keypunched cards, is art created entirely out of text. In the 1970's and 1980's, ASCII art was the only way to create graphics. Although declining in popularity, ASCII art is still found on the internet and is a legitimate art form. The acronym for ASCII is the "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." Now you know why they always use the acronym!

 

Another text-based art style and a cousin of ASCII is ANSI Art. The acronym for ANSI is the "American National Standards Institute." ANSI doesn't have as many limitations as with ASCII. ANSI was a hit with the BBS when it was still popular. ASCII and ANSI art is something that art students love to do. Give your students a few lessons in ASCII and keep this art alive!

 

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<       <!MMMMMM988Nbn:.      <<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<~~        <<!XMMMMM88888888Nz    <<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<         `!XXHMMMMM988888888Br   <<<<<
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<<<<<<<<<<<< ~xBHMMM?MMMHxXMMu. .df    `"!<<<<MMMMM
:::::::::xn:  9RM!!!!!MMM98NN8MHH98ixx '!!<<<!M88MM
M?MXMMMHHH9ML.MM!<<<<<!MM8888#S9MN88MMM!<<<<<<988MM
``^`""""""MMMR?!<<  <<~!MMM8X ^""#88MM?!<<:<<!988RR
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Swimming Laps Animated ASCII

 

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ASCII Animated Art by Joan Stark. [Archive] Animated ASCII art won't look right on the Google Chrome browser. Try Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer.

 

One of the major players of ASCII art was Bob Allison. He was the first moderator of the ASCII newsgroup. He also had a website dedicated to ASCII art called the Scarecrow (No longer in existence- I've recreated it here.). Bob was one of the early legends of the internet who had very popular websites called BobaWorld, Uncle Bob's Kids' Page, The Spiders Web, The Web Masters Page and many others. (I have been trying to track Bob down. If you know how to contact him, please let me know.)

 

The Scarecrow

 

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There are many ASCII art galleries on the internet. Many of them have been copied directly from the rec.arts.ascii newsgroup. We have art from the former moderator of the group, Bob Allison here. His site, The Scarecrow, was a huge influence on the genre and deserves to be archived. If anyone knows what happened to Bob, please e-mail us.

 

ASCII art lessons are few and far between on the internet. Because of this, feel free to submit any ASCII lessons for inclusion on this page. Simply click on the "Submit a Lesson" at the top of the page.

 

What few there are is listed below:

ASCII Art Lessons

ascii man

Resources

Links

 

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