Datasets:

Csplk
/

THE.ASCII.ART.EMPORIUM

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_atkins.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/20210226065248/https://vyznev.net/ascii/ada/aaatutorial.txt

	,-,-,-. .
	`,\| \| \| ,-. \| , . ,-. ,-. . . ,-. . . ,-. ,-. . , , ,-.
	\| ; \| . ,-\| \|< \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|/\|/ \| \|
	' `-' `-^ ' ` ' ' ' `-\| `-\| `-' `-^ ' `-' ' ' ' '
	,\| /\|
	`' `-'
	,. .---. ,--. ,-_/ ,-_/ ,. .
	/ \| \___ \| `-' ' \| ' \| / \| ,-. \|-
	/~~\|-. \ \| . .^ \| .^ \| /~~\|-. \| \|
	,' `-' `---' `--' `--' `--' ,' `-' ' `'
	A short tutorial on making and posting ASCII Art
	By Martin Atkins (March 1999)

	This document was based on 'Make a Start in ASCII Art' by Daniel Au

	Stop before asking for an ascii picture of a whatever, or ascii for a
	logo... wouldn't it be more fun to make your own? Perhaps you could
	create a beautiful piece of ASCII Artwork and share it with us all at
	alt.ascii-art!
	If you would like to learn how to make ascii art, this tutorial should
	help you get started.

	-._.-> Quick Start
	"""""""""""
	You don't need a special program to make ASCII Art, you can make it in
	any text editor, or another program that allows you to type characters
	from the keyboard.

	You should, however, make sure that it is producing plain text (no
	colours, bold etc) and is set to a monospaced font. A monospaced (or
	fixed width) font is one where all of the characters are the same
	width.

	In a monospaced font, these two lines will be the same length:
	MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM\|
	IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII\|
	If they aren't, then you aren't using a monospaced font. Experiment
	with available fonts until you find one that makes those two lines
	match up.

	-._.-> Making a picture
	""""""""""""""""

	The best way to pick up ascii art is to try it. Find a nice text editor
	(most computers will have one, look for Notepad, Edit, Nisus, Ed...)
	and load it up.

	Just fiddle around a little to get a feel of what shapes each character
	makes, and then try to put them together to make a shape:

	o
	-\|- ASCII Art Stickman!
	/ \

	Try making this stickman do things, like...

	o/ o
	'\| Waving... -\|- o or Kicking a ball!
	/ \ \|'.

	Now look around where you are now... can you see anything interesting
	to make an ascii art of? Computers make very good 'first pictures',
	because they are mostly rectangular and so easy to shape. Have a go at
	showing your computer in ASCII Art. Try not to produce exactly what
	you see, but enough detail that the eye assumes the extra detail. This
	takes some practice, but once you've mastered it you can make almost
	anything!

	How about a person? This is a good thing to do next. The best place to
	start is not a specific person, but a generic one ... that way you can
	concentrate on forming a person-shape without worrying about the exact
	details of a person and possibly offending them!

	I've gone for a cartoony sort of person, since less details are needed
	to produce it. Let's start with the head...


	/"""""\
	\| (o\|o) \|
	\| _\ \|
	\| '---' \|
	\_____/ mga
	\| \|

	See how you see a human face, but know that it's very unlikely you will
	ever meet anyone who looks like this? This is what I mean by not
	producing exactly what something looks like.

	Let's continue the picture...

	/"""""\
	\| (o\|o) \|
	\| _\ \|
	\| '---' \|
	\_____/
	___\| \|___
	/ '-' \
	\| . . \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\_\|_____\|_/
	/_\| \|_\
	\| .-. \|
	\| \| \| \|
	'._\| \|_.'
	/__\| \|__\ mga


	Since it is a cartoon, I didn't worry too much about the proportions.
	If this was a serious picture, the legs would be far too short for the
	rest if the body, but you get the general idea.

	-._.-> Diagonal Lines
	""""""""""""""

	Notice on the bottom of the trousers I have used the full stop and
	apostrophe characters to produce I greater diagonal line than the slash
	offers. This is the basis for producing lines in ascii art. This one
	takes some time to master, but here are some lines to show you how to
	construct a few 'odd' angles...


	\| \| / ,' ,-' _,-'
	\| .' / ,' ,-' _,-'
	\| \| / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
	\| .' / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
	\| \| / ,' ,-' ,-' __..--"" _______________


	-._.-> Adding more detail
	""""""""""""""""""

	We can make our picture more interesting by adding some extra details.
	Just add anything that makes the picture look more like what it's meant
	to be, or looks cool.
	I'll just make a minor adjustment...

	/"""""\
	\| (o\|o) \|
	\| _\ \|
	\| '---' \|
	\_____/
	___\| \|___
	/ '-' \
	\| . . \| What young person would be seen
	\| \|Robik\| \| without his expensive brand-name
	\| \| './ \| \| sweatshirt?
	\_\|_____\|_/
	/_\| \|_\
	\| .-. \|
	\| \| \| \|
	'._\| \|_.'
	/__\| \|__\ mga

	-._.-> Background detail
	"""""""""""""""""

	At the moment, our person is standing in a blank void. Why don't we add
	some interesting backdrop to the picture?
	Since my picture is of a young man, where better to stand him than in
	front of a shop in town?
	-----------------------------------.---------.----------
	.----------. \| .-----. \|\|"""""""""
	.-------. .------ /"""""\ \| \| \| \|\|
	\|FOREMEN\| \|..-.-.\| (o\|o) \| _\| \| \| \|\|
	\|WANTED \| \|_.=-.-\| _\ \| / \| \| \| \|\|
	'-------' '----- \| '---' \| \|""\| \| \| \|\|
	.------. .-----. \_____/ \| \| '-. \| \|\|
	\|.----.\| \|ASCII ___\| \|___ \|""\| \| \| \|\|_________
	\|\|Sulk\|\| \|MONTH / '-' \ \| \| .-' \| \|__________
	\|\|Kit \|\| \|\|""\| \| . . \| \|""\| \| \| \|__\|___\|___
	_________________ \| \|Robik\| \| \|__\| \| \| \|\|___\|___\|_
	================= \| \| './ \| \| ===\| \|mga \| \|__\|___\|___
	\_\|_____\|_/ \| '-----' \|\|___\|___\|_
	__________________ /_\| \|_\ ____\|_________\|__\|___\|___
	/ \| .-. \|
	\| \| \| \| /
	/ '._\| \|_.' /
	/ /__\| \|__\
	________________________________________________________
	___/_________/________/________/_______/_______/______/_
	___\|_________\|________\|________\|_______\|_______\|______\|_


	And here we have what is a pretty good ascii are picture! With more
	tweaking it can be made even better.

	-._.-> Finishing it off
	""""""""""""""""

	You may have noticed that in the example pictures above there are three
	letters floating about apparently for no reason... 'mga'.
	When you make ascii art, should put your name or initials somewhere on
	it to identify it as yours. My initials are mga, which is where the mga
	comes from!
	Try to find a place where the initials don't spoil the picture, like on
	a wall, or a screen...

	-._.-> Going public... releasing your picture to alt.ascii-art!
	""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

	Once you are happy with your picture, and have added your initials, you
	can post it to alt.ascii-art. Paste it into your newsreader's message
	composition window. Check that it is plain text (no colours or styles)
	and in a monospaced font before posting.
	You might want to mention that this is your first pic when you post it.

	Check back to alt.ascii-art a few days later, and you may find that
	some people have responded to your picture. They may have written a
	'Cool pic!' type message, in which case you did it right! Do some more!
	The other possibility is that someone is offering a suggestion for
	improvement. This will come in one of two forms:
	* Diddling
	'Diddling' is when someone takes your picture, and changes it a
	little. You shouldn't take offense at this (unless your pic has been
	made offensive of course), just take heed to the suggestions and
	bear them in mind for your future pictures.
	* Textual Suggestion
	Someone may make a suggestion like 'try to smooth out the corners
	with a full stop', or 'try using a \| instead of a : for vertical
	lines'. These are just friendly suggestions, which you may choose to
	bear in mind when you create future pictures.

	Whether everyone loves your pic, or they offer suggestions, you should
	still continue to produce more pics. Remember practice makes, if not
	perfect, at least pretty good!

	-._.-> Learning from others
	""""""""""""""""""""

	The best way to learn is by example. Take a look at the ascii art in
	alt.ascii-art. Note how different artists have used certain characters
	to produce different shapes.
	You can try some of the techniques used by other artists, and will
	probably develop your own 'style' of ascii art. You can see differences
	between how each artists create ascii art, some are subtle while others
	are blatently obvious. Just practice and you'll get there!

	-._.-> In conclusion
	"""""""""""""

	Anyone can create ASCII Art with a little perseverance. If you find
	yourself bitten by the ASCII Art bug, please post your pictures to
	alt.ascii-art - we'd love to see them!

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_au.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/19990427090024/http://users.inetw.net/~mullen/auteach.htm

	From: dcau@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel Au)

	Date: 4 Oct 1995 15:47:46 -0500

	I just wrote this now in response to an email sent to me asking how
	I did my ASCII artwork. I responded by writing a brief walkthrough
	of my thought processes (well, kind of) and just wanted to share
	them on the group. Let's see more people try to make create their
	own new artwork instead of requesting for the old stuff all the
	time. It'll make for a better newsgroup overall and everyone will
	benefit! -- Daniel

	= ASCII art tips and example ==

	Try practicing to make your own artwork by just typing on the
	keyboard, which is what I do (I work just using the DOS text editor
	which comes along with any MSDOS machine. Any text editor will do.)
	Begin by basic shapes. For example, if you're making an animal -
	say a giraffe - let's start with the head:

	__.ii,
	(__," \|
	\| \|

	basically simple shapes to make it look approximately like it does
	in real life (as best as you can, at least, in this case I've
	cartooned it a bit :-) The " is making up the eyes, the . and , the
	ears and a smile. The i i are those antennae like things on top of
	their heads (if I remember correctly). I usually like to keep my
	artwork within the size of a screen. Since a giraffe is a tall
	animal, I'm keeping the details smaller. Then continue on with the
	body and some legs. Try to do a rough outline.

	__.ii,
	(__," \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|------------,
	/ \\
	\| \|\
	\|,._ \|,______\ \|\|\|
	\|\| //' \|\| \|\| \|
	\|\| (( \|\| \|\| \|
	\|\| `\\ \|\| \|\| M
	\|\| \\ \|\| \|\|
	/_\| /_\| /_\| /_\|

	It's best to add some . and , in order to smooth out some of the
	edges. Then the tail is in the back. Then add the detail - hair on
	the neck and spots on the body.

	__.ii,
	(__," \|%
	\| #%
	\| \|%
	\| #%
	# \|%
	\| \|%
	\| \|%-----------,
	/ ### ##### \\
	\|#### """" ### \|\
	\|,._ \|,_###__\ \|\|\|
	\|\| //' \|\| \|\| \|
	\|\| (( \|\| \|\| \|
	\|\| `\\ \|\| \|\| M
	\|\| \\ \|\| \|\|
	/_\| /_\| /_\| /_\| dcau

	That's pretty much for a quick giraffe that I just did while writing
	this letter. You can add more stuff like a tree and a bird on a
	branch too:


	O ) __.ii, \ \| /
	O ) (__," \|% - (_) -
	O ) \| #% / \| \
	) \| \|%
	O ) \| #%
	O ) # \|%
	,~ \| \|%
	-- ~\| ~ `O> \| \|------------,
	\| \|\|_</)__ / ### ##### \\
	\| //'/"" \|#### """" ### \|\
	// \|,._ \|,_###__\ \|\|\| A quick sketch of a
	\| \|\| //' \|\| \|\| \| tree, bird, and giraffe
	D \| \|\| (( \|\| \|\| \| by Daniel C. Au (dcau)
	C \| \|\| \\ \|\| \|\| M
	A \| \|\| \\ \|\| \|\|
	U \_,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/_\|,,,/_\|,,/_\|,/_\|,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

	How's that for a happy little scene? :-) I etched my initials on
	the bottom of the tree. grin

	Just practice and practice and you'll get the hang of it. Try to
	learn techniques from other people's artwork (Felix Lee's cats are a
	good example). It'll help you learn how to orientate yourself and
	how to best use some of the characters. Hope it goes well for
	everyone. Let's see some more creative activity on the newsgroup.
	You _can_ do it!

	Regards,
	Daniel

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_bger.txt
	https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/Joris_Bellenger.html

	To follow this tutorial you will need to
	download and install JavE.
	http://www.jave.de/
	JavE is a free Ascii Editor and I could save
	a few hours work by using it.

	1/
	I first made a gif-to-ascii conversion with JavE.
	The quality didn't really matter because I was about to change every
	single character later anyway.
	Have a look at the original picture.

	The idea behind this was to set the overall shape of the drawing.
	This is the raw conversion.

	_aOs_.__.
	_f~.yJ'`._an.
	_a__t.`.._____/u/3D_.
	._J:_..__dMgmQ/7GZMmS,
	J~(:`:%z_7A{`7`.(JQ;`
	/u_P___.`:``0. /` .Ml
	(JZ%.___. .` ._>_/Q;
	_JNm`.._./, /%u_``Rq,
	_]\q,_^d: ( =`(!> Q4:
	((u! _(\| kP
	.j_,.. ` .J2%
	`(_. _._Jzz_._..r.
	_. _[, .x{..J: _%~
	..7x. (% `qu. .7=>`_J=`
	([:no((. _. `d `_...__+r` ..
	(/vD6~;.+r .r `(:((() .{ /~(`
	j/G=:(4DJ, `` __% ```J` /(__%: .
	`~.`>:__?&.. .__/'` ]7>__. _:` ((:r>(~`
	`~. ^_: `_:` _` `:=_ .:{._>/J(=:
	: .; _: ` ` . ._``` %`._%`=~...>(`
	. ; r .._` _~J~((^`../^`
	_ (.) _(C``._^`
	~ (/ ., . __\|` {
	.` _, ( .` .: _J``()
	_ % /` `` ._} .] (;
	: _ (:`/~_ ~:~/:`J (;
	. .~ /(. `:` ``_:_: \|
	~ _ ` .S,``` _. ... .._: ; \|
	. .%.` _;`:``` .`^^:(3~ : >
	~ _\| _; J`v.: >
	{_/` : .] .=\| .:
	( J % /
	_. . .% %_`/
	.` ~ _~ `
	.: .} _>
	.: .c .:
	.` /.
	` :
	.` _,
	/ (
	~ ~
	_` .` .
	; `. _(_` _^ .,
	.: `_J[{_(^ .:
	.. (.`_` _`
	: ` ; ,
	. ~` .`
	.. J ~
	( _ _`
	: _ `
	_. . .`
	( . .`
	: ~`
	.. _ .`
	; / _`
	( ( (
	_~ r `
	) .x. ;
	; _3. .;
	~ . . 2 % ~..`. :
	.~ :``(:_% .} `..` .
	_ ~((: c ( `. .~
	; /} : (
	.` o ; (
	_ ( .: _`
	( ( .` _`
	` ; _~ (
	. .` .;` .;
	: ; v _`
	~ .` _; r
	_ . v` .:
	.. .` (. _`
	, ( .: (
	.: .] ) ;
	/. .; .: >
	/` 8 : r
	.` )` ( (
	_` .; .: ._
	.` ) _ (
	_=/__` ) { ...__
	.(c?!3/ (:(>`~w.
	`` `:``(:


	2/
	I saved the document and opened it in a text editor for hand made
	diddling where I worked on the top-half of the girl, keeping the
	legs for later.

	The diddling could have been made in JavE but I'm just used to my
	text editor.



	.-- .&dkl`,ivne._
	\| sRfkgvc+rsnmGBND.
	\| aHBNLbni+.irumLGNMms
	\| NRIr`'+dLKNMFb`'iNQr
	\| `ANWM7 `+lM0. `'^Kl
	\| iNWL*_;=e. Y._,_ ON
	\| aRNm _.l, j^ _` Bq,
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	\| `~. ^_T `ysf' " n, 7 *lkr,. i7k._m.JKiV"
	\| J .H dY `"- ._`` "VK,4= . Kdj`
	\| K K B -s&. eJ+ .ys7^`
	\| T lLj (C' .4
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	\| Tj V T. il .Vj .j'
	\| +' fi J` L. y
	\| 'y - .Y Yz,V
	\| .7 . 'A +
	\| .V ,i Tj
	\| xY fG ki
	\| tl K.
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	\| rG 'YKB` d'
	\| ls `T; f
	'-- r '` il
	.. J ~
	( _ _`
	: _ `
	_. . .`
	( . .`
	: ~`
	.. _ .`
	; / _`
	( ( (
	_~ r `
	) .x. ;
	; _3. .;
	~ . . 2 % ~..`. :
	.~ :``(:_% .} `..` .
	_ ~((: c ( `. .~
	; /} : (
	.` o ; (
	_ ( .: _`
	( ( .` _`
	` ; _~ (
	. .` .;` .;
	: ; v _`
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	.. .` (. _`
	, ( .: (
	.: .] ) ;
	/. .; .: >
	/` 8 : r
	.` )` ( (
	_` .; .: ._
	.` ) _ (
	_=/__` ) { ...__
	.(c?!3/ (:(>`~w.
	`` `:``(:

	3/
	I made a copy of the legs and pasted them in JavE


	.. J ~
	( _ _`
	: _ `
	_. . .`
	( . .`
	: ~`
	.. _ .`
	; / _`
	( ( (
	_~ r `
	) .x. ;
	; _3. .;
	~ . . 2 % ~..`. :
	.~ :``(:_% .} `..` .
	_ ~((: c ( `. .~
	; /} : (
	.` o ; (
	_ ( .: _`
	( ( .` _`
	` ; _~ (
	. .` .;` .;
	: ; v _`
	~ .` _; r
	_ . v` .:
	.. .` (. _`
	, ( .: (
	.: .] ) ;
	/. .; .: >
	/` 8 : r
	.` )` ( (
	_` .; .: ._
	.` ) _ (
	_=/__` ) { ...__
	.(c?!3/ (:(>`~w.
	`` `:``(:

	The idea was to use the gradient tool to fill the legs. To
	obtain a nice shading effect I had to fill them separately.
	So I erased one leg, closed the gaps and erased the shadows around
	the knees and toes.

	..:'''''''''':
	( '
	: '
	_. .
	( .
	: :
	.. :
	; :
	( (
	_~ r
	) .x.
	; _3
	~ 2
	.~ _%
	_ c
	; }
	.` o
	_ (
	( (
	` ;
	. .`
	: ;
	~ .`
	_ .
	.. .`
	, (
	.: .]
	/. .;
	/` 8
	.` )`
	_` .;
	.` )
	_ )
	.(c?!3/
	``
	The next step was to make a custom gradient in the Fill Options panel.

	MNBtir+iB

	I entered the following settings in the Fill Options panel:

	- Linear
	- dither: enabeld
	- Any character + diagonal

	... and filled the edges of the legs


	MMMMMMMMMMMMMM
	M N
	M M
	MN N
	M N
	N B
	NN N
	B t
	N B
	BB t
	B tBt
	B ti
	t t
	it it
	t t
	i i
	it i
	i r
	i i
	i r
	r rr
	+ r
	r r+
	+ +
	r+ ++
	+ +
	+i +i
	i+ ii
	+i i
	iB Bi
	ii Bi
	iB B
	B B
	BBBBBBB
	BB

	Then I changed the last setting to:

	- Equal character

	... ans filled the inside of the leg.

	MMMMMMMMMMMMMM
	MMMMNNBBttiirrN
	MMNNBBtBitiirM
	MNNBBtBitrirrN
	MNNBBttiirr+N
	NBBttiirr++B
	NNtBttiirr+N
	BBitiirr++t
	Nttiirr+riB
	BBiirr++i+t
	Btiirr++tBt
	Biirr++iti
	tiri+r++t
	itrr+ri+it
	tiirr++it
	iirr++iii
	itrirr++ii
	iri+r++iir
	iirr++iiBi
	irr++iiBBr
	rirr++iirr
	+r++iiBr
	r++i+Br+
	++iiBi+
	r++ii++
	+iiB+
	+i+i+i
	i+Biii
	+iiBi
	iBiBBBi
	ii+iiBi
	iB+iiBBB
	B+iiBBBB
	BBBBBBB
	BB

	The left leg was made the same way.

	4/
	I opened the diddled drawing (step 2) in JavE and carefuly pasted the two legs
	in place.
	The setting I used in the Selection Options panel was:

	- Foreground

	5/
	I saved and closed the document, and opened again it in my text editor where
	the legs shading and edges were hand diddled.

	Tadaaaa...

	.&dkl`,ivne._
	sRfkgvc+rsnmGBND.
	aHBNLbni+.irumLGNMms
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	4` i J` g, ti .l k
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	L .~ 74. `W` '`W 9+y b.
	N .Y 6s, _. .. ;T; gl
	A y Yf+:'` `^:pfjVK+i tb
	Y. j" K .J`X.f ly
	Tj V T. il .Vj .j'
	+' fi J` L. y
	'y - .Y Yz,V
	.7 . 'A +
	.V ,i Tj
	xY fG ki
	tl K.
	K Jb
	,I zH
	T I
	K N
	iU .` P.
	V `. _7_` _^ Rg
	.B `dJNMHb^ dl
	rG 'YKB` d'
	ls `T; f
	'MWMNBKbri++ Y il
	VMWNRKtirdJNMWNZ _.++ttKRNNs
	VBKkrze+rdRBNMNkr++iittKKBNN
	`VRttii++rrddNMNBKii++ddZZYe
	Yttii+;rrddZBNNNttiirrddZl
	Kttii;+rrddNMNKKii++ddZV'
	`Vii+;rrddZBNNNttiirrddf
	ltii+;rrddNWNKKii++ddZ
	'ii++;iddZBNNNttiirrd'
	tii+;;rddNMNKKii++dV
	'i++r;ddZBNNNttiirrj
	ii++irddNMNKKii++dl
	i+:irddBNKNNtti+rri
	ii+,:rddN NKKb+,;dd
	,i+.;iddMV VMNBb.ird
	li,;xdRMB XMBkrddZ.
	.ii+zBRMKX HSMBbrrd,
	ili+inGBKJ XKbm++ddZ
	rii++irdRZ ,GKtiirrdd.
	ltii++rzkd lKKii++ddZi
	tii++rrddZ BHttiirrdf'
	ttii++rxd' KRbii++dd7
	tri:+rrdf 'Nbtii+rdl
	'Yi;++rB' KKii++dd
	Bt:+rrf 'Rbii+rd
	'ii++H` Kbi++dl
	V+irf "KiirP
	,Zli7 `Yi+rd
	Z;bK tk;rl
	tii+K Xli+i
	si;+it AkirY.
	etritkl ;ffi+ds
	fltiielf Kbzrire
	HKltfdN' NBKlfBH
	b'ger NMBblB7 VMNKblKl
	dBMN9 VKBNM7
	'`
	-
	That's it.
	:)

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_ceejay.txt
	"How to draw ASCII" by Christian 'CeeJay' Jensen
	Website at http://CeeJay.dk (practicly never updated - I'm lazy)

	[Lines]

	Lines in general are made by putting characters with different "height"
	next to each other in a way that simulates a line.

	Most characters suitable for creating a line fall in 4 heightcategories.
	For some heights there are a choice between different characters.
	It's important to choose a character for your height with a form and
	position that seems to match the line.


	Suitable characters are :

	High : ` ' "
	Middle : - =
	Low : . ,
	Bottom : _

	You might think that ~ would be a good character too, but since ~ can
	be displayed very differently from system to system it is best not to
	use it when drawing lines

	Some of theese are best for lines slanting ..

	.. right :

	_,.-'"

	and some for slanting ..

	.. left :

	"`-._

	And then there are / and \ and \| .. all characters which forms restrict
	their usability to lines that closely resembles their shape.


	The best characthers are entirely a personal preference.

	Here are some different types of lines.. which do you like the best ?


	\| \| / .' .-' _.-'
	\| .' / .' .-' _.-'
	\| \| / .' .-' _.-' __..--""
	\| .' / .' .-' _.-' __..--""
	\| \| / .' .-' .-' __..--"" _______________



	\| \| / ,' _,' _,-'
	\| ,' / ,' _,' _,-'
	\| \| / ,' _,' _,-' __..--'"
	\| ,' / ,' _,' _,-' __..--'"
	\| \| / ,' ,' ,-' __..--'" _______________


	\| \| ; ," ,-" _.-"
	\| ; ; ," ,-" _.-"
	\| \| ; ," ,-" _.-" __..--'"
	\| ; ; ," ,-" _.-" __..--'"
	\| \| ; ," ,-" .-" __..--'" _______________



	Here are some people's favourite linestyles :

	3/1 2/1 1/1 2/3 1/2
	\| \| / / .' .'
	\| \| \| / / .'
	\| / / / .' .' 1/3
	\| \| \| / / .' .-'
	\| \| / / .' .' .-'
	\| / \| / / .' .-' 1/4
	\| \| / / .' .' .-' _.-'
	\| \| \| / / .' .-' _.-' 1/5
	\| / / / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--'
	\| \| \| / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' 1/6
	\| \| / / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' 1/7
	\| \| \| / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--'
	_.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' 1/8
	_.--' __.--' __..--' __..--''
	__.--' __..--' __..--''
	__..--' __..--''
	__..--''
	[VK] -------------------------- 0




	6/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 2/3 1/2
	\| J J J / .' .'
	\| J \| F / / .'
	\| \| F J / .' .' 1/3
	\| \| J F / / .' .-'
	\| F \| J / .' .' .-'
	\| F F F / / .' .-' 1/4
	\| J J J / .' .' .-' _.-'
	\| J \| F / / .' .-' _.-' 1/5
	\| \| F J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--'
	\| \| J F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' 1/6
	\| F \| J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' 1/7
	\| F F F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--'
	_.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' 1/8
	_.--' __.--' __..--' __..--''
	__.--' __..--' __..--''
	__..--' __..--''
	__..--''
	[HS] -------------------------- 0

	...and if the line slopes the other way use L instead of F.



	2\1 3\2 1\1 1\2 1\3 12infinity
	`. `. \ \ \| \|
	`. \ \ \| \| \|
	3\1 `. `. \ \ \ \|
	`-. `. \ \ \| \| \|
	`-. `. `. \ \ \| \|
	4\1 `-. `. \ \ \| \ \|
	`-._ `-. `. `. \ \ \| \|
	5\1 `-._ `-. `. \ \ \| \| \|
	`--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ \ \ \|
	6\1 `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ \ \| \|\|
	7\1 `--.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ \ \|\|
	`--..__ `--.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ \ \| \|\|
	8\1 `--..__ `--.__ `--._ `-._ _=_
	``--..__ `--..__ `--.__ `--._ q(-_-)p
	``--..__ `--..__ `--.__ '_) (_`
	``--..__ `--..__ /__/ \
	``--..__ _(<_ _/)_
	infinity21 ----------------------- (__\_\_\|_/__) [mic]



	[Sun of directions]

	My "Sun of directions"

	It show my (CeeJay) favourite linestyles

	The first number is the change in the X value.
	The second number is the change in the Y value.

	Note that the lines in the upper half of the sun
	differs from the ones in the lower half.
	I prefer the ones in the upper half but there are
	different lines for different occasions.

	1/3 \| 1/3
	1/2 \| \| \| 1/2
	1/1 \| \| \| \| \| 1/1
	3/2 \ `. `. \| ,' ,' / 3/2
	2/1 \ \ \| \| \| \| \| / / 2/1
	. `. \ `. \| \| \| ,' / ,' ,
	3/1 `. \ \ \| `. \| ,' \| / / ," 3/1
	. `. `. \ `. \| \| \| ,' / ,' ," ,
	4/1 `-. `. \ \ \| \| \| \| \| / / ," ,-" 4/1
	-._ `-. `. `. \ `. `.\|,' ,' / ,' ," ,-" _.-
	5/1 `-._ `-. `. \ \ \| \|\|\| \| / / ," ,-" _.-" 5/1
	`--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ `. \|\|\| ,' / ,' ," ,-" _.-" _.--"
	6/1.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ / ," ,-" _.-" _.--" __.6/1
	`--.__ `--._ `-._` _____ "_.-" _.--" __.--"
	7/1 `--..__ `--.__ `--._ .-' `-. _.--" __.--" __..--" 7/1
	--..__ `--..__ `--.__ ,' `. __.--" __..--" __..--
	8/1 ``--..__ `--..__ / _ _ \ __..--" __..--'" 8/1
	``--..__ ; (_) (_) : __..--'"
	----------------------- \| \| ------------------------
	..--''"" : \| \| ; ""``--..
	8/1 ..--''"" .--''"" \ `.___.' / ""``--. ""``--.. 8/1
	--''"" .--''"" .--'"" `. ,' ""`--. ""``--. ""``--
	7/1 .--''"" .--'"" ,--' `-._____.-' CJ ``--. ""`--. ""``--. 7/1
	.--'"" ,--'" _,-". . `-._ ``--. ""`--.
	6/1'"" ,--'" _,-" .-' ,' / \ `. `-. `-._ ``--. ""`6/1
	,--'" _,-" .-' ,' .' / .' \|\|\| `. \ `. `. `-. `-._ ``--.
	5/1" _,-" .-' ,' / / \| \|\|\| \| \ \ `. `-. `-._ 5/1
	,-" .-' ,' .' / .' .'\|`. `. \ `. `. `-. `-.
	4/1 .-' ,' / / \| \| \| \| \| \ \ `. `-. 4/1
	' ,' .' / .' \| \| \| `. \ `. `. `
	3/1 ,' / / \| .' \| `. \| \ \ `. 3/1
	' .' / .' \| \| \| `. \ `. `
	2/1 / / \| \| \| \| \| \ \ 2/1
	3/2 / .' .' \| `. `. \ 3/2
	1/1 \| \| \| \| \| 1/1
	1/2 \| \| \| 1/2
	1/3 \| 1/3

	[Special purpose lines & steps]

	,8 ;" _\| ,;' .oO \|
	,8' ;" _\| ,;' .o0008 __\|
	,8' ;" _\| ,;' .o0008888 \|
	,8' ;" \| ,;' .o0008888888 \|


	98b 080 d8P .o0P'
	98b 080 d8P .oOP'
	98b 080 d8P .o0P'
	98b 080 d8P .o0P'
	98b 080 d8P .o0P'

	_\|\| _(
	_\|\|" _(
	_\|\|" _(
	\|\|" (




	[Circular shapes]
	_____ __
	.-' `-. ,dP""Yb,
	,' `. ,d" "b,
	/ \ d' _ `Y,
	__ ; : 8 8 `b
	__ ,'" "`. \| \| `b,_,aP P
	__ ,' `. / \ : ; """" d'
	,' `. : \| \| \| \ / ,P"
	_ \| \| \| ; \ / `. ,' a,.__,aP"
	. o (_) `.__.' `.__.' `.____.' `-._____.-' `"""''

	_______
	.-'"" ""`-.
	.-' `-.
	,' `.
	,' `.
	/ \
	/ \
	; :
	: :
	\| \|
	: :
	: ;
	\ /
	\ /
	`. ,'
	`. ,'
	`-. ,-'
	`-.,,_______,,.-'


	( An example of what you can achive by using
	curves from ever smaller/bigger circles - A spiral )
	_______
	.-'"" ""`-.
	.-" `-.
	," `.
	," `.
	/ \
	/ \
	; _ :
	: ,'" "`. ;
	\| ( , \ \|
	; `' \| ;
	\ /
	`. ,"
	`-.,_____,.-"

	( .. and in this case a seashell)
	_______
	.-'"" ""`-.
	.-" `-.
	," `.
	," `.
	/ \
	/ \
	; _ :
	: ,'" "`. :
	\| ( , \ \|
	; `' \| \|
	\ / \|
	`. ," :
	`-.,_____,.-" ;
	,' `. /
	/ \ /
	; : /
	\| \| /
	\| \| ,"
	\| \| ,"
	: : ,-"
	\ / _,-"
	`. ," _.--" CJ
	`""---'"


	[Sentence drawing] - ( Drawing with characters aligned so they actually spell something! )

	ught i
	ca n
	m a
	' ... t
	I . . i
	! m
	! ! e
	p !pool
	l
	e
	h


	[Geometric figures]


	( Mirrored cubes )
	\|
	_______ \| _______
	/\ \ \| / /\
	/ \ \ \| / / \
	/ \______\ \| /______/ \
	/ / / \| \ \ \
	\ / / \| \ \ /
	\ / / \| \ \ /
	\/______/ \| \______\/
	_________________\|___________________
	_______ \| _______
	/\ \ \| / /\
	/ \ \ \| / / \
	/ \ \ \| / / \
	\ \______\ \| /______/ /
	\ / / \| \ \ /
	\ / / \| \ \ /
	\/______/ \| \______\/
	\|
	\| CJ


	(Pyramid)
	___________________________
	/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\\\\\
	\/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\/__/_\\\\
	\/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\__\__\\\\
	\/\__\/\__\/\__\/__/__/__/_\\\
	\/\__\/\__\/\__\__\__\__\__\\\
	\/\__\/\__\/__/__/__/__/__/_\\
	\/\__\/\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\\
	\/\__\/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/_\
	\/\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\
	CJ \/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/



	If you keep at it long enough you can create
	some pretty amazing and sometimes confusing stuff.

	( Two very similar drawings with very different
	illusions of depth )
	_________
	/ ___ /\
	/ /__/\ / \
	/ \__\/ / ___\
	/________/ /__/\\
	\ ___ \ \__\//
	\ /__/\ \ /
	\ \__\/ \ /
	\________\/ CJ


	_________
	/ ___ /\
	/ /\__\ / \
	/ \/__/ / ___\
	/________/ /\__\\
	\ ___ \ \/__//
	\ /\__\ \ /
	\ \/__/ \ /
	\________\/ CJ



	And sometimes ... REALLY confusing stuff.
	Here f.x is a Escher-style geometric form ..
	Dont look too long trying to figure it out.
	It's an impossible form .. it cannot not exist in RealLife(tm)


	______________
	/\ __________ \
	/ \ \______ /\ \
	/ /\ \ \ / / \ \
	/ / /\ \ \ / / /\ \ \
	/ / / \ \ \/ / / \ \ \
	/ / / \ \ \/_/____\_\ \
	/ / / \ \____________ \
	/ / /______/_\ ___________ /
	\ \ _________/ / / / /
	\ \ \_______ \ \ / / /
	\ \ \ / / /\ \ \ / / /
	\ \ / / / \ \ \ / / /
	\ V / /____\_\ / / /
	\ / /_________\/ /
	\______________/ lgbeard/KPB/ap



	Another variation .. an endless staircase


	"Slinky Heaven" _______
	by CeeJay _\\|/_____/\ \
	______=/\= \ \ ____\__
	/\ =\ \ \ \/\ \
	/ \ = \ \______\/ \ ____\__
	/ \______\/ / \/\ \
	/ / _____/_ / / \ ____\__
	/ / /\ \ / / ___\/\_ \
	/ / / \ \ / __/__\_ \ \
	\ / / \______\____\_ \ \_____\
	\ / / / _____/_ \ \_____\ /
	\/_/ / /\ \ \_____\ / /
	/ / / \ \_____\ / / /
	/ / / \______\ / / / /
	\ / / / / / / / /
	\ / / / / / / / /
	\/_/ / / / / / /
	/ / / / / /___/CJ
	/ / / / /___/
	\ / / /___/
	\ / /___/
	\/______/

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_crawford.txt
	http://www.penceland.com/AsciiCrawford.html

	Date: 21 Apr 94 16:45:44 GMT

	---------------------------------------------------------------------------
	..ASCII GRAPHICAL TECHNIQUES V1.0..
	By Rowan Crawford.

	All text and art copyright (c) 1994 Sumaleth Productions.
	---------------------------------------------------------------------------


	CONTENTS: 1. Intro ____ _ ..
	2. Line art dHHA /^ \|T AHHHHHA (_) : .
	3. Small/sig art dHPHH Y __jj HP" IH .-. I::
	4. Solid art dHP HH l__ \\ H HHHH \| \| HI:
	5. 3 Dimensional art dHHHHHH \| // Hb. IH \| \| HHI
	6. Conclusion dHP HH l___// UHHHHHU l_j UHU
	7. Quick plug


	1. Intro

	Producing pictures from ascii is such a strange idea, and yet the results
	can sometimes be quite impressive. Although there are a many different
	forms of ascii art, they all use basically the same ideas to produce
	the end result.

	The techniques I use are based around a few simple rules. These rules
	help me make decisions about which character to use, and where to place
	it. Of course they aren't strict rules, but they make a good foundation
	upon which to build a picture.

	This is not intended as the "definitive" guide to ascii creation, but is
	instead simply an analysis of how I approach the subject.

	Back to Contents


	2. Line Art

	Line art is where you represent a picture by just it's outlines and
	details. Comic art is good material for this type of work since you have
	a definite outline to work from. However, any picture can be reproduced
	just by defining it's various boundaries.

	There are many standard characters which can be applied to this form
	of ascii art. These are the most obvious ones:

	/ \ \| - _ + ( ) < > , . ~ ^ " V X T Y I l L : ` ' ! j J 7

	Start by finding an area of the picture which is fairly simple. From
	there, work your way around the perimeter creating an outline using
	just these "basic" ascii characters:

	/ \ \| - _ ( )

	Try to get proportions correct at this stage, because it IS important,
	and the later you leave it the harder it is to correct. You can also
	draw in some of the larger details at this stage, which may help get the
	proportions correct.

	Once you're happy with that, it's time to go over the whole thing and
	work on the anti-aliasing. I like to have every line connect up,
	leaving no large gaps such as:

	~~~~~~~~________

	If I come across an area which has no "ultimate" choice of characters,
	I may decide to add an extra detail there. For example, "near" vertical
	lines are virtually impossible in ascii. Here's some options:

	\| \| \| \| \|
	\| l l. \ l
	\| I `\| Y `L
	\| \| \| \| \|

	START ^----------OPTIONS----------^

	As you can see, none of them produce the "perfect" results I'd like.
	In this case, I would try adding some form of detail in there thus
	removing the problem. It doesn't always work, but it's worth a try.

	Near-horizontal lines are much easier (thankfully). Using these
	chars: ( ~"-.,_ ) you can quite easily produce a reasonably decent
	line. The previous (horizontal) example would become:
	__
	"~~"----..,___

	Or at least something to that effect. I usually get very "nit-picky"
	and arrange the comma just before an underscore since it sits down
	one pixel lower than the full-stop ("."). I also like to carefully
	select between the " and ~ since they each have their own distinct
	properties. Avoid using this technique at angles around 30 degrees
	(looks a bit odd), and very slight angles (because it results in a
	long line of dots, and that doesn't look good).

	Actually, the selection of the picture is very important in determining
	how the resulting pic will look. You also have the option of changing
	certain parts of the pic, so that they work better in the ascii format.
	For example, instead of trying to do a near-vertical line, just make it
	perfectly vertical.

	Curves also play an important role in ascii art. Although the standard
	ascii character set does not directly support curves (apart from "(" and
	")" of course :), you can get some nice curves with a little bit of work.
	Here's the most often used chars for curve creation:

	/ \ - _ ~ " . , ' ` ! I l Y

	And here's a couple of sample curves to demonstrate the idea:
	___
	.-~" "~-. /
	/ \ _.-~
	Y Y ,^
	\| \| /
	l ! /
	\ / __.-~
	"-.,___,.-"

	CIRCLE SUBTLE CURVATURES

	Some people wouldn't like the use of "Y" and "^", but to me, the
	advantages outweigh the negative aspects. Also note the use of "l" and
	"!" to make the transition from vertical to angled less pronounced.

	I also consider the choice between "." an "," important because it
	affects the smoothness of the line. For example, in the part on the
	above curve: _.- :it looks like a "," may have been a better choice:

	/ But as you can see here, using the
	_,-~ comma has altered the flow of the
	,^ line somewhat. It now appears as
	/ more of a "step" rather than an
	/ angled line.
	_,-~

	CURVE USING COMMA

	Intersections require yet another strategy. Often you'll find that one
	line must join onto another at a place where the join isn't neat:

	"-._ / "-._ / Here the incoming line should join
	/ 7 onto the main part halfway through
	/ / a "/". That's where you can use some
	other chars. In this example, a "7"
	INTERSECTION FIX would work well, as seen in the
	example to the left.

	You could also try "Z" "X" "T" "Y" as a replacement, but it depends
	entirely on what is happening around that point as to which char works
	the best. Other chars which work well in these situations are "K" "<" ">"
	"r" "L" "j" "J" and "I" because they all point in at least 3 directions.

	After practice, the anti-aliasing can be done as you are drawing the
	main outline. Not that it really makes any difference.

	That basically covers the outline techniques. The smaller details are
	the next, and final, step. Adding details isn't always necessary, but
	it will be in most cases. Eyes, noses, finger nails, switches, knobs,
	handles, plus a host of other things are usually confined to just one
	or two character spaces, so the choice of chars is quite important.

	Eyes are a common example. You have quite a few different characters
	available which work well as eyes, but it's up to you to decide which
	work best. You need to decide what "emotion" you want to portray, and
	then find an appropriate character.

	As some examples, I have used two "6"'s for a kangaroo, a "bd" combo
	for a horse, a pair of "r"'s for a giraffe and: -=b- :as the eye of
	an eagle. In each case, I tried many different combinations until I
	was happy with the selection:
	.
	/\ /\| . , ___,A.A_ __ _____
	((.Y(! \|\/\| \ , 7"_/ / ~"-.
	\ \|/ bd "n. ~"T( r r) Y -=b-. _)
	/ 6~6, / _,"n \| \ Y l c"~o \
	\ _ +-. <co>'\ \| ~\ .\| \_.-~"~--. )
	\`-=--^-' ~~ \| \|`-' )/
	\ \ '

	Other details are equally important, and the same technique is used.
	Just trying different combinations of characters until a "solution"
	is found. Sometimes there is no optimum arrangement, so you either
	have to live with it, or rearrange things just enough to give you a
	fresh angle of attack.
	____
	.-~. /_"-._ This T-Rex head demonstrates how you can use
	/ /_ "~o\ :Y the character shapes to an advantage. The "L"
	/ : \~x. ` ') at the bottom joins three connections together
	\| Y< ~-.__j quite well, as does the "Y" at the back of the
	: l l< /.-~ mouth. These are things too look out for when
	l /~\ \<\|Y creating a picture, and by using the chars in
	'.-~\ \L\| such a fashion, you can usually get quite a lot
	"--' of detail into a small area.

	Back to Contents


	3. Small/Signature Art

	Smaller artwork requires a slightly different approach than the large
	pieces. Due to the smaller area, you aren't always able to recreate
	a picture perfectly, so a different frame of mind is needed.

	Take, for example, the kangaroo head above. The back of the neck should
	of course be curved, but this was not possible with only two characters.
	In smaller pics however, it's not always necessary to be that detailed,
	it is more important to focus on making the object immediately
	identifiable.

	Small ascii pictures usually start from a simple motif or idea. The way
	certain characters fit together often creates the idea, and once an idea
	is found, you have a base to work from.
	___
	{~._.~} This little koala pic is a good example of how a
	( Y ) relatively simple collection of characters can
	()~*~() produce a very "familiar" result. Some experimenting
	(_)-(_) was done with the eyes, "bow tie" and the bottom "-",
	with these being chosen simply because they worked the
	best. Different "eye" characters produced different emotional feelings
	(which is how the "Koala Collection" came about), but the simple "."
	resulted in the most familiar appearance.

	Remember, shape is the most important aspect of small ascii art. There
	are so many different shaped ascii characters available that there
	is bound to be one which fits the needs
	_ . of the picture. This example is a "mini"
	__CL\H--. Millennium Falcon. Since I'd already
	L__/_\H' \\--_- drawn a bigger one, I knew exactly what
	__L_(=): ]-_ _-- - shape it needed to be, and what features
	T__\ /H. //---- - it needed to make it look like the Falcon.
	~^-H--'
	" Picking out the main features is a good
	step, and then find chars which closely
	resemble them. The blasters on top of the Falcon were well emulated by
	the "=" for example. The combination of "CL" worked perfectly as the
	cockpit, as did a simple ":" for the distinctive markings on it's back.

	Simplicity is the key in small art, but that doesn't necessarily make
	things any easier. Many things simply cannot be successfully drawn in
	small sizes, so a touch of planning can sometimes help.

	Back to Contents


	4. Solid Art

	Solid ascii art differs from line art in that the resulting image is
	more of a "silhouette" rather than an outline.

	By using a "heavy" character such as: W M H 8 :you build up a basic
	silhouette (filled in outline), and then use other characters to anti-
	alias (smoothen) the image.

	"W" and "M" are the darkest characters in most character sets, but they
	do vary quite a lot and are a bit too bottom/top heavy which ruins the
	effect somewhat. "H" and "8" also produce patterns of similar darkness,
	but result in two different "looks". The "H" is more stark and rigid,
	whereas the "8" produces a more "bubbly" appearance (which prints up
	quite well apparently).

	WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888
	WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888
	WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888
	WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888

	I originally used "M" and "W" since they worked well with the font I once
	used, but now I use "H" because I like its consistency. Other people
	prefer "8", so it's really just a matter of personal taste. Indeed,
	remapping an image from one type into another is quite simple, and should
	not affect the picture at all.

	Different effects can be created by varying the chosen texture over
	various sections of the picture (shading). The choice of character can
	also be based on the subject matter, for example, if money were involved
	the obvious choice would be a "$". Try to avoid using "*" though, as it
	looks a bit cheesy (imho).

	Once the basic shape is defined with the chosen character, the anti-
	aliasing process is next. The most used chars are:

	d b P F 9 V T Y A U _ , . - * ^ ~ " ` ' n a o l L j J k [ ] ( ) : \ / \| !

	Each character has a purpose based on its shape, although there are
	cases where no character will produce perfect results. In these cases,
	you either have to make do as best you can, or remodel that particular
	area of the picture, thus giving you a fresh approach.

	Going back to the earlier "curve" examples, here they are in solid form:

	.adAHHHAbn. JHH
	dHHHHHHHHHHHb _.adHHH
	dHHHHHHHHHHHHHb ,AHHHHHHH
	HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH dHHHHHHHHH
	VHHHHHHHHHHHHHP JHHHHHHHHHH
	YHHHHHHHHHHHP _.adHHHHHHHHHHH
	"^YUHHHUP^" HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
	"~"
	SPHERE CURVED HILL

	It's important to get a good understanding of how best to use the
	characters. The basic forms are as follows:

	_,.aomdAHAbmon.,_ For the upper curves.

	"~^YUHUP^~" For the lower curves.

	The characters: d b P :are all extremely useful, but there is no
	equivalent character for bottom/left. There is, however, four chars
	available which do a decent job: T Y V 9 .The 9 works well for some
	char sets, but generally it has a big hook at the bottom so isn't
	quite so useful.

	Notice how I've used "A" and "U" to smoothen the transistion from "H"
	to "d"/"b" (and "Y"/"P" respectively) even though the effect is quite
	subliminal. A minor detail, but it does help. I don't often use "_"
	in these types of pics because of the way it touches the top of the
	"H". It does come in handy sometimes though.

	Side curves require more of an "on the spot" approach. The chars:
	l [ ] : j i :all come in handy when trying to smoothen out vertical
	curves, and I've also seen "(" and ")" used (although I wouldn't use
	them myself). Consistency in contrast is very important.

	Adding details using the solid ascii technique is a bit harder than
	in line art because there isn't the same number of possible choices
	for each position. The letters: a n o :are all very useful because
	they are nice "solid" chars which only occupy the bottom half of the
	character space, but there is no good alternative for the top half.

	dHF^^^ See how the bottom arm fits in with the solid
	dHP appearance of the main part, yet the "^" (which
	dHBooan is the closest char available) doesn't look so
	beefy. Even the "^" varies across different char
	sets, so that leaves just: " ~ : which are of no use at all. In that
	particular case, it is necessary to expand the picture by one line:

	anpoan Note the use of the "p" to make the effect just
	dHP that little bit more effective. An "r" could also
	dHP work well at the end of each arm. Purely cosmetic
	dHBooan though. Note that if you're using "M" or "W", then
	"m" and "w" can be used to keep it consistent.

	Details aren't always as simple as that example though (unfortunately).

	HHHH aann .aoon.
	HHHHHHHHHHHHH aanndHHHHHHP" "^vaondAHHHHHP"
	HHHHHHH "~^YHHHHH "~^SHHHHH
	HHHHHHHHHH dHHHHHHb .adHHHHHHh,
	HHHHHH ~^VHHHP ~^VHHHP
	HH YHP "VP

	START HALF WAY FINISHED

	The different steps can be seen here. Starting by roughing out the shape
	(a wizards head incidentally) using the chosen character. Next, go over
	all the edges making all the obvious replacements. That means using:
	d P b Y V a n :plus the occasional: " ~ :if there's an obvious place for
	it. Just enough to give it some shape.

	The final stage requires a bit more work. Start with "A" and "U"/"V",
	and then the rest is purely experimentation. The "S" was chosen because
	it seemed to have the right shape, although there are many chars which
	could really go there.

	The curve section at the back required quite a lot of work. An "a" seems
	to be the best opposite of "n", and for long stretches, I like to use
	some "o"'s in there just to mix it up a bit. The: "^ :piece at the end
	was an obvious combination, so it was just a matter of finding a char
	to connect the "a" to the "^". As it turned out, "v" was custom made
	for that position.

	WMHI: .:IHb. I Smooth shading can be created by using
	MH[: .adAHHHI:. :H different chars to fade out at the edges,
	HI: .:IHHHHHI:' .jIH instead of the anti-aliasing (which
	Y: `:YHHI:' .:\|IHM produces hard edges).

	Good "outer" characters are: . , : ; ' `
	For the transition from solid to outer edge: I H A U V T Y \| i j d b
	n a o [ ] :or basically anything that produces the desired effect.

	Both line and solid techniques can be combined together, resulting in
	a "comic book" look and feel. Each form of ascii art works well in
	certain circumstances, so why not use this to your advantage. Line art
	for the various outlines and small details, and solid art for large
	dark areas.

	Back to Contents


	5. 3 Dimensional Art

	3D ascii art is basically an extension of SIRDS, where you can create
	the illusion of depth on a flat surface. This is achieved by producing
	two slightly different versions of the one picture, and placing them
	a certain distance apart.

	. . Focus Point
	/ \
	/ \ x Where the image appears
	/ x \
	--- --- __ The original pictures on the screen
	/ \
	/ \ /\ Where your eyes are looking
	/ \
	O O OO Your eyes

	PLAN VIEW

	Although the scale and angles are a bit off, the basic principle can
	be seen from the above diagram (seen looking down). The two versions
	of the picture are located on the screen, but you don't look there.
	You need to focus on a point past the screen which produces a third
	image at "x".

	This resulting image occurs because of the way eyes work. They can only
	focus on one "depth" at a time, and anything either further away or
	closer becomes blurred. These "blurs" are just two different views of
	the one object produced by the two eyes seeing different things.

	Try this: stand three feet from a wall. Now hold two fingers up about
	one foot from your face, and about 1.5 centimeters apart. Look between
	your fingers, and focus onto the wall. Keep focus on the wall, but
	look into the foreground at your fingers. You should see a ghost image
	from both fingers converging into the center. The trick is to make the
	two ghost images overlap each other resulting in (hopefully) one solid
	image. This image should appear at a different level than the originals:

	\| \| \| \| \|
	\| \| \| \| \|

	TWO FINGERS RESULTING IMAGE

	The results from this experiment won't be 100% perfect since your two
	fingers are likely to be different, but it is a good way to understand
	the concept. With a little practice, you should be able to focus on real
	3D pictures without too much effort.

	--- --- Note that if you cross your eyes instead of using the
	\ / above technique, you actually see the picture in reverse.
	\/ This diagram shows the effect from above, and the resulting
	/\ image will appear where the lines cross over. Since most
	/ \ stereograms (STARE-eograms?) are created to go into the
	/ \ screen, looking at them this way will produce an incorrect
	O O vision (and is somewhat harder on the eyes).

	That's the hard part out of the way, now a bit about how to create them.
	Getting back to the little koala example (which is a perfect size for
	this type of work), lets bring him into 3 dimensions.

	X X Here I have placed two koalas 10 chars
	___ ___ apart from each other. Generally, a good
	{~._.~} {~._.~} distance would be between 7 and 15 chars,
	( Y ) ( Y ) although you can use any distance you like.
	()~~() ()~~() Values outside those bounds tend to be
	(_)-(_) (_)-(_) difficult to focus on however.

	The distance determines how much the resulting image sits "into" the
	screen. If the distance is 0 (ie. no separation), the image is neutral
	which means it appears -at- the screen. As the distance is increased,
	the resulting image appears further -into- the screen.

	By having many koalas laid out across the screen (all separated by the
	same distance), the effect becomes slightly easier to focus on. Any
	extra layers should then be added across the whole picture, with the
	result being quite effective.

	The picture is quite boring so far, with just one layer of 3D being
	created, so the next thing to do is to add another layer or two.
	The "tried and tested" approach is to add a "pole" in front of him,
	and since we want it -in front- of the existing layer, each pole
	should be 9 chars apart:
	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	(_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_)
	H___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___H __H
	{H._.~} H~._.~} H{~._.~} H {~._.~}H {~._.~H {~._.H} {~._H~}
	H Y ) H( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y )H ( Y H ( YH)
	(H~~() H)~~() H()~~() H ()~~()H ()~~(H ()~~H) ()~*H()
	(H)-(_) H_)-(_) H(_)-(_) H (_)-(_)H (_)-(_H (_)-(H) (_)-H_)
	H H H H H H H H
	~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~

	Notice that since the pole is to appear in front of the koala, it
	actually replaces the koala where they overlap. Here's the same pic
	except the pole appears behind the koala:
	_ _ _ _ _ _
	(_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_)
	___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H___
	{~._.~} {~._.~}H {~._.~} H {~._.~} H{~._.~} {~._.~} {~._.~}
	( Y )H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H( Y ) ( Y )
	()~~() ()~~()H ()~~() H ()~~() H()~~() ()~~() ()~*~()
	(_)-(_) (_)-(_)H (_)-(_) H (_)-(_) H(_)-(_) (_)-(_) (_)-(_)
	H H H H H H
	~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~

	Now, since the pole is to appear behind the koala, its chars do not
	write over the koala where they overlap. The poles here are 11 chars
	apart, so appear one "step" behind the koala. All layers are built like
	this, and of course I could have the poles both behind and in front of
	the koala in the same picture. Here's a multi-layer example:
	_ _
	.-~ \ .-~ \
	/ \ _ / \ _
	~x .-~_)_ ~x .-~_)_ This picture has 3 distinct layers:
	~>x".-~ ~-. ~x".-~ ~-. the hat, head and face. There are
	( / \ ( / \ many other examples of 3D ascii
	T o o Y T o o Y around, plus there are programs
	l < ! l < ! available for the easy creation
	\ .__/ / \ ._/ / of SIRDS.
	"-.___.-' "-.___.-'

	A quick examination of the above picture shows that the head (circle),
	part of the hat and a part of the mouth are all 15 characters apart.
	The rest of the face is just 14 chars apart, and the top section of
	the hat is 16 chars apart.

	Note that all this information is from pure observation, so it may not
	be 100% accurate.

	Back to Contents


	6. Conclusion

	Perhaps there's more to ascii art than
	meets the eye? Before writing this, I .
	had no idea just how much thought goes /\ /l
	into creating ascii pictures, and I ((.Y(!
	imagine that I haven't even begun to \ \|/
	cover it all. / 6~6,
	\ _ +-.
	Analyzing the work of other people is \`-=--^-'
	a great way to learn what works, and \ \
	what doesn't. Analyzing "art" may seem _/ \
	like a strange concept, but it does ( . Y
	open your awareness to the art form, and /"\ `--^--v--.
	it's a great way to learn the various / _ `--"T~\/~\/
	techniques. I hope that you have found / " ~\. !
	my ideas about ascii interesting. _ Y Y./'
	Y^\| \| \|~~7
	In the end however, it's up to the \| l \| / ./'
	individual artist to work the way they \| `L \| Y .^/~T
	want to, and not necessarily the way \| l ! \| \|/\| \| -Row
	someone else would do it. Finding \| .`\/' \| Y \| !
	your own style is all part of the fun, l "~ j l j_L______
	and perhaps this text will aid people \,____{ __"~ __ ,\_,\_
	in finding that style. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	:D

	Back to Contents


	7. Quick Plug

	Check out my ascii art collection v1.2 (it's on the various ascii
	FTP sites around). Collection 2 coming soon(ish).

	-------------------------[ Sumaleth Productions 1994 ]-----------------------

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_flump.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/20071116040106/http://www.kersbergen.com/flump/howto.html

	━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

	Getting Started

	If you want to make ascii art the first thing you should know is that you don't
	need a special program, or special skills to make it with. All you need is
	somewhere to type text into - your e-mail program, notepad, wordpad, that sort
	of thing - and an idea of what you want to draw. There are no secrets or rules
	other than the following:

	1.) Use a non-proportional or fixed width font. Click HERE for a page on this
	site that will tell you what they are, or ask me for the text version of the
	page via e-mail.

	2.) Don't use tabs!! Always, but always use the space bar (or your cursor keys/
	mouse if the program you're typing in supports that) for empty spaces. The
	reason for this is that different computers and programs interperet the size of
	a tab space differently, so although what you see on your screen looks fine, on
	someone else's your pic may look all split up.

	3.) Only use the keyboard characters on an American standard keyboard. That
	means all the letters, numbers and punctuation that you can see printed on the
	keyboard keys. You can use the shift key, but don't use the alt key to make
	characters. The reason for this is similar to that for not using tabs -
	different computers interperet alternative characters in different ways. The
	idea behind ascii is that all computers can read it because it's made up of
	characters that all computers will recognise.

	4.) Don't leave empty spaces at the end of each line. Make sure every line that
	you type ends on the last character, and not a few spaces after it. This can
	cause problems on other systems, with line wrapping and so on.

	Your First Ascii

	The best way to make a start is to take someone else's picture and see if you
	can copy it. That way you get a feel for how you can use different characters.
	We'll start easy. Try copying these shapes, which only use the characters:

	/ \ \| _
	___ ___
	\| \| /\ / \
	\|___\| /__\ \___/

	Easy huh? Now try making the same shapes again using the characters:

	- " . , ` : > <

	This is what I came up with:

	.---. . .--.
	: : .' `. < >
	"---" "---" `--'

	Bit more tricky, and it doesn't look as neat, but some of these characters, and
	knowing how you can use them can come in very handy at times, which we'll see
	later. Have a go at copying these, just for practice. Change them if you like:

	_ _ __ _ _ .^._ __
	\| \|_\| \|_.' `._\| \|_\| \| /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / \\| \ \
	\| _ _ _ _ \| / \/ \/ \/ \ .' `. /_____V / /
	\|_\| \|_\| `.__.' \|_\| \|_\| / /\ /\ /\ /\ \ < > \|[]_[]\| \ \
	\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ `. .' \| \|+\| \| / /
	\/ `"""""' \_\

	Curves

	It's handy to know where the characters 'sit' on each line. Are they at the
	top, in the middle or on the bottom of the line? A couple of ascii characters
	vary in their position from computer to computer, but mostly they all sit in
	the same place. Have a go yourself on your keyboard. Here are some examples.


	Top of line: " ` '
	Top or middle of line: ^ * ~ =
	Middle of line: - +
	Bottom of line: _ . ,


	You can use all these characters on one line to make a pattern, like these:

	_.,-=~+"^'``'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'``'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._


	"^`'-=~+,._.,+~=-'`^"^`'-=~+,._.,+~=-'`^"^`'-=~+,._.,+~=-'`^"

	Now try making a simple sig with a decorative border, using all the characters
	we've met so far. This is what I came up with:

	_________________________
	..,,++~~--==''``^^"" Hayley Jane wakenshaw ""^^``''==--~~++,,..
	/\|\ flump@quadrant.xs4all.nl /\|\
	< : > Flump's Fantastic Ascii Collection http://www.xs4all.nl/~klr < : >
	\\|/ "Daddy.. why doesn't the magnet pick up your floppy disks?..." \\|/
	""^^''``--==~~++,,.._________________________..,,++~~==--``''^^""


	Using The Other Characters

	The other ascii characters fall into three categories. Either they're the full
	height of the line or they're half height. Capitals and numbers are always full
	height. Compare them to some of the others - which are half height, and which
	are full height? Some examples:

	Full height: A 7 % @ ! # ) ; & $ ] } \| / > l t f k h d ?
	Half height: a o v z

	And then there's the 3rd sort. The characters that look like half height, but
	sit a little lower on the line, like they would in handwriting. These are: j g
	y p q

	And all together they can make a slight curve, just like the others:

	pqyjgacoevA8!@)lf$%;$fl(@!8AveocagjypqacoevA8!@)lf$%;$fl(@!8Aveoc

	Lines and Diagonals

	There are three basic lines to any picture - straight (either horizontally, or
	vertically), diagonal, and the third is the curve, which includes circles.
	We'll look at straight and diagonal lines first. Horizontal and vertical lines
	are simple in ascii - here are some examples:

	Horizontal: 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
	""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
	----------------------------------------------------------
	__________________________________________________________
	..........................................................


	Vertical: \| 8 : ! 1 I
	\| 8 : ! 1 I
	\| 8 : ! 1 I
	\| 8 : ! 1 I
	\| 8 : ! 1 I
	\| 8 : ! 1 I

	Diagonals are a bit more tricky. You can make simple ones using the / and \
	keys. Diagonals with other gradients need a technique similar to that used to
	make slight curves. Experiment yourself to see how you can make different
	angles. Here are some examples to start you off:


	/ .' _,-' __
	/ .' _,-' __..--''
	/ .' _,-' __..''
	/ .' _,-' __..--''
	/ .' _,-' __..--''
	/ .' _,-' __..--'' ____....----"""
	/ .' _,-' __..--'' ____....----""""
	/ .' ,-' __..--'' ____....----""""



	Circles

	By now we've looked at the basic characters, character height, slight curves,
	lines, and slopes. The last thing to look at is what many people who make ascii
	have trouble with: circles. You're half way there already, though, because
	ascii circles are basically a mix of vertical and horizontal lines, slopes or
	diagonals, and curves. After a little practice, you'll get a feel for making
	different sized circles - I have a basic set of circles in a file that I refer
	to when I need a circular or rounded shape in an ascii pic, so now I can make
	them easily in all sorts of sizes. Start making small circles - how many ways
	can you think of to make a circle in under 5 lines? The bigger the circle the
	more rounded it can be, but try making circles of different sizes and see what
	you come up with. These are mine:

	__
	_ /""\ / \
	1 line: O () 2 lines: (_) \__/ 3 lines: \__/

	____
	___ .-''-. .' `.
	4 lines: / \ 5 lines: / \ 6 lines: / \
	\| \| \| \| \| \|
	\___/ \ / \ /
	`-..-' `.____.'

	_.-""""-._
	9 lines: .' `.
	/ \
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\ /
	`._ _.'
	`-....-'


	That's the basic characters, and what you can do with them. Play with them, see
	what patterns and ascii scribbles you can make. Have a go at taking one of my
	pics, or another ascii pic from some of the excellent sites around, and copy
	it. Then change it! See how you can use the characters to make the picture look
	different. Can you make the expression on a face change? Can you make an ascii
	person fatter, thinner, taller, shorter? Give Barney the dinosaur a moustache,
	or, much better, multiple wounds? :-) This is how I learned. Many of my first
	efforts were absolutely dreadful. So I looked at how someone else had made the
	same sort of picture and learned from it. And I still do - probably why people
	often say my style is very similar to Joan Stark's!

	To get you started, cut and paste this head into wherever you want to draw your
	ascii, and give it a face. Add a hat or a body. Or make the hair shorter or
	longer. Make it a clown or a devil!


	,-.,~~.
	,'///\|\|\\`.
	///(((\|\|)))\\.
	((( )))
	_))) \|(_
	._//\ /\\_.
	`-'_/`-._.-'\-`-'
	' \/=._.=\/ hjw


	Moving Forward

	That's all the boring stuff about technique over. :-) What's coming up is a
	step by step demo of how I go about turning a picture into ascii.

	When you first start, it's always a good idea to try to draw something simple.
	Gromit the dog is made up of very simple shapes - just ovals and circles, so
	I'll use him as an example.

	[wallgromsm]

	To start a picture, I look for the simplest or most prominent feature of
	whatever I'm trying to draw. In Gromit's case, I reckon it's his nose. :-) I'll
	try the 2 line circle and see where that takes me. After I've drawn his nose
	I'll see if I can draw the shape of his head around it:

	___
	/ \
	\| \|
	/ _ \
	\| (_) \|
	\ /
	`---'


	Hmm.. don't like that - the top of his head isn't tall enough, but if I make it
	any longer it looks too narrow. If I make it wider, then the nose looks too
	small....

	____
	/ \
	\| \|
	\| \|
	/ _ \
	\| (_) \|
	\ /
	`----'


	.... and to put the nose in the center, I'll have to make it yet another
	character wider.......


	_____
	/ \
	\| \|
	\| \|
	/ _ \
	\| (_) \|
	\ /
	`-----'


	.. and though it looks like it would make a nice dog, it's not Gromit, really
	is it? So I'll make his nose a bit bigger; 3 lines this time, and try the face
	shape again.

	____
	." ".
	/ \
	\| \|
	\| \|
	/ __ \
	\| / \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.'


	Yep - that's more like it. :-) Next I usually try to fit the eyes in.

	____
	." ".
	/ __ __ \
	\|/()\/()\\|
	\|\__/\__/\|
	/ __ \
	\| / \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.'


	Nope. Don't like those. Normally I like to make eyes complete circles, or just
	use a couple of characters like "9 9" or "e e".But those would be too small.
	And these eyes are too big and don't look round enough. I'll try two lines
	instead.

	____
	." ".
	/ \
	\| _ _ \|
	\| (O)(O) \|
	/ __ \
	\| / \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.'


	Much better.Now to add the ears.


	.-""-. .-""-.
	/ -.`. ____ .' _ \
	\ .' \ `" "' ,' \ /
	`-' / \ `-'
	\| _ _ \|
	\| (O)(O) \|
	/ __ \
	\| / \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.' hjw


	There are gaps left that look untidy though. This is where I couldn't get the
	characters to fit together. Often you can solve this by using a letter. This is
	about the only time I use letters and numbers apart from doing small details
	like eyes. I'll mess around with my favourite 'connecting' characters like: "j"
	"v" "V" "X" "x" "7" "i" "y" "Y". I'll use the "Y" I think, because it has the
	right angles in the right places to connect the ears to the head. :-)

	.-""-. .-""-.
	/ -.`. ____ .' _ \
	\ .' \ `" "' ,' \ /
	`-' Y Y `-'
	\| _ _ \|
	\| (O)(O) \|
	/ __ \
	\| / \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.' hjw


	Last stage is to add the little details, and tidy up any messy or unclear bits.
	I don't like that left ear at the minute, so I'll, change that. But in the
	final version that goes on the web site I might decide to change it back. ;-)
	Have a last check to make sure he actually looks like the picture I've been
	working on, ask Robbie my fiance if he can tell what it is. If the Robbie test
	succeeds, then I hit the save button, and start looking for something else to
	draw. :-)

	.-""-. .-""-.
	/ ,.`. ____ .' _ \
	\ / \ `" "' ,' \ /
	`-' Y Y `-'
	\| _ _ \|
	\| (O)(O) \|
	/ __ \ [wallgromsm]
	\| /# \ \|
	\| \__/ \|
	\ /
	`.____.'
	--" "-- hjw


	These are only the basics. There are other techniques such as shading, making
	solid style ascii, anti-aliasing (making solid style ascii look smoother). But
	I don't use those much so I'm not qualified to explain them. But this info
	should be enough to get you started. :-)

	If all else fails, you can always have a look at some of the other ascii art
	tutorials and hints available. There are about 7 that I know of, but the
	following three are the ones that I found useful and not too technical:

	Daniel Au's
	Rowan Crawford's
	Joan Stark's

	━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_haavisto.txt
	https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/Maija_Haavisto.html

	This tutorial is written by Maija Haavisto (old homepage, and another homepage)

	DiamonDie's ASCII art tutorial

	Table of contents

	1 Introduction
	2 Types of ASCII art
	2.1 Lineart
	2.2 Solid
	2.3 Grayscale
	2.4 Camelized
	2.5 Others
	3 Drawing ASCII art
	3.1 Starting out
	3.2 Lineart
	3.3 Solid art
	3.4 Grayscale
	3.5 Antialiasing
	3.6 Tracing
	3.7 Aspect ratio
	3.8 Difficulties and limitations
	3.9 Perspective, 3D and isometric ASCII
	3.10 Textures and materials
	3.11 Lighting and shadow
	3.12 Uses for different characters
	4 Fixed-width fonts
	4.1 Courier New
	4.2 DOS font
	4.3 Topaz New
	4.4 Lucida Console
	4.5 Fixedsys
	4.6 Arial Alternative
	4.7 MS Gothic
	4.8 Andale Mono (aka Monotype.com)
	5 ASCII art software
	5.1 JavE
	5.2 FIGlet
	5.3 TheDraw/Aciddraw
	5.4 Acidview
	5.5 PabloDraw
	6 Other stuff
	6.1 ASCII map
	6.2 Displaying ASCII art on web pages
	6.3 Coloring ASCII art
	6.4 Demoscene ASCII art
	6.5 ASCII art culture and etiquette

	1 Introduction

	ASCII is an acronym of "American Standard Code for Information Interchange".
	ASCII art means art made out of different characters in the ASCII map and can
	thus be represented in plain text format. It cannot include extended characters
	or text formatting such as bold or italics. ASCII art is always done on a
	fixed-width font like Courier New or Fixedsys, never on a proportional font
	like Arial or Times New Roman. It can be made in Notepad or MS-DOS Edit, but
	there are also some specific programs for making ASCII art. And no, I'm not
	talking about ASCII converters.

	People often comment on ASCII art by saying "Wow, that is so amazing, I'd never
	have the patience to make something like that". I don't get it. Why do they
	think ASCII art requires so much patience? I can make a decent fullscreen ASCII
	in an hour (even if it sometimes takes ten hours). It takes me at least fifteen
	hours to draw a decent fullscreen CG picture.

	ASCII art isn't easy and it does require skill, but you don't have to care
	about things like brush strokes or colors and usually not about shading either.
	In a way it is a lot like pixel art. When I started pixeling it felt very
	familiar due to my ASCII and ANSI experience. Pixel artists will probably
	experience a similar reaction when they start drawing ASCII. You don't have to
	have great drawing skills to be a good ASCII artist. I, for instance, suck at
	drawing, I can paint but I can't do the sketch like thing at all. ASCII
	sketching is practically something non-existant, but if this interests you,
	nothing stops you from trying this new style.

	Some people wonder what's the point. What's the point in making art in general?
	I think limitations are what makes art interesting and feeds the creative mind.
	ASCII art probably isn't something that you encounter in an art museum (which
	is regrettable), it's more like everyday art. I guess it has something in
	common with pop art. ASCII art can be sent via email or to Usenet newsgroups,
	it can be used on IRC and many chatrooms (do that with caution, though). You
	can include ASCII art in your signature or login screen or print it out with
	your old matrix printer. It can be used for representing game situations,
	graphs or molecular models.

	I've heard opinions of ASCII art not being art but graphical design, but I
	disagree with that. Design is usually considered to be something functional,
	such as advertisements or interfaces, while visual art is something you can
	hang on your walls. ASCII art usually isn't functional but aesthetical. I know
	people who have ASCII pictures hanging on their walls.

	There are other ASCII tutorials, but I decided there's still room for another
	one. Many of the others are outdated, some are even more than 10 years old.
	They also feature slightly different techniques and lack some of the parts that
	my tutorial focuses on. This turned out perhaps more like a ASCII drawing/
	culture FAQ than an actual tutorial, but I hope it will still be useful.

	2 Types of ASCII art

	2.1 Lineart

	Lineart is just what its name implies, things are represented with (usually
	thin) outlines, sometimes dotty, sometimes consisting mostly of slashes,
	underscores and pipes. Lineart also includes most FIGlet fonts and demoscene
	logos. Suitable for both huge images and tiny pictures.


	.-"""-.
	' \
	\|,. ,-. \|
	\|()L( ()\| \|
	\|,' `".\| \|
	\|.___.',\| `
	.j `--"' ` `.
	/ ' ' \
	/ / ` `.
	/ / ` .
	/ / l \|
	. , \| \|
	,"`. .\| \|
	_.' ``. \| `..-'l
	\| `.`, \| `.
	\| `. __.j )
	\|__ \|--""___\| ,-'
	`"--...,+"""" `._,.-' mh

	Penguin by DiamonDie (2002?)

	2.2 Solid

	Solid art is the "opposite" of lineart, it's not outlined but filled and
	flat-shaded. It's often best fit on mid-sized and large pictures, though it can
	also work for small pieces, such as the heart here. Often it looks better than
	lineart, simply for the fact that it's not as "thin". Solid art is often used
	for logos, ornament designs and text, but it fits almost any kind of subject.
	It's not very well suited for faces though.


	,o8o, ,o8o,
	,888888,888888,
	888888888888888
	888888888888888
	`8888888888888'
	`888888888'
	`88888'
	`8'

	Heart by DiamonDie (1997)

	2.3 Grayscale

	Grayscale is like solid art, but it consists of many different characters that
	are used to portrays lighter and darker areas, making it the most suitable kind
	of ASCII for picturing faces. It is usually best viewed white on black, such as
	the example below (people using most graphical browsers can select it with a
	mouse or press Ctrl-A to see it in inverse color). Most converters create
	grayscale art, though rather messy kind with often no antialiasing. Grayscale
	could be considered the most difficult of all ASCII techniques.


	.,,,yyyy@@yyyyy,,,
	,ytS$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC?III;,.
	.yt$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIII;.
	,4$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC?IIIII;
	y$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII,
	,$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII:
	l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIi
	t$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCIIII:
	.l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII, i
	d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIII. ;I,
	$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIII .III
	j$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIi.II;
	]$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P"' `"^?CCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIII
	l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P"'' .,.. `;?CCCCCCC?IIIIIIIIII; .y%*
	l$$$$$$$$$$$$SP" ,yS$$$$$$Shy..`"IICCCCCCII: :: 4C7; \
	$$$$$$$$$$$SP. .;;$$$SCCCCCSSCCCCSb: ICCCCCCCII; '' liC$ClCC;;l
	$$$$$$$$$$$$I::lIIIICCSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCIICCCCCCCI ICCC$lCC??;b
	P"^^^48$$$$$$SSIII' `Ii : y,"ICCCS$SCCCCCCCCCCI ICl"l "7SSbl.
	: l$$8888II66 ,?$b,yySIIICC$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCI ?CCb l JCC$il
	: . ,$$$$$$CCCC$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI ICS$li$$SCC?l
	`SS",+.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI !?S$ ;I$$SCCP
	"' : S$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI ICSCS$$$$$I
	;:6$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI `?C$$$$P
	`$$$$$$$$$$S$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI `""""'
	j$$$$$$$$$SCCS$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCI
	$$$$$$$$$$$$$CI$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCI;
	j$$$$$$$$$$SS$CI$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCIi
	7$$$$T7"`,yyiIIC$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSSSCCCC?i
	"4$SC**7"""-:47$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSSSCCCCCI
	7I . ,';' ";7ICS$$$$$$$$$C$S$$$$$CCCCl
	: jy.,jyyjCCCCi ..i."7C$$$$$$C$CS$S$$$SCCC?' ;
	: d$$$$CCC7?"""""?7CiiCS$$$$SCCCC$S$$$$CCCC; i,
	.CC,]CCSSSCCSCCCIiIiICS$$$SSCCCCS$$$$SCC? .\|
	:`j$$$$$$$$SCCCC$$$CICS$$SCCCCCCCC$CC?; iI.
	:l$$$$$$$CCCCCS$$$$C?iCCCCCCCCC7"'., .iII,
	:C?"~~ ,CCC$$$IiIiCCCCCCC? ' ,IIIII
	:$7 ,_,jS$$$$CIiIi?iCCC?? iI?CCCII
	.; :;i:;;?S???iiIiIi?i' iII?CCCCCII.
	; ';' ?lCi??i;i;; iI?CCCCCCCCIIi
	: ;? ;I" iIIICCSCCCCCCCCIIl
	; .,iiI?CCCC$$$$$SSCCCCCCIi I, II;
	'. _,. ,i,IIII?CCCCCS$$$$$$SSSCCCCIIIIIIIII'
	' ~ + =- - ' ~ ` SCCIIIIII???CCCCS$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCC?I"
	l$$CCCCCCCCCCCCS$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCC"`

	It Figures by `nemoorange

	2.4 Camelized

	Camelized ASCII art isn't very popular, even though it already appeared in the
	book Alice in Wonderland. It is usually poetry (sometimes prose) made into the
	shape of an object, often an animal. There are a couple of different techniques
	for making the shapes. Some people use extra spacing to achieve lines of
	required length, others wrap words from the middle or use extra characters.
	JavE has a feature for camelized ASCII.

	2.5 Others

	There are variations of the previously listed styles, such as combination of
	solid and lineart (my favorite type of ASCII), "solid lineart" (made out of
	heavy outlines in solid style) and tiny ASCII, such as smileys and other very
	small pictures. ASCII animations are made for terminals or nowadays usually in
	JavaScript, they can be made in any of these styles, but are usually in
	lineart. There are also ASCII stereograms and many other wicked things. Some
	people list lettering, signature art, illustrated stories and 3D as their own
	genres, but they're usually just variations of line art (sometimes solid or
	grayscale).

	Things that can be erroneously believed to be ASCII art include Shift_JIS art
	(text art using Japanese characters), typographic pictures, AOL macros (made in
	Arial font and often including extended characters), ANSI and most of demoscene
	"ASCII art". Another thing that definitely isn't ASCII art is those horrid HTML
	conversions that are usually composed of 1s and 0s and would have absolutely no
	shape with the color removed. These are sometimes called "text art" or
	"character art", even though both terms can be considered slightly misleading.
	I don't believe using a converter without any editing is really creating ASCII
	art. It's image manipulation.

	People sometimes confuse ASCII and ANSI and call either of them "ANSII". What
	ANSI really is could be described as an extension to ASCII, allowing the use of
	extended MS-DOS characters (such as so called "raster blocks") and 16 colors.
	It was commonly used in the BBS (Bulletin Board system) world, but many people
	still keep drawing ANSI pictures, even though MS-DOS is hardly used any more
	and the Internet has largely killed off BBSes.

	3. Drawing ASCII art

	3.1 Starting out

	Start up JavE or your favorite text editor. Think about what you want to draw
	and what could be a good subject for your first ASCII. Try not to pick anything
	too difficult, such as celebrities. Many people choose a house as their first
	picture, but I think it's a little boring subject. Others attempt a face, but
	that's much harder. Animals, plants and household objects often turn out to be
	a good choice. You can either draw a single object or a scene, like a house, a
	tree and some birds.

	A reference picture may be helpful. You could also use a technique called
	tracing which is explained later. Looking at other people's ASCIIs is just as
	important as drawing your own, because you'll learn a lot of different
	techniques just by looking at ASCII art. How do people achieve slanted lines,
	how do they make fur look like fur and what's the secret of smooth curves?

	Also remember the rules of normal art, like that eyes are located in the middle
	of the head, not on the top. People are about 7-8 heads tall, unless you're
	drawing a comic character. Houses usually aren't placed on top of the ground,
	but on the ground. Perspective really improves pictures of cubic objects. A
	house or a box without a perspective is pretty much just a rectangle, not very
	interesting.

	3.2 Lineart

	Lineart is a good choice for an ASCII beginner. It might be a good idea to do a
	rough "sketch" first. Draw the outline of your object and see if it bears any
	resemblance to your model. Try to avoid using only straight lines and slashes,
	that makes your picture look dull and awkward. Instead try commas, periods,
	hyphens and apostrophes. It might be a good idea to sketch with periods first
	and then change some of them to colons or semicolons, some to apostrophes and
	then extend that.

	Forget about shading, reflections and stuff like that. Try using as many
	different characters as you can without getting silly results. You can get more
	detail with lineart than with solid technique, but you still might have to give
	up some for a better result. If you're drawing a face, you don't have to draw
	every single wrinkle and you might skip the eyelashes too.

	3.3 Solid art

	Not many people start out with solid ASCII, but nothing says you can't do that.
	Filled pictures are no harder to make than outlined ones, it just doesn't fit
	for houses and faces very well. It's usually a good idea not to use outlines
	with solid art. Some people use a different character for every area of the
	picture, but I think it's better to stick with one or a few filler characters.
	Antialiasing is very important in solid art.

	3.4 Grayscale

	Grayscale ASCII is difficult to draw, not recommended for beginners, even
	though I know people who have started off with it with fine results. You need a
	good eye for light and shadow and a good reference photo is a must, you may
	want to increase the contrast of it. Picking the right set of characters is
	crucial, remember that the "lightness" of some characters varies greatly
	between fonts. Take a look at existing grayscale ASCII art or even converted
	pictures to get inspiration for good character sets. Don't start out too small,
	80x25 is probably the minimum you want to attempt and 80x50 is better.

	3.5 Antialiasing

	Antialiasing doesn't really apply for lineart the same way it applies for solid
	and grayscale, but I think smooth edges are one of the most important things in
	a solid ASCII picture (unless you're aiming for a different impression). Often
	grayscale is drawn without any empty spaces in the picture, but sometimes
	without a background and that's when you really need antialiasing.

	Simple antialiasing is actually very easy to do and can often be achieved with
	periods/commas and apostrophes/accents/quotation marks alone. Just add these
	when there's a rough corner and it looks much better. Sometimes you may want to
	use more characters. I use d, b and n (sometimes m) for the upper parts of
	objects and + for lower parts, the plus doesn't look too good, but it's the
	best I've found. q and p can be used to match d and b, but they hang lower. P
	is better, but it has no equivalent for the left side. Demoscene artists often
	use a wider variety of antialiasing characters, such as 7, 4, \, / and %.


	88888
	88888888888
	8888888888888
	8888888888888
	8888888888888
	88888888888
	88888

	A filled circle without antialiasing

	.nd888bn.
	.d888888888b.
	8888888888888
	8888888888888
	8888888888888
	`+888888888+'
	`"+888+"'

	The same circle with antialiasing

	3.6 Tracing

	In the ancient times, people sometimes drew/copied the picture on a
	transparency first, which they taped on the screen to be able to trace the
	image as well as possible. I used this technique once, when I needed to make an
	ASCII out of a map and first I traced the picture from a book, but I didn't
	have a transparency so I used a plastic bag, perhaps needless to say the
	results weren't excellent.

	When Netscape Composer came out, some people figured out that they could just
	set the image file as the page background and draw over it. Now we have JavE,
	which has a particular function just for this, you can set the display size and
	aspect ratio of the image file and apply some brightness/contrast tweaks.

	3.7 Aspect ratio

	Aspect ratio is something to pay attention to, particularly because of the
	differences between the fonts. Practically all fonts are taller than they're
	wide, so a picture of 10 lines and 10 columns probably won't look rectangular.
	Fixed-width fonts in general are of roughly the same width, but Topaz New is
	considerably more narrow, while Courier and its descendants are very fat. Most
	people have their web browsers set to use Courier, so some pictures may look
	unneededly fat, but this is partly unavoidable. Just pay attention to this if
	you're drawing ASCII for a particular purpose or if you're using Courier or
	Topaz to draw. One way to solve this is not to draw pictures that are supposed
	to be exactly circular or square and a different angle can help too. One of my
	ASCII pictures looks just fine in both 80x25 and 80x50 fullscreen resolutions,
	even though the 80x50 font is twice as wide.

	3.8 Difficulties and limitations

	Some things are very hard to do in ASCII, some of these are obvious and some
	not so obvious. Slanted, almost vertical lines are very hard and usually end up
	looking stupid, so it's a good idea to avoid them whenever possible. Completely
	straight vertical lines are often better. The same problem doesn't apply for
	slanted horizontal lines at all, those are very easy to do once you learn to
	use different characters correctly.

	Things with a high resolution/detail are also hard, things like small spirals.
	That's why you sometimes need to drop the detail (or draw the picture in a
	bigger resolution). You also can't properly represent blurriness or softness,
	or at least that's extremely difficult. You can do some optical illusions in
	ASCII, such as stereograms. Magic eye pictures are probably not possible,
	excluding very high resolutions.

	3.9 Perspective, 3D and isometric ASCII

	Some ASCII pictures feature a perspective, but it's often a very simple one and
	limited to lines. In a way, a lot of ASCII art could be called naivistic. Even
	a simple perspective improves the picture, though. A good way for creating a
	perspective is drawing the lines so that they would continue to this imaginary
	perspective point, which can be located in the middle of the picture or
	elsewhere. Isometric ASCII art exists too. JavE has a feature that can render
	3D shapes in ASCII art, as wireframes or with a simple lighting.

	.:.
	.::'.
	: : : '.
	.' : : '.
	.' : : '.
	: : : '.
	.: : : :
	.' : : '.
	.' : : :
	: : : '.
	.' : : '.
	.' : ...:. '.
	: ......::''''' '''... '.
	':'' : '''... '.
	'. : ''':.
	'. : ...'''
	'. : ...'''
	'. : ...''''
	'. : ...'''
	':.'''

	A wireframe pyramid by JavE

	4.0 Textures and materials

	Textures and materials aren't commonly seen in ASCII art, if you don't count
	brick walls and hair. Plastic, metal, wood and skin all look alike in ASCII.
	Hairy and spiky textures can be done and often artists use different kinds of
	characters for different areas, like dots for clouds and lines for more solid
	objects. Experimenting with textures can lead to interesting results.

	4.1 Lighting and shadow

	Light isn't usually present in ASCII pictures, with the exception of grayscale.
	Reflections sometimes work, but normal shadows often end up looking clumsy.
	Some artists use slight shading in their line art, usually with periods and
	colons. It might a good idea to forget about highlights when drawing eyes (and
	perhaps hair too). Just pretend that the ASCII world lives in ambient lighting
	without separate light sources.

	4.2 Uses for different characters

	! used sometimes in lineart and solid style, but the character is very thin
	in some fonts and fat in some others
	> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
	# used sometimes as the filler character in solid style, not often used in
	lineart except for tiny images
	$ a common filler character (especially in demoscene art) and common in
	grayscale as well, but the brightness of this characters varies in different
	fonts
	% I've seen it used as a filler too, but the looks it vary a lot as well,
	especially between DOS and Windows
	& not commonly used due to its problematic shape
	' used for all styles, the only problem is that sometimes it is a tiny
	straight line, sometimes more like a little slash
	( used for lineart, sometimes solid style too, the plumpiness varies a bit
	) -"-
	* used in line art and solid, but be wary as the size and placement of this
	character varies a lot, so it's usually not a good filler
	+ not so common in line art, but I love using it in solid art because it's
	the only mid-sized character that doesn't reach to the bottom of the line
	, used in all styles, sometimes located higher than the period, sometimes
	not
	- used in most styles, has no problems associated with it
	. used in all styles
	/ used mostly in lineart, the slantedness varies (especially between DOS and
	Windows)
	0 not commonly used, the problem is that sometimes it's struck through,
	sometimes not, O is better
	1 not commonly used
	2 not commonly used
	3 not commonly used
	4 not commonly used
	5 not commonly used
	6 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little
	eyes
	7 useful for some shapes of lineart, sometimes solid style too
	8 a great filler for solid style, not much used in lineart
	9 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little
	eyes
	: useful for lineart and the edges of solid style
	; useful for lineart and the edges of solid style
	< sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
	= sometimes used for lines
	> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies
	? mostly used in lineart
	@ useful as a solid filler and often for lineart too, especially the eyes.
	Shape varies, but usually that doesn't cause problems
	A useful for angular shapes, sometimes has serif though
	B not commonly used, sometimes seen as a solid filler
	C useful for lineart in eyes, noses and stuff like that, sometimes seen as a
	solid filler
	D sometimes used in lineart
	E not commonly used
	F used in vertical lines in some line art styles
	G not commonly used
	H sometimes seen as a solid filler
	I sometimes used for vertical lines, but remember that it may be serif and
	thus look awkward
	J used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles
	K used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles
	L used for angles and sometimes in vertical lines
	M common solid style filler together with its lighter version N
	N common solid style filler together with M
	O usually the best choice for small round shapes, sometimes used in solid
	style
	P good for antialiasing solid style
	Q sometimes used for eyes
	R not commonly used
	S sometimes used as a solid style filler
	T sometimes used in lineart
	U sometimes used in lineart
	V used in connecting two diagonal lines, something that doesn't look too
	good in all fonts
	W common solid style filler
	X sometimes used as a solid style filler or for connecting diagonal lines
	Y used in connecting diagonal lines and in some styles also for vertical
	lines and other things
	Z not commonly used
	a sometimes used as eyes or as a solid style antialiaser
	b good for solid antialiasing (the pair is d)
	c sometimes used as eyes/noses or as a solid style antialiaser
	d a common solid style antialiaser
	e sometimes used as eyes or as a solid style antialiaser
	f sometimes used for slanted vertical lines
	g not commonly used
	h sometimes used as a solid style filler or antialiasing
	i not commonly used
	j useful for slanted vertical lines, sometimes antialiasing too
	k used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles
	l for vertical lines in lineart, sometimes solid antialiasing too
	m good for solid antialiasing
	n good for solid antialiasing
	o for lineart and solid antialiasing
	p good for solid antialiasing (the pair is q), sometimes P is better even
	though it doesn't have a symmetric pair
	r sometimes used in lineart
	s sometimes used for solid antialiasing
	t sometimes used in lineart
	u sometimes used in lineart
	v sometimes used in lineart, though might suffer from the same problem as V
	w sometimes used for solid antialiasing.
	x for connecting lines in lineart
	z not commonly used

	4 Fixed-width fonts

	ASCII art needs to be viewed on a fixed-width font. The fonts have differences,
	so even though it's not a good idea to "optimize" your picture for a particular
	font, it's completely ok to say "best viewed with a Lucida Console, preferably
	a small font size and white on black". Most of the fonts I list are free of
	cost and TrueType/OpenType, usable on eg. Windows, Linux and Macintosh. There
	are also other choices for other operating systems, commercial font faces and
	several fonts that can only be acquired with a particular piece of software.

	4.1 Courier New

	Courier New is the font that looks like a typewriter. It's very wide, which can
	sometimes cause problems. It's not particularly aesthetical either. Most people
	use it as their fixed-width font for web browsing.

	4.2 MS-DOS font

	The 80x25 DOS font is cool, especially for solid art, or maybe it's just the
	white on black. The 80x50 one is less cool.

	4.3 Topaz New

	Topaz is the font used by the operating system of the Amiga computer and Topaz
	New is a TrueType version of it. It's very narrow, but quite thick and well
	suited for ASCII art. You can download it on the Internet.

	4.4 Lucida Console

	Lucida Console was introduced in Windows 98 and is nowadays the default font in
	Notepad. It's an ordinary sans serif font, quite decent, but may have
	unpleasant effects on some pictures (especially grayscale).

	4.5 Fixedsys

	Fixedsys is a nice sans serif font that used to be the default for Notepad.
	Many people use it as their ASCII viewing font and it definitely isn't bad for
	that. Fixedsys is a bitmap font so some Windows programs might not allow you
	use it.

	4.6 Arial Alternative

	Arial Alternative looks like Courier bred with Arial, resulting in a wide,
	relatively thick sans serif font, not exactly my cup of tea.

	4.7 MS Gothic

	MS Gothic has nothing to do with slitting wrists, it's actually meant for
	displaying Japanese. It is sans serif and looks quite ok, but I'm not sure if
	it's worth getting and installing just for ASCII art, as the file size is a
	whopping four megabytes.

	4.8 Andale Mono (aka Monotype.com)

	Andale Mono is actually a commercial font, but it was apparently bundled with
	some versions of Internet Explorer. This is a fixed-width font that actually
	looks stylish, even though it might not be the best one for viewing ASCII art.

	5 ASCII art software

	5.1 JavE

	Jave is the Photoshop of the ASCII world, but unlike Photoshop, it's free
	software. It's also multiplatform because it runs on Java, so you need to
	download the Java runtimes to get it to work. JavE offers many kinds of
	painting modes, gradients, textures and brushes. Naturally it also gives you
	the ability to copy and paste rectangles, flip and mirror pictures and. JavE
	also contains a a watermark option, a picture to ASCII converter, camelizer, an
	ASCII 3D modeller, FIGlet and many other features. You can even make ASCII
	animations with it.

	5.2 FIGlet

	FIGlet is a derivative of the Unix program "banner" which was meant for the
	automated creation of crude ASCII art text logos. There are hundreds of
	different FIGlet fonts available, from handwriting to 3D letters. FIGlet files
	are plain text with some special markup for the program, so they're quite easy
	to make. You can also use JavE for creating FIGlet fonts.


	88888888b oo dP dP
	88 88 88
	a88aaaa dP .d8888b. 88 .d8888b. d8888P
	88 88 88' `88 88 88ooood8 88
	88 88 88. .88 88 88. ... 88
	dP dP `8888P88 dP `88888P' dP
	.88
	d8888P

	___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
	/\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\__\ /\ \ /\ \
	/::\ \ _\:\ \ /::\ \ /:/ / /::\ \ \:\ \
	/::\:\__\ /\/::\__\ /:/\:\__\ /:/__/ /::\:\__\ /::\__\
	\/\:\/__/ \::/\/__/ \:\:\/__/ \:\ \ \:\:\/ / /:/\/__/
	\/__/ \:\__\ \::/ / \:\__\ \:\/ / \/__/
	\/__/ \/__/ \/__/ \/__/

	Some examples of FIGlet fonts

	5.3 TheDraw/ACiDDraw

	TheDraw is an MS-DOS based application meant for drawing ASCII and ANSI,
	originating from the mid-80s. It can be operated with a mouse, but the menus
	and commands are executed with the keyboard. It's fairly easy to use once you
	learn it and you probably won't forget them any time soon. It also features a
	VGA mode where you can zoom out your picture.

	ACiDDraw is an improved version by TheDraw made by the legendary artgroup ACiD.
	I drew ASCII and ANSI with it for years and occasionally still do. Some
	computers have problems with running ACiDDraw, which can cause runtime errors
	or freezing of the program. In Windows tweaking the settings of the program
	often help.

	5.4 ACiDView

	ACiDView is a freeware Windows program, also by ACiD. It's used for viewing
	ASCII and ANSI files in several resolutions and can also save them as PNG,
	which comes in handy. There are no drawing functions.

	5.5 PabloDraw

	PabloDraw is another popular ANSI/ASCII editor for MS-DOS Windows, somewhat
	similar to ACiDDraw. I personally have no experience using it, but PabloDraw's
	support for multiuser drawing on the Internet is definitely an interesting
	feature. There's also a viewer companion to it, known as PabloView.

	6 Other stuff

	6.1 ASCII map

	032 [space] 048 0 064 @ 080 P 096 ` 112 p
	033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q
	034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r
	035 # 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 c 115 s
	036 $ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t
	037 % 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u
	038 & 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v
	039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w
	040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x
	041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y
	042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z
	043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 [ 107 k 123 {
	044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 \|
	045 - 061 = 077 M 093 ] 109 m 125 }

	6.2 Displaying ASCII art on web pages

	If you want to showcase ASCII art on your web page, you can just save the
	images as text files and link to them. The problem with this is that if you
	draw loads of small pictures, you will have hundreds of files as well. Some
	older versions of Internet Explorer (and possibly some other browsers) might
	show your art in proportional font.

	When embedding your art into HTML pages, always remember the <pre> tags, which
	tell the browser that the text is already formatted and should be displayed in
	a fixed-width font. You can use CSS to determine the particular font, provided
	that the viewer has it.

	6.3 Coloring ASCII art

	With HTML you can also color your ASCII pictures, but this is a tedious job to
	do by hand and you can use an HTML editor for it.

	Other ways for coloring ASCII art include ANSI colors and mIRC colors. Both of
	these contain 16 foreground colors. MIRC also has as many background colors,
	while ANSI only offers 8. ANSI can be viewed in DOS or the DOS prompt of
	Windows if you have a driver called ansi.sys loaded. Alternatively you can use
	an ANSI viewer like ACiDView or save the pictures as GIF/PNG.

	MIRC colors can only be used on IRC and not all clients support them - and some
	networks have a channel mode that forbids you from using colors. Some IRC
	clients (including mIRC) also support ANSI color, but you may have to turn on
	that option first.

	6.4 Demoscene ASCII art

	Demoscene is an underground culture based mostly on demos, which are multimedia
	presentations a lot like animations, but calculated in real time. They evolved
	from cracktros (tiny applications included with cracked software) which had
	mostly scrollers and some background music. Nowadays demos often look like
	music videos or professional 3D animations. Demoscene is also much more than
	that, including national and international gatherings, demoparties.

	Like the infofiles of pirated software, demoscene productions (demos and
	intros) often have an ASCII logo in their infofile. Generally they're either so
	called "oldskool" ASCII or "block ASCII". Oldskool ASCII consists of logos made
	mostly out of slashes, pipes, hyphens and underscores. The logos appear very
	similar in style and hard to read for many people. They may look very easy to
	draw, but are more difficult than they seem.

	.
	_ ____:____
	__ _ \| (_ _ __
	_\ ___ __ ___ \| / ___ aBHO ____ /_
	/ _(___ _/ /__ _/__/__ \| _ /_/__/__ __/ _ (_
	__ ___/ \ (_/ / \_/ _) (_\| /// _) (_/ l/ _/_ ___
	\ \_ _/ / _/ ` _/ / ` _/ ___\ / /
	\ /________\ ______\ ______\ _/_________\ / /_____\ /
	<--\/----------\/-------\/-------\/-----------\/---------\/-->

	Clever by aBHO

	Some oldskool ASCIIs are made on the Amiga and contain extended characters,
	they're known as Amiga ASCII (compared to PC ASCII) "Block ASCII" is not
	technically ASCII at all, as it utilizes extended characters, "raster blocks",
	as does ANSI art. There's another type of demoscene ASCII, known as "newskool
	ASCII". It's practically a solid style, often used in graffiti-like logos and
	usually uses extended DOS characters.

	Besides info files, demoscene ASCII can also appear elsewhere. Some demoparties
	have ASCII and ANSI competitions and there are ASCII logo compos held on some
	IRC channels regularly. ASCII pictures are also released in "collies"
	(collections) and artpacks. A colly is usually just a text file with lot of
	logos by the same artist. An artpack is usually released by an artgroup and can
	have ASCII, ANSI, Ripscript and hires pictures.

	6.5 ASCII art culture and etiquette

	The people who belong in the demoscene related art scene often regard their
	scene as the "real" ASCII scene, though it's much newer and much less popular
	than the mainstream ASCII scene. The alt.ascii-art Usenet newsgroup has existed
	for a long time and is still rather active for posting ASCII pictures and
	requesting them. There are other newsgroups, but they receive hardly any
	traffic.

	Usually people sign their ASCII pictures with their initials or with a short
	nickname. You're usually free to use ASCII art for non-commercial purposes as
	long as you keep those initials - it's the artist's signature. In
	alt.ascii-art, people often diddle each other's pictures. That means altering
	the picture slightly so that it looks better - or like something totally
	different. Usually that means including initials from every person who has
	participated in the picture.

	There's a certain individual in the newsgroup that makes "ASCII art farts" of
	other people's images - he has done that every day for several years. Don't be
	too offended if Tran takes a picture of yours and adds a lame joke to it.

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_oglesbee.txt
	http://www.ascii-art.de/info/tut_jro.txt

	So, You Want To Make Text Art?

	___ _ _ _ _ _
	/ _`\ ( ) ( ) ( ) _ ( ) ( )_
	\| (_ (_) _ \`\_/'/__ _ _ \| \| ( ) \| \| _ _ ___ \| ,_)
	`\__ \ /'_`\ `\ /' _ \( ) ( ) \| \| \| \| \| \|/'_` )' _ `\ \|
	(~)_) ( (_) )_ \| ( (_) ) (_) \| \| (_/ \_) ( (_\| \| ( ) \| \|_
	\____)\___/( ) (_)\___/ \___/ `\__/^\__/'\__,_\|_)_(_)\__)
	)/
	_____ _
	(_ _) /'\_/`\ (_)
	\| \| _ \| \| _ _\| \|/') __
	\| \|/'_`\ \| /V\ \|/'_" ) , < /'__`\
	\| ( (_) ) \| \| \| ( (_\| \| \|\`\( ___/
	(_)\___/ (_) (_)\__,_\|_) (_)\____)
	_____ _ _____ _ ___
	(_ _) (_)_ ( _ ) (_)_ /__ \
	\| \| __ \| ,_) ___ \| (_) \|_ __\| ,_\|(_) ) \|
	\| \|/'__`(`\/') \| (___)\| _ ( "__) \| / /
	\| ( ___/> <\| \|_ \| \| \| \| \| \| \|_ \|_\|
	(_)\____\|_/\_)\__) (_) (_\|_) `\__) (_)...

	...That's NO problem, believe me. If you can't paint like
	Remington, Picasso, or Chester Scott, or sketch a square circle with a
	pencil, or even smear "wash me" on a dirty windshield with your
	finger, then text art is for you! Truth is, just about anybody can
	make a text picutre; so don't say that you CAN'T. You can. It's easy!
	It really is. It doesn't take a lot of practice, and it doesn't take a
	lot of "artistic ability". I can have you making your own, unique
	text-art, in no time at all.

	Hi, I'm Jonathon R. Oglesbee, and I'll show you some of the simple
	"mysteries" of text-art. Just don't call me an "artist". I'm not. At
	best, I have been a hack cartoonist in the past... among other
	things. I make cartoons in ascii (pronounced ask-ee... or better yet,
	ass-key) for fun. I started doing it as a lark, but so many people
	took an interest, that the response I recieved left me
	speechless. I've stuck with it, in present-day computer form, for a
	few long, lineal, loafing, lolly- gagging years - (words with an "L",
	this time), and derived many hours of entertainment from cartooning
	gags, using nothing but text-art. I'm not an are-teest. But maybe you
	WILL be. So, if you are still interested, read on.
	____________________________________________________
	\|____________________________________________________\|
	\| __ __ ____ ___ \|\| ____ ____ _ __ \|
	\|\| \|__ \|--\|_\| \|\| \|_\| \|\|\|_\|*\|\|__\|+\|+\|\|___\| \|\| \| \|
	\|\|==\|^^\|\|--\| \|=\|\|=\| \|=*=\|\|\| \|~~\|~\| \|=\|=\|\| \| \|~\|\|==\| \|
	\|\| \|##\|\| \| \| \|\| \| \|JRO\|\|\|-\| \| \|==\|+\|+\|\|-\|-\|~\|\|__\| \|
	\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|_\|_\|\|_\|_\|___\|\|\|_\|__\|_\|__\|_\|_\|\|_\|_\|_\|\|__\|_\|
	\|\|_______________________\|\|__________________________\|
	\| _____________________ \|\| __ __ _ __ _ \|
	\|\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\|=\| __..\/ \| \|_\| \|\|#\|\|==\| / /\|
	\|\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|/\ \ \\\|++\|=\| \|\| \|\|==\| / / \|
	\|\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_/_/\_.___\__\|_\|__\|\|_\|\|__\|/_/__\|
	\|____________________ /\~()/()~//\ __________________\|
	\| __ __ _ _ \_ (_ . _/ _ _ _____\|
	\|\|~~\|_\|..\|__\| \|\| \|_ _ \ //\\ / \|=\|_ /) \|___\| \| \| \|
	\|\|--\|+\|^^\|==\|1\|\|2\| \| \|__/\ __ /\__\| \|(\/((\ +\|+\|=\|=\|=\|
	\|\|__\|_\|__\|__\|_\|\|_\|_\| / \ \ / / \_\|_\___/\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|
	\|_________________ _/ \/\/\/ \_ / /__________\|
	\| _____ _ __ \|/ \../ \/ / __ ___\|
	\|\|_____\|_\| \|_\|##\|_\|\| \| \/ __\ /=\|_\|++\|_\|-\|\|\|
	\|\|______\|\|=\|#\|--\| \|\ \ o \_____/ \|~\| \| \| \|\|\|
	\|\|______\|\|_\|_\|__\|_\|_\ \ o \| \|_\|_\|__\|_\|__\|_\|_\|\|\|
	\|_________ __________\___\_______\|____________ ______\|
	\|__ _ / ________ ______ /\| _ _ _\|
	\|\ \ \|=\|/ // /\| // / / / \| / \|\|%\|%\|%\|
	\| \/\ \|*/ //____// // /__/__/ (_) / \|\|=\|=\|=\|
	__\| \/\\|/ /(____\|/ // / /\|\|~\|~\|~\|__
	\|___\_/ /________// ________ / / \|\|_\|_\|_\|
	\|___ / (\|________/ \|\_______\ / /\| \|______\|
	/ \\|________) / / \| \|

	First, you need to get ready. For that, you are going to need very
	little. Since you're probably reading this on-line, we will assume
	that you have a computer, with a keyboard at your disposal, and so we
	can dispense with the typewriter lesson (re- member typewriters?).
	Besides a keyboard, you will also need a monitor, and a simple
	text-editing program or word-processor. The simpler, the better. I
	generally use Windows Notepad, myself. If you are using something
	else, then I'd best mention a word or two about fonts.

	"Fonts" are your character, or letter sets. You will need to
	"select" a font that will work well to make your text pictures with. A
	mono-spaced font is really the only thing to use. Fixedsys, Courier
	New, Topaz New, Lucinda Console - these are all mono-spaced
	fonts. That means that each character takes up the same amount of
	space. A font such as Garamond, Arial, or just plain Courier
	doesn't. If you make a picture using that kind of font, then it will
	appear skewed on any system that isn't displaying the same font you
	used to make the picture. If you use a mono-spaced font, you won't
	have these kinds of problems. So, if you are going to use a
	text-editor that allows you to pick your font, pick one that will
	work! If you're using something like Windows Notepad, it likely
	already uses a mono-spaced font, and you won't have to worry about
	this.

	That's the main thing you need to know about fonts, but I better
	mention one other tip you'll need to know. That's about which letters
	and numbers are the good ones to use, for making ascii text-art. It's
	best to just stick to those characters you probably see, right there
	on the keys of your keyboard. There are some other interesting
	characters, often called "alt" or "extended" characters, which are
	usually made by holding down the "alt" key and typing in a
	number. There are some really neat ones, but it's best if you steer
	away from those things.

	Now we'll begin, with a simple, step-by-step tutorial of how to
	make a castle. Maybe you have seen some neat text pictures of castles
	or buildings, and been impressed by them. Well, let's just see about
	that...

	\| and _ <---- those are two useless-looking characters on
	your keyboard, aren't they?

	Here's a thing or two you can do with them. Let's make some of those
	bottom-line things, three spaces apart...

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	<---- they just don't look like
	much, do they?

	Well, let's make some \|'s, with _'s between every other one...

	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| <----- looks kind of like... nothing,
	huh?

	Now, let's put the two separate lines together, like this....

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \| <--- it looks a little like a
	parapet.

	Next, let's continue with the \|'s and _'s, on the third line, but
	let's add an extra _ between our \|'s. One \| and then two _'s, over
	and over...

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| <--- it IS starting to look like
	something... just a little
	bit.

	Continue this, but offset the \|'s on at least every other line, so
	all your "blocks" aren't lined up the same. I'm certain you can see
	how I do this...

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| <---- keep going...
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| <---- and keep going...
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| <---- And now look!
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|

	You could easily keep going, until you created the Great Wall of
	China. If I were you, though, I'd stop before I made 4,000 miles of
	this. Why not just settle for a simple castle wall?

	Of course, you don't have to make your blocks just like I did mine.
	You could make them longer, shorter, twice as big, or even completely
	different, by doing some things like this:
	________
	_________ ___________________ [__]__]__]
	\|____\|____\| \| \| \| \| \| _____ _________
	_____ \|____\|____\|____\|____\| \|_\|_\|_\| {_}_}_}_}_}
	/_\_/_\

	... That's all up to you. I'm sure you've got blocks all figured
	out by now, anyway. Make your own, using whatever dimensions you
	like. Or use the same ones I have; I won't mind.

	Using nothing more than the two characters we started with, you
	should have no trouble making a basic castle wall, like this one:

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	...As you can see, that entire castle is constucted using nothing more
	than the "_" and "\|" characters. Soon, you'll be making much better
	ones than this, but I'm going to use it for demonstration purposes,
	okay?

	Can you see how I have made the door? It was really no trick. If
	you're supple- minded, you could just count over to where you want
	your doorway, and remember not to brick it in. If you're lazy, like
	me, you could just put your cursor about where you want the right edge
	of your door to be, and backspace to where you want the left edge of
	your door, and then start making it. Easy.

	That door looks a little plain, though. Still using only the same
	two characters, we'll just spruce it up a little:

	_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
	\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|_ \| _\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\|_ \|\|\| _\|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|____\|____\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	...There you go. You have now mastered the art of mediveal
	construction, using text from your keyboard.

	Next, let's see about making a little fancier castle, and put it
	into a complete picture....

	Well, here is another castle that I started for a cartoon I never
	finished. It's very similar to the one above, and since it's not
	doing anything else, I'll just use it here. Take a look:

	\|
	\|
	/^\
	/^^^\
	/^^^^^\
	/_______\
	\| ___ \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \|___\| \|
	\| \|
	_ _ _ _ \| _ _ \| _ _ _ _
	\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." ".\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|\| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|_____\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	...I never really finished this picture, as you can see. We'll take
	care of that, but first, I want you to notice that the additional
	characters I have used in this castle:

	/ \ ^ . "

	Find them on your keyboard, and get ready to use 'em.

	Now, you might think that curve above the door is simple. It is.
	It's made on two lines, like this:

	line 1 ... three periods

	line 2 ." ". a period and a quotation mark, followed by three
	spaces, and then a quotation mark and another period.

	Together, lines 1+2 look like this:
	...
	." ". ... a simple arch.

	Let's finish this picture, now...

	\|>>>>
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	_ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	All I have done here, is brick in the tower, add a midline to the
	door, and add a little flag at the top. I didn't really care for the
	"shingles" I had on the roof, so I deleted them. If you liked them,
	you can keep them in, of course.

	That "flag" looks cute, but it is really nothing except the <
	character... Oh my, my; I mean the > character, entered a few times,
	until it looks like a flag.

	Next, let's add a line to give it a little dimension, just like
	with a drawn picture on a sketchpad. We won't really need anything
	except the "_" character again....

	\|>>>>
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	_ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\|
	_________ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| _____________
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	That's much better, isn't it? But this picture still lacks an
	element or two... I think what this picture really needs, is a tree or
	two. Trees are really simple to make. We will look at two easy ones,
	made with the characters:

	/ \| \ @

	And here they are:

	@@@@@@
	/\ @@@@@@@@@
	//\\ @@@@@@@@@@
	///\\\ @@@@@@@@@
	////\\\\ @@@@@@
	/////\\\\\ \| \|
	\|\| \| \|

	Pretty simple to make an evergreen and a deciduous tree, isn't it?
	I could have made some fancier ones, but I will leave that for your
	imagination to come up with. Anyway, let's add these to the
	picture....

	\|>>>>
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	/\ _ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	//\\ \| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \| @@@@@@
	///\\\ \|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	////\\\\ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| @@@@@@@@@@
	/////\\\\\\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	___\|\|___ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| _ @@@@@@ ____
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| \| \|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| \| \|
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|
	\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|

	That still doesn't look like quite enough foliage to me, so let's
	look at some ways to make some flowers and things...

	@
	\\|/ <---- nothing new here, is there?

	%
	\\|/ <------ I didn't do anything here, except
	subtitute a percent character.

	Now, let's add 'em in quantity....

	\|>>>>
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	/\ _ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	//\\ \| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \| @@@@@@
	///\\\ \|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	////\\\\ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| @@@@@@@@@@
	/////\\\\\\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	___\|\|___ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| _ @@@@@@ ____
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| \| \|
	@ @ @ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| % \| %\| %
	\\|/\\|/\\|/\|_@\|__@__\|_@\|__\|\| \| \|\|\|__\|_%_\|_%_\|_%\| \\|/ \\|/\\|/
	@ @ @ \|\\|/_\\|/_\|\\|/__\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|_\\|/_\\|/\|\\|/ % % %
	\\|/ \\|/\\|/

	Notice that I put some of the flowers directly "in front" of our
	castle. I knew where I wanted them to go, placed the cursor there,
	backspaced, and entered the new character I wanted to use - simple. If
	it had looked misplaced, well... that's a lot easier to fix, than
	going back and erasing a "real" line on a piece of paper, or finding
	some way to incorporate a mistake into an actual painting. About the
	only "trick" you see me doing in this picture, is with the
	background. I have intentionally left out a space between the
	background line, and the castle and tree element. This preserves the
	perspective of the text picture, by keeping the background line from
	running into the foreground elements, which may confuse the eye into
	thinking they are all connected. With a text picture, this can often
	be a problem. Some text artists don't do this, because they may have
	other ways of keeping the perspective constant. Then again, some just
	forget, but don't tell them I said so.

	This picture looks almost done, but I think it needs a road up to the
	front door...

	\|>>>>
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	/\ _ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	//\\ \| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \| @@@@@@
	///\\\ \|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	////\\\\ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| @@@@@@@@@@
	/////\\\\\\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	___\|\|___ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| _ @@@@@@ ____
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| \| \|
	@ @ @ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| % \| %\| %
	\\|/\\|/\\|/\|_@\|__@__\|_@\|__\|\| \| \|\|\|__\|_%_\|_%_\|_%\| \\|/ \\|/\\|/
	@ @ @ \|\\|/_\\|/_\|\\|/__\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|_\\|/_\\|/\|\\|/ % % %
	\\|/\\|/\\|/ .' '. \\|/ \\|/\\|/
	.' '.
	.' '.
	.' '.

	...Nothing more than periods and appostrophes were used to make that
	road, by using an ever-widening space between them on the following
	lines. Hey, how about a cloud or two?...

	________
	_( ( __ )_
	__( __ ) __)
	(____ ( _)
	(_____)

	Parenthesis and the bottom-line character make good, easy clouds.
	Let's put some in the picture...

	________ __
	_( ( __ )_ _(( )_
	__( __ ) __) __( ) )
	(____ ( _) (_ ( _ __ )_
	(_____) _( __ __)
	(__(_ ( _)
	\|>>>> (___)
	\|
	/ \
	/ \
	/ \
	/_______\
	\|__\|_\|__\|
	\|_\| \|_\|
	\|_\|___\|_\|
	\|__\|__\|_\|
	/\ _ _ _ _ \|_\|__\|__\| _ _ _ _
	//\\ \| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \|_\| \| @@@@@@
	///\\\ \|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	////\\\\ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| @@@@@@@@@@
	/////\\\\\\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| @@@@@@@@@
	___\|\|___ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|...\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\| _ @@@@@@ ____
	\|__\|__\|__\|__\|__\|." \| ".\|\|__\|__\|__\|__\|_\| \| \| JRO
	@ @ @ \|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\|\| \| \|\|_\|__\|__\|__\|__\|\| % \| %\| %
	\\|/\\|/\\|/\|_@\|__@__\|_@\|__\|\| \| \|\|\|__\|_%_\|_%_\|_%\| \\|/ \\|/\\|/
	@ @ @ \|\\|/_\\|/_\|\\|/__\|\|__\|__\|\|__\|_\\|/_\\|/\|\\|/ % % %
	\\|/\\|/\\|/ .' '. \\|/ \\|/\\|/
	.' '.
	.' '.
	.' '.

	There you go. One completed picture of a castle, that looks like
	it's doing something besides hanging there on an empty page. Be sure
	and sign your picture, so folks will know who made it!

	By now, I am sure you have dozens of ideas for improving that
	picture, and for making better ones of your own. Try them all! There
	is really no mystery to making good text-art. Play around with it, in
	your spare time. You'll most likely impress yourself with the
	results. Drop me a line, if you come up with any that you'd like to
	show me, or need some help:

	oglesbee@
	mail.fullnet.net

	We'll be continuing this series of tutorials, later. I'll try to cover
	other topics, from people to perspective. Watch for more, later.

	__..\/
	/\ \ \\ Good Luck!
	/_/\_.___\ JRO
	/\\~()\()~/\
	\_ _) _/ __
	\ //\\/ (((\
	__/\ __ /\__ /)////
	/ \ \ / / \ \___/
	/ \/\/\/ \/ /
	\| \../ / /
	\| \| \/ __ \ /
	\| \| o \|\__/
	\| \| o \|
	\| \| o \|

	--
	Jonathon R. Oglesbee

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_oglesbee2.txt
	https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/JRO2.html

	___ _ _ _ _ _
	/ _`\ ( ) ( ) ( ) _ ( ) ( )_
	\| (_ (_) _ \`\_/'/__ _ _ \| \| ( ) \| \| _ _ ___ \| ,_)
	`\__ \ /'_`\ `\ /' _ \( ) ( ) \| \| \| \| \| \|/'_` )' _ `\ \|
	(~)_) ( (_) )_ \| ( (_) ) (_) \| \| (_/ \_) ( (_\| \| ( ) \| \|_
	\____)\___/( ) (_)\___/ \___/ `\__/^\__/'\__,_\|_)_(_)\__)
	)/
	_____ _
	(_ _) /'\_/`\ (_)
	\| \| _ \| \| _ _\| \|/') __
	\| \|/'_`\ \| /V\ \|/'_" ) , < /'__`\
	\| ( (_) ) \| \| \| ( (_\| \| \|\`\( ___/
	(_)\___/ (_) (_)\__,_\|_) (_)\____)
	_____ _ _____ _ ___
	(_ _) (_)_ ( _ ) (_)_ /__ \
	\| \| __ \| ,_) ___ \| (_) \|_ __\| ,_\|(_) ) \|
	\| \|/'__`(`\/') \| (___)\| _ ( "__) \| / /
	\| ( ___/> <\| \|_ \| \| \| \| \| \| \|_ \|_\|
	(_)\____\|_/\_)\__) (_) (_\|_) `\__) (_)...

	Part Two of a tutorial about ascii text-art.




	Now that we have delved into castle construction with text-art,
	in Part One, how about looking at some other kinds of pictures?
	Automobiles might be a good thing to roll on to. Let's race on down,
	and look at a simple car, to see how it's made:


	_____ ... line 1 = _
	___/ \____ ... line 2 = _ and / and \
	\|______________\| ... line 3 = _ and \|
	(o) (o) ... line 4 = ( and o and )

	... yep, that's a basic car shape. It's probably won't turn a
	fast quarter mile, but it's good enough for a starting point. The
	only characters we didn't use in our castle exercises, are the
	letter "o" and the parenthesis. Since I imagine you know your alphabet,
	let's do a little more, shall we?


	______
	___/ /_\|__\____
	\|____\|__\|__\|____)
	(o) (o)

	That wasn't hard, at all. I have really done nothing except put
	in the doors and windows, and substitute a paraenthesis instead
	of the "\|" character for the front end of this auto. It's hardly a
	work of art, but it is recognizable as a car; a four-door sedan, at
	that. Try making a two-door on your own, and don't forget that you
	can lengthen or shorten the whole car, if need be.

	Now, let's see what we can do about making some better autos...

	_________
	____/ \|___\|\|__\_______
	[ __ \|- \|\|- \ __ \|]
	(__/()\_\|___\|\|___\|_/()\_)
	'..' '..'

	Okay, it's ugly, but it might pass for a taxi cab, huh? I used five
	lines, this time, and two new characters (three, actually): the - minus
	character, and the two [ and ] brackets. The tires, as you can see, were
	done by using nothing more than apostrophes and periods. The crude
	fender wells go a long way towards making it look a little more like a
	real car, don't you think?

	How about a truck, made the same way? You shouldn't have any trouble
	with that. Here's one of my own...


	_________________
	\| Joe's /"""\
	\| delivery \|____\_____
	\| ___ \|- \|___ [\|
	[__/ o \_______\|____/ o \__)
	'._.' '._.'

	It's very similar to the taxi cab. The new character, is the
	quotation mark. See what differences you can find between this, and
	the car up above. Could you make an even bigger truck, this way?
	Try it! How about something smaller, like a sports car?


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

	Well... maybe it does look a little more like an old Jeepster. You
	go ahead and make a better sports car, on your own. I never cared very
	much for two-seaters, anyway.


	Let's look at a couple of different views of automobiles. Examine
	each, and see how they were made:

	_____________________
	//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\
	// \\
	//_______________________\\
	/' / \ `\
	/ / \ \
	/__/___________________________\__\
	\|/\| ____ \|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\| ____ \|\\|
	\|/\|______\|\|\|\|\|\|\|DODGE\|\|\|\|\|\|\|______\|\\|
	\|/ \|\| \|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\| \|\| \\|
	/-------------------------------------\
	'-------------------------------------'
	\|\_________________________________/\|
	\| \| \| \|
	\|_____\| \|_____\| jro

	My car doesn't have a horn. It says
	=DODGE= on the front.


	What new characters can you find in the above picture? Notice how I
	used the slash characters, with ever widening spacing on each
	consecutive line, to give the appearance of looking "up" the hood. It's
	really no different from how we made the "road" leading up to the castle
	in our first exercise, right?


	Here's a better picture of a favorite old car of mine:

	___ __
	/ _ )__ ___________ ______ _____/ /_ _
	/ _ (/ _`´/ __/ __/ _`´/ __/ \|/ / _ / _`´/
	/____)\___/_/ /_/ \___/\__/\___/\___/\___/
	Built in Detroit. By heretics.

	______________________
	.'______________________'.
	//\| \_______ _\|_ ______/ \|\\
	// /________ [___] _______\ \\
	.-.//_/_________________.-""-._\_\\.-.
	'.//______________________________\\.'
	/ / \|\|\|\| \ \
	/ / \|\|\|\| \ \
	/ / \|\|\|\| \ \
	/ / \|\|\|\| \ \
	/___/________________\|\|\|\|________________\___\
	/\|__________________ \|\|\|\| __________________\|\
	\| .' `. ____ \ \|\|\|\| / ____ .' `. \|
	\| : : \__/ >\|\|\|\|< \__/ : : \|
	.\`.__.'_____________/______\_____________`.__.'/.
	'__________________________________________________'
	'.______________________________________________.'
	\|\ \______________/ \_______________/ /\|
	\| '------------------------------------------' \|
	\|______\| \|______\| jro


	Sorry, but I couldn't help re-creating the old ad-logo,
	at the top. This car introduces some more new characters.
	Did you find the ~ and the ` character in the Dodge above
	it? They're in this one, too, along with the < and >
	characters.


	How about some rear views?

	____ _______ __
	/ ___\|_ _\ \/ /
	\| \| _ \| \| \ /
	\| \|_\| \| \| \| / \
	\____\| \|_\| /_/\_\


	.
	________________________ \|
	//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\\|
	()//________________________\\()
	/_/________________________\_\
	\|\| _______ GTX _______ \|\|
	\|\|\|_______\|_____.____\|_______\|\|\|
	\|\______________________________/\|
	\| \|(_)----\____/----(_)\| \|
	\| \|/ \\| \|
	____\|_____\|____________________\|_____\|_____jro




	____ _ _
	/ ___\| _ __ ___\| \| \|___
	\___ \\| '_ \ / _ \ \| / __\|
	___) \| \|_) \| __/ \| \__ \_ _ _ _ _ _
	\|____/\| .__/ \___\|_\|_\|___(_\|_\|_\|_\|_\|_)
	\|_\|

	.
	________________________ \|
	//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\\|
	()//________________________\\()
	/_/________________________\_\
	\|\| _______ GTX _______ \|\|
	\|\|\|_______\|_____.____\|_______\|\|\|
	\|\______________________________/\|
	(\| \|(_)----\____/----(_)\|( \|))
	((\|)) ))\|/ \\| )) \| ))
	__((\|((_(_\|))________________(_\|_)_)_\|)____jro




	_ _ _ _ _ _ _
	( \| )/ \ _ _ __\| (_) ___ __( \| )
	V V/ _ \\| \| \| \|/ _` \| \|/ _ \/ __\| V
	/ ___ \ \|_\| \| (_\| \| \| (_) \__ \
	/_/ \_\__,_\|\__,_\|_\|\___/\|___/
	____
	_____( - )__
	____( . ) )(( )_
	__( ( . ( () ))) )__
	(_. ( ((( ) . )) __)
	(__ (- ()- ((( )__)
	__( )) . (( - )_
	__( ((. ((-. )) ) )_
	(__ ( ( " .' ( ()__) ) )___
	__( (. ( " ; . )) _--) ))))
	(__(( (). (( () ) )__ " ) ___)
	__( ( -; ) __( ((. ) - . )_
	______(______(_______(___________)________)____jro


	I guess you can color that car gone. Ever drive one?... nevermind.
	Ignore the big, ascii letters for now - we'll get into those, later.
	Look how I used the same basic clouds we discussed earlier, to make
	that cloud of smoke. It's been spruced-up a bit, with some periods and
	minus signs, but it's nothing more than a giant version of the same
	clouds we used in the castle picture.


	__
	_( _)
	(__)
	__
	_( _)
	(___)
	________________ \|\|
	/________________\ \|\|
	/__________________\\|\|
	\|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\|\|
	\| \| //\\\ \| \|\| ____
	\| \|________( o_o )\| \|\| _____/TAXI\_____
	\|___________\ - /___\|\| //~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\
	\|__________/_\_/_\__\|\| // ))))) \\
	/===================\\| //_____ ___[\|o o\|]__\\
	\|___________________\|/ //_/____\__/).-'-.(\__\\
	\| _ _ METRO _ _ \| /_/__________@_________\_\
	\|(_)(_)\|\|\|\|\|\|\|(_)(_)\| \|(__) \|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\| (__)\|
	\|[__] \|\|\|\|\|\|\| [__]\| \|(__)[]__\\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|/__[](__)\|
	(____________________) (____________________________)
	\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|
	\|__\| \|__\| \|__\| \|__\|


	Here's a taxi and a truck, taken from another cartoon of mine.
	They aren't very realistic-appearing, but then they weren't supposed
	to be. They're supposed to look silly, like the people in them.

	Here's some other simple cars. Try making and improving some like
	these, working up to larger and more detailed ones:

	_______
	/~~//~~\|\|
	____/__//___\|\|_____________
	()_() ____ \| ____ \|
	<<<<\|/.--.\ \| /.--.\ =\|
	[___]\| () \|___\|____/\| () \|\(]
	`..`.__.' `..`.__.'


	__ __ __
	)(_)(_)(
	/ .' __ '._()_\__ ___
	\|\|: / \ : """----...' _ `.__
	\: \__/ :_______________\| (_) \|__>
	`.____.' `.___.'

	____ _
	.' __ '._(_)__\ ___
	: / \ : """----...' _ `.__
	: \__/ :_______________\| (_) \|__>
	`.____.' `.___.'


	______
	_____/o/____\_________
	[ \| \ __ \
	(_______\|______\|__/ \__)
	\__/ \__/

	_
	___________\|_\_________
	/ ____ \|- \ ____ \
	\_/ () \_\|_____/_/ () \_/
	`.__.' `.__.'



	Try putting some of your new cars in a picture, as we
	did with the castle in the previous tutorial...



	/\ /\ /\ /\ /\
	//\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\
	///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\
	\|\| \|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|
	@ @ @ @ @ @
	\\|/ \\|/ \\|/ \\|/ \\|/ \\|/
	____________________________________________
	.-----.
	______/ \|____\_________
	[\| ____ \|- \ ____ \|)
	(__/ () \__\|______\|/ () \__)
	'.__.' '.__.'
	_____________________________________________

	Cars and trucks are good practice for any text-artist.
	They range from the simple, to the complex. I reccomend
	you start small, and let your imagination make them grow
	from there.




	Now how about some common objects? Let's look at a few
	of those...

	_____________ .
	/ / . \|
	/ /\| \|/\|
	/ /\|\| ___\| \|
	/ / \|\| / \|/\|
	/____________/\| /____\|/\|
	\|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|__\|\|\|\|
	\|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|\|\|
	\|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|

	table and chair

	(
	(
	)(
	______________)
	(__((_________()

	smoke


	_____.
	~(_]---'
	/_(U

	six-shooter



	___________________
	/__________________/\
	/ _______________ \\|
	\|.' \ 12 '.\|\|
	\|\| 11\ / 1 \|\|\|
	\|\| 10 \_/ 2 \|\|\|
	\|\| 9 (_) 3 \|\|\|
	\|\| 8 4 \|\|\|
	\|\| 7 6 5 \|\|\|
	\|'._______________.'\|\|
	\___________________//
	alarm
	clock


	______________________________________________________________
	______________________________________________________________
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \| [ ] ______________ [ ] \| \|
	____ \| \| \| \| \| \| ____
	\|\| \| \| \| ________ \| \| \| \|\|
	\|\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|\|
	\|\| \| \| \| \|________\| \| \| \| \|\|
	__\|\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|\|___
	\|\| \| \| \| ________ \|{o} \| \| \|\|
	\|\| \| \| \| \| \|()\| \| \| \|\|
	\|\| \| \| \| \|________\| \| \| \| \|\|
	__\|\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|\|___
	\| \| \| ________ \| \| \|
	\| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|
	\| \| \| \|________\| \| \| \|
	______\| \|____________\|______________\|_____________\| \|________
	\| \| / W E L C O M E\ \| \|
	\| \| /________________\ \| \|
	______\|_\|_________________________________________\|_\|________
	@ /__________________\ @
	________@_\\|/@_____\|__________________\|__@\\|/_@______
	\\|/ \\|/ /____________________\\\|/ \\|/
	\|____________________\|

	front door


	Perhaps you are wondering what's going on here, with all these
	new and different pictures I am throwing at you. Just what is it
	that I am doing, and how am I making all of these?

	I'm really not doing anything except "outlining" simple objects
	with text. Try this: look at an object in the room. A clock, a book;
	even your computer screen. Outline the thing. You probably won't need
	more than the _ and \| characters, to start with. Once you have the
	basic shape, you can go back and add other details; if you think it
	needs them. Often, your first text-art picture of something may look
	too simple, or just plain bad. Don't give up on it! All that it may need
	is just a detail or two. Imagine that front door above, without the knob
	or inset panels. It would be nothing but a box, right? But by filling in
	those details, it looks like a door. Let's make a new one, together...


	_____________
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \| Okay, we're calling it a door,
	\| \| but it doesn't really look like
	\| \| anything except a rectangle,
	\| \| right?
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\|_____________\|



	_____________
	\| _____ \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \|
	\| \| We'll add a little window, and
	\| \| now it's beginning to look like
	\| \| something...
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\| \|
	\|_____________\|



	_____________
	\| _____ \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \|
	\| \| The addition of two panels
	\| _________ \| makes it look more like a door,
	\| \| \| \| indeed...
	\| \|_________\| \|
	\| \|
	\| _________ \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \|_________\| \|
	\| \|
	\|_____________\|



	_____________
	\| _____ \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \|
	\| \|__\|__\| \| Add a knob...
	\| \|
	\| _________ \|
	\| \| \|O\|
	\| \|_________\| \|
	\| \|
	\| _________ \|
	\| \| \| \|
	\| \|_________\| \|
	\| \|
	\|_____________\|


	_______________
	\| _____________ \|
	\|\| _____ \|\|
	\|\| \|__\|__\| \|\|
	\|\| \|__\|__\| \|\| And a frame, and wallah! You
	\|\| \|\| have a door.
	\|\| _________ \|\|
	\|\| \| \|O\|\|
	\|\| \|_________\| \|\|
	\|\| \|\|
	\|\| _________ \|\|
	\|\| \| \| \|\|
	\|\| \|_________\| \|\|
	\|\| \|\|
	\|\|_____________\|\|



	Nothing to it, see? It really does look like a door. Just don't
	try to open it, or you'll smear fingerprints on your monitor.

	Don't feel obligated to use the same characters I do. Could you
	think of ones that might make suitable replacements? Or ones that
	might work better? Look at these versions of the same door:

	...............
	H.............H
	H .. .. H
	H l..l..l H
	H l..l..l H
	H H
	H ......... H
	H l lOH
	H l.........l H
	H H
	H ......... H
	H l l H
	H l.........l H
	H H
	H_____________H



	_______________
	: _____________ :
	:: _____ ::
	:: :__:__: ::
	:: :__:__: ::
	:: ::
	:: _________ ::
	:: : :Q::
	:: :_________: ::
	:: ::
	:: _________ ::
	:: : : ::
	:: :_________: ::
	:: ::
	::_____________::



	_______________
	I _____________ I
	II _____ II
	II I__I__I II
	II I__I__I II
	II II
	II _________ II
	II I I0II
	II I_________I II
	II II
	II _________ II
	II I I II
	II I_________I II
	II II
	II_____________II


	Point here being, there is always more than one way to
	make a door, or anything else. Use whatever you find most
	asthetically pleasing, and don't be afraid to experiment.
	Believe me, you WILL discover new ways of making things!



	We started out with simple automobiles, tossing in a few
	more complicated ones. None of them were terribly difficult,
	however. Neither are any of the other objects we moved along
	to. You don't need to be an artist to draw with text-art, as
	I'm sure you're beginning to realize.

	So far, however, all these pictures are reasonably angular.
	Here's an example of the kind of picture that often confuses
	beginner text-artists:

	Northrop
	XP-56
	_
	/ \|
	/ \|`'.
	.~~~\--.../_ \|_-~'
	/_\_.- ~-._.--~`-.
	.-`. __..--~~` _.-~._~-.
	( . :~(__) _.-~ : ~-.~.
	.-~` '-.__ ~-------~_\|~=,; ~
	_~_.`~~~~ ~~--~~~~~~\ \|.-`
	~ jro \_\|



	There's a lot of little curves and angled lines in this picture
	of an old experimental plane, isn't there? Don't dispair; here's a
	few tried-and-true examples of lines and cirles, sent to me by a pal.
	I think you'll find them useful when you want to make a picture that
	needs curves and obliques in it:


	: 6/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 2/3 1/2
	: \| J J J / .' .'
	: \| J \| F / / .'
	: \| \| F J / .' .' 1/3
	: \| \| J F / / .' .-'
	: \| F \| J / .' .' .-'
	: \| F F F / / .' .-' 1/4
	: \| J J J / .' .' .-' _.-'
	: \| J \| F / / .' .-' _.-' 1/5
	: \| \| F J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--'
	: \| \| J F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' 1/6
	: \| F \| J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' 1/7
	: \| F F F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--'
	: _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' 1/8
	: _.--' __.--' __..--' __..--''
	: __.--' __..--' __..--''
	: __..--' __..--''
	: __..--''
	: -------------------------- 0

	_____ __
	.-' `-. ,dP""Yb,
	.' `. ,d" "b,
	/ \ d' _ `Y,
	_ ; ; 8 8 `b
	__ ,'" "`. \| \| `b,_,aP P
	__ ,' `. / \ ; ; """" d'
	.' `. / \| \| \| \ / ,P"
	_ \| \| \| / \ / `. .' a,.__,aP"
	o (_) `.__.' `.__.' `.___.' `-._____.-' `"""''


	And a few others I also use, although I'm sure a hundred other
	people do, too:


	_.-~
	_.-~
	_.-~ __..--""
	__..--""
	__..--"" ___...---~~~
	___...---~~~
	___...---~~~

	____
	." ". ____
	/ \ _____ .' '.
	\| \| __ / \ : :
	\ / / \ \| \| : :
	'.____.' \__/ \_____/ '. .'
	'----'
	____
	."_ _".
	/ (_)(_) \
	\| . . \|
	\ \____/ /
	'.____.'


	Here's a thing or two you can do with them...

	\ \| /
	'. ____ .'
	"-.." "..-~
	~~--../ \..--~~
	------\| __..--""-._--- __.--""--..__
	___...---~~~ ~-._ .'
	_.-~ `. _.-~
	__..--~~ `.__..--~~

	Sunset on the prairie... Look how many combinations of the
	sample lines above, that I used to make the horizon.


	."".
	' ;
	.''..' .' Silly shape... A kidney bean, perhaps?
	. .'
	'...'



	The Martians_____________________________________
	\|* . . * _______________________ \|
	\| . / To Antares with the \ . \|
	\| * ' * / "mission", Base. Those \ *\|
	\| \| Earth Beings abducted \| \|
	\| * . ' \| Zompflitz, and tried to \| . \|
	\| \ have SEX with him!!! / \|
	\| ' . \_________ _____________/ . * \|
	\| _.-'~~~~'-._ \|/ \|
	\| . _.-~\__/ \__/~-. . \|
	\| .-~ (oo) (oo) ~-. \|
	\| (______//~~\\__//~~\\_____) \|
	\| _.-~` `~-._ \|
	\| /O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O\ * \|
	\| \___________________________________/. \|
	\| \x x x x x x x/ `. \|
	\| . * \x_x_x_x_x_x/. ' . ___ . \|
	\| `. `. .'\| \'. \|
	\| `. . `. \| \ / \| \|
	\| ' . * '.___.' \|
	\|_________________________________________by_JRO__\|

	And an early text-art cartoon of mine. Not too good
	a "Planet Earth", but the Martians' flying saucer is
	acceptable, yes? In any cartoon, of course, it's mostly
	the gag that counts, anyway.

	I'm sure you can now see how easily I handled the lines
	and curves in that small airplane picture I first showed you.
	Cirles, curves, and obliques are no big deal. After looking
	at a few examples, and giving it a try or two, I'm sure you'll
	have it mastered.



	Well, this about wraps it up for this second instalment.
	I hope I've given you some new ideas, a few tools to work
	with, and an increasing interest in making text-art. Practice
	simple exercises, and work up from there. Soon, you'll find
	yourself able to make a text-art picture of almost anything
	you've seen or imagined. Remember - it's never as hard as it
	looks!

	__..\/
	/\ \ \\ Keep typing!
	/_/\_.___\ JRO
	/\\~()\()~/\
	\_ _) _/
	\ //\\/ (((\
	__/\ __ /\__ (\\|\|\|\|
	/ \ \ / / \ \___/
	/ \/\/\/ \ / /
	\| \ / \/ /
	\| \| \/ __\ /
	\| \| o \ /
	\| \| o \|\___/
	\| \| o \|

	. . .
	. . . .' .--.
	'. . . . .' ________.'_.'_____.--.___
	'. . . . .' ()_() ooo ~/ -.\| "-._
	'. . . . .' ((((<____ \| \| ____ = )
	'. . . . .' .-' (__)/ () \___\_____\|_/ () \__/)
	. ' ______ .' .-' ___'.'.__.'_________'.'.__.'____
	'-. .-~ ~-. .-' /
	'-. .' '. .-' __/
	_ . . _./
	'-._ . . _.-' \|
	: : /
	.-' . . '- .'
	-' . . . .'
	.' '. .' _.'
	.' .' '__________'.-'
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
	~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ /jro
	~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~/

	--
	Jonathon R. Oglesbee

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_oviatt.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/20071029164837/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/soviatt.htm

	1. What is ASCII art? or "ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI."

	What is ASCII art? Basically, it's creating pictures using the
	letters and symbols found on a regular keyboard or typewriter. Trust
	me, the computer keyboard is MUCH easier to use than a typewriter.
	Related art can be done with ANSI (sometimes known as "higher ASCII")
	characters, but since those don't show up on Aladdin or GEnie, I've
	never played with them. Most everyone has seen some sort of ASCII
	art, either in regular ASCII Art topics, (such as in the Family RT),
	as part of the opening screen for various RoundTables, or as part of a
	cute little signature by the members themselves. This is a sample of
	a signature ASCII art:

	_
	('v')
	( ) "Birdie"
	~/'~'~~

	My pictures are done for the computer screen, and look best on a
	screen that is set for a dark background and light letters. Viewing
	the pictures on a light background with dark letters (either on the
	screen or on paper, printed up) makes them look a little like photo
	negatives, light where it's supposed to be dark, and dark where it's
	supposed to be light. Just keep in mind how your pictures will be
	viewed, while you're creating them. Some of the pictures I've done
	will "translate" just fine to a different setup, some don't do nearly
	as well.

	2. The CANVAS, or "Targon's secret."

	One of the very first ASCII artists on GEnie, TARGON, came up with the
	idea of creating a "canvas." To make it easier to put your characters
	where they need to go, start with a blank canvas. In most word
	processing programs, (including Aladdin's text editor), the cursor
	can't be moved somewhere it's never been before. That's fine if you
	know exactly where you want each character, and can type it in
	perfectly the first time, but if you need to experiment, like I do,
	you'll want to move that cursor around with your arrow keys.

	The canvas consists of a screen full of lines, and the lines consist
	of nothing but spaces you've tapped in with your spacebar. This is
	the way I made mine:

	First, go to the program you plan to use to make your pictures. Since
	I use Aladdin, I'll describe the procedure I use. While offline, go
	to a reply screen, such as the ASCII Art topic in the FAMILY BB.
	(Category 3, topic 18.) Hit "r" for "reply." When the screen comes
	up, draw a line of dashes across the top, and then hit the enter key
	oh... about twenty times or so. At the end of the screen, draw
	another line of dashes across the bottom.

	Go back to the top of the screen, press the down arrow once, and start
	hitting the space bar. When you get to the end of the line, use the
	down arrow to get to the next line. Do not hit "enter" again, and do
	not let the line of spaces wrap around. Hit the space bar again,
	filling the next line with spaces, and again when you get to the end
	of the line, use the down arrow key to get to the next line. Continue
	doing this till you've filled all 20 lines with blank spaces.

	At this point, it would be wise to "save" the "canvas" so that you
	don't have to go through this every time you want to do a picture. To
	save a file on Aladdin, you hold down the control key and tap the K,
	then the W. A little screen will pop up, asking for a name. I chose
	the name "canvas," but then, I'm an original thinker. :) From then
	on, when you want to create a new picture, you can "recall" the canvas
	by going to a reply screen. To recall the canvas using Aladdin, hold
	down the control key and tap the K then the R. You'll see that little
	window come up, asking for a file name, and you type in the name you
	gave your canvas. Then hit enter, and the canvas will be on the
	screen. For those who would rather skip this step, I've included a
	canvas at the end of the file. Since most of my pictures are rather
	large, the canvas is larger than I've specified here.

	3. How to start, or "Whaddaya mean, just start tapping keys?"

	Now you're ready to begin creating your picture. The first thing you
	need to do is make sure your text editor is in "overwrite" mode. In
	Aladdin's default setting, that means you'll need to hit the "insert"
	key one time. This way, each character you tap into place will
	overwrite the blank space. If you do not have your text editor in
	overwrite mode, each character you tap in will be inserted between
	your spaces, and the lines will begin to wrap almost immediately. If
	that happens, don't panic, just delete the extra keys, press the
	"insert" key and start again. I guarantee you, you'll notice quickly.

	Another pointer to remember: If you've tapped something in and you
	don't like it, or if you've made a mistake, do NOT erase it using the
	backspace key. The backspace key will delete that space, and it'll
	offset the rest of that line by one. You may not notice that if
	you've only backspaced once, but if you've backspaced a dozen
	characters out of the way, you'll have a line that's shorter than the
	rest by that many spaces.

	If you want to correct a mistake, just use your arrow keys till the
	cursor is on the space you want to change, and tap in the character
	you want. (Again, make sure you are in overwrite mode.) If you
	forget and backspace an error away, hit the insert key again, then hit
	the spacebar till you've added back in the spaces you accidentally
	deleted, then hit the insert key again to go back to overwrite mode.

	Oh, one more thing... For some reason, it's best to leave the first
	space on each line blank. Your art will look fine while you're
	creating it, but when it gets uploaded to GEnie a character on the
	very first space of the line will cause the following lines get
	shifted over one space, and that's enough to mess up a picture. This
	is especially true if you have used any asterisks (*) as first
	characters on the line. The asterisk is used on GEnie to say, "The
	following is a command, not part of the text." People viewing your
	work won't even see that line.

	4. Sources, or "Where do I find pictures to try?"

	Most of us have some little doodle we've done for years... I've always
	drawn little elephant fannies all over papers and scraps. I'd suggest
	that you translate YOUR doodle to ASCII art as your first piece. It's
	familiar, and you'll know if it doesn't look quite right. Play with
	it till you're satisfied with it.

	For your next piece, choose something simple. You'll have an easier
	time, and you'll build your confidence. Children's coloring books are
	a great place to find simple pictures to try. While you're finding
	the sorts of pictures you enjoy doing, you'll be developing your very
	own style of ASCII art.

	One of the greatest things about this particular art form is that each
	style is so distinctively different. Once an artist has the basics
	down, you can almost tell WHO did a picture before you see their name
	at the bottom of the screen. Some of the ASCII Artists you've
	probably seen at one time or another here on GEnie are TARGON,
	PHOENIX, TSUEX, and RIKROK. All of these people have very individual
	styles. Some pictures look like drawings with ASCII characters, some
	look more like paintings. They're all delightful.

	Holiday pictures are my favorites. I can find samples from
	newspapers, comic books, coloring books, art books, and sometimes from
	my own imagination. Most of the time I need a pattern, even if the
	finished product doesn't look anything like the original. It gives me
	an idea of where to go first. :)

	5. Choosing Characters, or "Which characters do I want to use?"

	First of all, your choice of characters depends on what effect you're
	looking for. If you are "sketching" with ASCII characters, you'll
	want to pay special attention to the following keys:

	/ ` " ' \ , . _ - = ~ ^ ; \|

	Notice that all of these characters have been entered on the same
	line, but many are in different positions on that line. The
	apostrophy is higher on the line than the comma, for instance. Keep
	this in mind as you "sketch" because sometimes that small difference
	is enough to make or break your picture.

	If you are going for a more filled in look, such as I do in my
	pictures, you will also want to keep in mind the relative value of the
	characters as far as light and shade go. Look at the following
	characters:

	@ # $ & X % > / ; :

	Notice that when you are using a dark background, light letters, that
	the @ and # keys provide a lot of light. You would use these
	characters to highlight your work. The : and ; let much less light
	through, so those would be the characters you shade with. If you are
	working on a reverse screen, with a light background/dark characters,
	the opposite would hold true.

	Keep in mind, too, that for detail work there are several characters
	that are very similar, but subtly different, and can add just the
	right amount of contrast to get the effect that you want. For
	instance:

	S $ : ; % X 0 O

	One more thing that will help you get the look you want is the
	relative height of capital and lower case letters. When you need a
	line to taper a bit, using a lower case letter is sometimes the
	perfect "bridge" between high and low characters. For instance:

	S s X x O o @ a

	To taper these lines even further, when a very gradual decrease is
	wanted, use both of these methods, somtimes using them more than once.
	For instance:

	Ss,..,sS or -=@=- or .,%,.
	SSss,,..,,ssSS or ..,,;;\|;;,,..

	Also remember that what is low on one line can be the perfect bridge
	for something high on the line directly under. This is especially
	helpful when you're creating signatures of some kind... For instance:

	,;;;,
	;; .;' ;;
	`;,
	. `';,. .;. ;. ,;;;, .;. .;;;.
	';. ;; ;; ;; ',,. ;; ;; ;;
	,;;;.;; ;; ;; ;; . ;; ;; ;;''
	;; ';;;;' `;;';;' ';;;' ';. `;;;'
	`;;;;'

	6. Small pictures, or "Good things come in small packages."

	VERY small pictures can be a lot of fun to do. Just remember that
	with those tiny ASCII pictures, a LOT is left to the imagination.
	Sometimes a suggestion of what you're looking for is the best you can
	do. For instance, the following was done on only two lines:

	~\|_
	(_)\_

	It's certainly no photograph, but most people will recognize this as a
	wheelchair. Another fun use for tiny ASCII graphics are for signing
	off e-mail, especially during the holidays. For instance, during the
	Christmas season, I like to sign letters off with one of the
	following:


	<\oOo/>
	### ###
	### ###


	/\
	//\\
	///\\\
	][

	It's important to remember that many RoundTables on GEnie (Such as the
	FAMILY and Personal Growth RoundTable) frown on the use of excessive
	ASCII art in regular topics. This is due to the fact that users who
	are visually impaired and use voice synthesizers have a heck of a time
	with this stuff... For instance, a blind user coming across the top
	Christmas miniature would hear, "lesser than, backslash, o, O, o,
	slash, greater than..." And that's only the FIRST ROW! Can you
	imagine how irritating that would be?

	Some voice synthesizers do not "pronounce" punctuation, but they do
	pause for many punctuation marks. For instance, if your little ASCII
	picture consists of a lot of periods and commas, the voice synthesizer
	will pause for each. If there's enough there, the user may think that
	he or she was discontinued.

	If you are on a RoundTable and you don't know what their policy is,
	it's best to preface any ASCII art with a warning phrase, placed a
	line above the actual art: "WARNING: ASCII Art to follow." And
	don't be offended if it's returned to you. There are many ASCII Art
	topics on GEnie, and your work is VERY welcome there. :)

	7. Big pictures, or "Bigger is better, right?"

	Though a large picture can be a little intimidating, it is often
	easier to do than a small picture. Large pictures give you room to
	add detail. If you are doing a picture on, say, ten lines, you don't
	have as much room to develop curves and angles. Your work has to be
	much more precise, and it's not always possible. On the other hand,
	on a large picture, you have much more room to develop not only curves
	and angles, but also shading and highlighting.

	Where do you start on a large picture? Well, first of all you'll
	probably want more than one "canvas" to work on. Just add another
	canvas or two on the end of the previous one so that you have plenty
	of room. Get rid of the excess lines between them with the
	"control-y" keysequence.

	Some ASCII artists consistently start with the eyes, if the picture
	HAS eyes. Personally, I start in a different place each time, but
	most often I start on what will give me the most problems. For
	instance, on the tiger I started with the nose. I'm not exactly sure
	WHY that nose was such a bugger (sorry, couldn't resist... :) but once
	I got that done, I figured I could finish the rest of the picture.
	Other times, when there isn't an area that I feel I need to start on,
	I might start at the very top, so that I can get a relative feel for
	the width and length of the picture.

	Once I've started the picture, I will most of the time go ahead and
	tap in the rest of the basic shape. Afterwards I'll go through and
	add the highlighting, shading, and other detail work that I want.
	Sometimes when you're sitting so close to the screen, tapping in the
	pictures, NOTHING you do looks right. If that's the case, stand back
	from the screen.... Or squint your eyes. Or if you wear glasses, take
	them off for a moment. Many times you'll see the picture "come
	together" when you try one of these little tricks.

	When you're finished, make sure you save your picture. You save your
	picture the same way you saved the canvas; hold down the control key,
	hit the K and then the W. When the screen comes up, give your picture
	a name. That way you can bring it up again whenever you'd like.

	8. ASCII Art protocol, or "Gee, this is neat, can I show my friends?"

	ASCII art IS neat, and it's great to get it in the mail. Kids (and
	the kid in all of us) enjoy watching it download, as the picture takes
	shape right before our eyes. Though I can only speak for myself, I
	don't mind at all when pictures are "shared" with others. Some of my
	pictures have been to many different countries, on many other
	continents, and that tickles me. Though tastes differ, appreciation
	of art is something everyone has in common, especially in such a fun,
	unexpected form as ASCII art. What I do ask, though, is that my name
	be left on the picture. If you KNOW the source of the art, include
	the artist's name. It's not enough to put in a line that says, "yes,
	it's stolen."

	There have been times in the past that I've received my OWN artwork
	back in e-mail to me, along with a note that says, "See, you're not
	the only one who can do this stuff..." Even more irritating is seeing
	my own picture with credit given to someone else. This stuff may not
	be as "important" as some great literary work, but ASCII artists DO
	spend an hour or more on each picture to make something that will give
	others pleasure. Give them credit.

	9. Printing up ASCII Art -- or "Eww. Why does this look so bad on paper?"

	Why is it when we print up this ASCII art it looks sort of squatty?
	One reason is that the "characters per inch" is different on the paper
	than it is on the screen. In old "typewriting" terms, "Pica" print is
	ten characters to the inch. "Elite" print is twelve characters to the
	inch. The screen is fairly close to "elite," the default pitch of
	many printers is closer to "pica." The printer will print the
	line character by character rather than inch at a time. The
	difference isn't much, but when the picture is six inches wide, that
	means when it's printed, it'll be seven and a half inches wide. Thus,
	the "squatty" look. To correct it, when you print out the work,
	change the default pitch to something that is closer to the size on
	the screen. If you play with it enough, it'll work out.

	The second reason ASCII art may look a little strange on paper is that
	it may have been created for a dark rather than a light background.
	(Paper is light. :) For instance, if I create a picture, using the
	@##@ characters as highlights, it's easy for you to see that on a
	white piece of paper, those characters are actually DARK, not light.
	The solution is to either 1) keep in mind HOW the picture will be
	seen. If your picture will be seen mostly printed up, work on a light
	background with dark characters while you're creating it. 2) Hand
	the picture to a child to color. They can fix anything. :)







	My canvas... (I put a + in the center):

	=====================================+====================================










	=====================================+====================================

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_quinn.txt
	https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/Shawn_Quinn.html

	From: skquinn@brokersys.com (Shawn K. Quinn)
	Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
	Subject: GIFSCII.EXE for DOS
	Date: 31 May 1996 13:01:26 GMT

	In message <Ds7Dnr.9E8@sig.net> - Shane Hall <browpin-shane@web-access.net> wri
	tes:
	:>Does anyone have any tips or tricks for using GIFSCII? It has no docs and
	:>no built-in help. It offers 3 prompts: name of gif, columns and lines.
	:>The author told me to hit ENTER at the last 2 prompts and then I will get
	:>a menu to View, Save and other things. I never get this menu.

	The way I remember it, it goes like this:

	Start the program, give it the name of a GIF. It will then prompt you for
	number of columns and rows, and should give you this table:

	Lines Columns Lines Columns
	Spec. Spec. Output Output
	----- ----- ----- -----
	0 0 GH/10 GW/6
	0 C CGH/GW.6 C
	L 0 L L*GW/GH/.6
	L C L C

	This means (1) Gifscii will default to giving you one ASCII row for each 10
	GIF rows, and one ASCII column for each 6 GIF columns, (2) if you specify
	only a number of columns or rows, it will default to keeping the same aspect
	ratio when figuring out the other value, and (3) if you specify both it will
	make an ASCII picture of exactly that size.

	NOTE: any GIF wider than 480 columns or taller than 240 rows WILL NOT FIT on
	an 80x24 screen if you accept both defaults! This includes ANY 256-COLOR GIF
	that fills the screen or comes close in SVGA resolutions! Whip out your
	calculator if needed to figure out what to tell the program.

	Then comes the tricky part. You'll get this prompt:

	(v)iew (zZ)oom (s)ave (lrud)=Pan (i)nvert (h)elp (cC)cont (bB)bright:

	These describe the options. These do pretty much the same as ASCGIF,
	unfortunately, I don't think that came with docs either. Typing in an "h"
	will show a help screen. Most of the options let you tweak the way the
	conversion is done so it will hopefully show up better. Be prepared to alter
	the GIF after conversion in case it doesn't quite look the way you had hoped.

	I really wish the authors would not rely on the source code comments to
	effectively document the program the way some do. Some people don't even
	download the source code. I do if there's no doc file, because I know better.
	Of course if there are no comments in the source code, that's a problem too...

	SKQ

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_stark.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/20071028135413/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/howto.htm#programs

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	How I Make these ASCII Pictures
	and Links to Other Tutorials

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	FAQ's About Creating ASCII Art:

	1) Do you need any special programs or software to make ASCII Art?
	2) You've heard of programs that make ASCII art- do they work?
	3) How long have I been creating ASCII Art images?
	4) What were my first ASCII art creations?
	5) How much time do I spend on making just one ASCII art picture?
	6) How do I make the characters "fit together"?
	7) Aren't ALL keyboard characters "ASCII"?
	8) Are there other ASCII Art tutorials online?
	9) What suggestions do I have for aspiring ASCII Artists?
	10) Do I have too much free time on my hands?

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	1) Do you need any special programs or software to make ASCII Art?

	The answer is "NO". All you need is a text editor with a fixed-width font.
	Examples of fixed-width fonts are: Courier, FixedSys, and any others where
	the following two lines of letters are the same length:

	IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
	WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

	I don't have any "secret programs" or "magic software". I've created
	these ASCII pictures by using Windows notepad, my keyboard ( and monitor
	obviously ), my imagination, and plenty of inspiration. That's it. I
	create these pictures by free-hand.

	Essentially I sit at the keyboard and type. The more I do, the faster and
	easier it becomes. Some images come from models (usually one of my kids'
	toys), pictures in books and magazines, or from my imagination. I can only
	make a picture when I feel inspired to do so. Not every day is a creative
	day.

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	2) You've heard of programs that make ASCII art- do they work?

	As you may have noticed, there are different styles of the ASCII art. I
	typically make the "line-ASCII art". Others, like Allen Mullen and The
	Dutch Dude make "solid-style ASCII art".

	.-. .-. . .
	.--' / \ '--. ..###' '###,.
	'--. \ _______ / .--' '####; .ooooo. ;####'
	\ \ .-" "-. / / '##, .o8P"""""Y8o. ,##'
	\ \ / \ / / '##, 88' '88 ,##'
	\ / \ / '##8' '8##'
	\\| .--. .--. \|/ '#8 ,o. .o, 8#'
	\| )/ \| \| \( \| 8 8 888; :888 8 8
	\|/ \__/ \__/ \\| 8P '88' '88' Y8
	/ /^\ \ P 8 'Y
	\__ '=' __/ b 888 d
	\|\ /\| `8b d8`
	\|\'"VUUUV"'/\| 88'"88888"'88
	\ `"""""""` / 8 `"""""""` 8
	`-._____.-' `8ooooooo8`
	jgs / / \ \ ,##' '##,
	/ / \ \ ,##' '##,
	/ / \ \ jgs ,##' '##,
	,-' ( ) `-, .#####, ,#####.
	`-'._) (_.'-` `##' '##`

	LINE STYLE SOLID STYLE

	There are converters available to turn GIF and JPG files into ASCII art.
	The results are usually solid-style --but even so, you still have to do
	quite a bit of work with them to make them look good. If you want to give
	it a go anyways, check out conversion programs.

	There is a PicText Service online that will convert GIF images into
	ASCII... results are OK-- not ideal. As example, see an ASCII image of me
	in comparison to the original GIF graphic---> jgs

	There is ONE conversion program that works well-- that is FIGlet! If
	you want to write your name in a fancy ASCII'fied font, this is the place
	to go: FIGlet Service. Also, check the alt.ascii-art FAQ for Internet
	locations to download your own copy of the program.

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	3) How long have I been creating ASCII Art images?

	I've been around the USENET's <alt.ascii-art> newsgroup since November '95
	and I've been making the ASCII pictures since July '96.

	I first saw ASCII art in the summer of 1995 and was intrigued by it. My
	immediate thought was that there were people in this world who had too much
	time on their hands! Nonetheless, I was amazed at what I saw. I tried
	to collect as much of the ASCII art as I could. Then when I found
	Scarecrow's archive, and saw the immensity of it, I gave up and decided to
	try to make the ASCII images instead.

	I had been lurking on the alt.ascii-art newsgroup and saw many
	requests--most which were never filled. At that point I chose to create
	the ASCII art pictures to respond to the requests.

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	4) What were my first ASCII art creations?

	My first ASCII Art creations were letters that spelled out my screen name
	-- and I added a little fish and a swimmer.... Here it is:

	ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooojgs
	__~~ _- ~~ -~~~-_/\O_~~ ~~__~~ _-~_ __
	/ \ ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo\| \| / /
	/ /\_\ \| _ \ \| \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| / / /
	\ \_ \| \| \ \ \| \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \|/ / <')=<
	\_ \ \| \|_/ \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \\| \| \| < \`
	__ \ \ \| __/ \| \| \| \| \| \|\ \| \| \| \|\ \ Spunk1111
	\ \/ / \| \| \| \|__\| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \ \@juno.com
	\__/ \|_\| \______/ \|_\| \_\| \|_\| \_\@aol.com

	It's not very good, IMO -- but it was a start. Playing around with making
	letters helped me to figure out how the ASCII characters fit together. I
	don't remember how long it took to make.

	I stopped making the letters once I found out about "FIGlet". FIGlet is a
	program that creates the ASCII art letters for you -- all with a click of a
	button! Try it yourself! FIGlet Service

	The first big picture I made was of a dragon-- it took about a week to
	complete- When it was finished, I sent it to the alt.dragons ASCII art
	page (http://www.dragonfire.org/) - and they put it at the top! I was
	"published"! From then on, I was hooked on the ASCII art!

	~ Fire-Breathing Dragon ~ 7/96
	___
	.~))>>
	.~)>>
	.~))))>>>
	.~))>> ___
	.~))>>)))>> .-~))>>
	.~)))))>> .-~))>>)>
	.~)))>>))))>> .-~)>>)>
	) .~))>>))))>> .-~)))))>>)>
	( )@@*) //)>)))))) .-~))))>>)>
	).@(@@ //))>>))) .-~))>>)))))>>)>
	(( @.@). //))))) .-~)>>)))))>>)>
	)) )@@*.@@ ) //)>))) //))))))>>))))>>)>
	(( ((@@@.@@ \|/))))) //)))))>>)))>>)>
	)) @@*. )@@ ) (\_(\-\b \|))>)) //)))>>)))))))>>)>
	(( @@@(.@(@ . _/`-` ~\|b \|>))) //)>>)))))))>>)>
	)* @@@ )@* (@) (@) /\b\|))) //))))))>>))))>>
	(( @. )@( @ . _/ / \b)) //))>>)))))>>>_._
	)@@ (@@*)@@. (6, 6) / ^ \b)//))))))>>)))>> ~~-.
	( @jgs@@. @@@.*@_ ~^~^~, /\ ^ \b/)>>))))>> _. `,
	((@@ @@@*.(@@ . \^^^/' ( ^ \b)))>> .' `,
	((@@).*@@ )@ ) `-' (( ^ ~)_ / `,
	(@@. (@@ ). ((( ^ `\ \| `.
	(.@ / (((( \ \ . `.
	/ ((((( \ \ _.-~\ Y, ;
	/ / (((((( \ \.-~ _.`" _.-~`, ;
	/ / `(((((() ) (((((~ `, ;
	_/ _/ `"""/ /' ; ;
	_.-~_.-~ / /' _.-~ _.'
	((((~~ / /' _.-~ __.--~
	(((( __.-~ _.-~
	.' .~~
	: ,'
	~~~~~

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	5) How much time is spent on making just one ASCII art picture?

	That first large dragon picture took a week to make-- However, as I create
	more ASCII art graphics, they take less time to make... Usually, I spend
	about 20 minutes on each... a little longer for larger ASCII art, less time
	for smaller ones. I can create the picture quickly if I can envision the
	image beforehand, . At times, I see lots of things in "ASCII"--- it's at
	those instances that I have a creative spurt!

	Remember that this website has been a labour of love which has lasted
	several years-- there is no way that I could create all of these pictures
	in one sitting!

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	6) How do I make the characters "fit together"?

	Playing around with the characters on the keyboard really helps...
	For instance, the following characters can create a gradual slope:

	_,.-'"^`

	To change the degree of the slope, you can either add more characters, or
	delete... of course keeping in mind the "look" of whatever it is that you
	are trying to create.

	a more gradual slope: __,,..--""^^^

	a steeper slope: _.-"
	.-"

	Look at the individual ASCII characters-- you'll notice that they are
	located in various typographical locations. The periods, commas, and
	underscores are at the bottom of the character space. The hyphen, equal
	sign, and the plus sign are found in the middle of the space. The
	apostrophe, quotation marks, and caret sign are located at the top portion
	of the character space. The asterick and the tilde characters are either
	in the middle or the top of the space-- depending upon which fixed-width
	font you use.

	Deciding which character to use often depends upon the desired 'feel' of a
	picture. However, I've found that some of the characters are
	"inter-changeable", such as:

	" and '
	. and ,
	- and =

	Sometimes it is very helpful to look at the ASCII art pictures created by
	the different artists. You'll be able to see just how that person handled
	curves, lines, slopes, and details.

	I've added a really neat online ASCII art experience. If you have Internet
	Explorer 4+, you can give this a try. The text characters can be dragged
	onto a grid in order to create an ASCII art image. There is template to
	follow if you wish-- or just go freestyle!

	ASCII ART HOW-TO --- GRID

	:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	7) Aren't ALL keyboard characters "ASCII"?

	No-- ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information
	Interchange. There are only 94 ASCII characters (95, if you include the
	space)-- these are the ones that are typically found on the standard
	American keyboard:

	abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
	0123456789
	< > [ ] { } ( ) ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * _ + \| - = ; : " ' ` ? \ / . ,
	(space)




	It is possible to make non-ASCII characters with your computer. Some
	examples of non-ASCII characters are the British pound-sterling, the
	copyright symbol, fractions, and the accented characters. These should NOT
	be included in ASCII art images because they are not standard from one
	computer system to another. One computer may interpret the character code
	accurately-- another computer may not. Believe me, it can make for a
	pretty bad ASCII art image!

	I know that America Online users have "macros"-- proportional-font text
	art. These macros often contain non-ASCII characters. This will work on
	AOL because AOL users are all using the same America Online network. mIRC
	often uses the non-ASCII characters too (fixed-width fonts though) This
	works on mIRC because that is how the system is designed. Presently, the
	Internet is not as standardized. In conclusion, it is best not to use the
	non-ASCII characters in any international email/USENET posting.

	If you have any questions about font, characters, or ASCII/non-ASCII,
	please refer to the alt.ascii-art FAQ or my 'What is ASCII Art?' webpage

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	8) Are there other ASCII Art tutorials online?

	There are several ASCII Art tutorials available... but, IMO, they don't
	help unless you've tried your hand at it first. Keep in mind that ASCII
	artists have their own 'style'. Accordingly, the tutorials differ in
	regard to the type of ASCII drawings.

	Daniel Au's Tutorial
	Susie Oviatt's Tutorial
	Rowan Crawford's Tutorial
	Normand Veilleux's Tutorial
	Targon (Ed Wisniewski)'s Tutorial

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	9) What suggestions do I have for aspiring ASCII Artists?

	My suggestions for budding ASCII artists are the following:

	look at as many ASCII pictures that you can
	identify how the characters are used in those pictures
	duplicate an "already-made" picture -
	copy it line by line or section by section
	modify an existing picture
	start small- perhaps doodle and see what it looks like,
	and go from there
	use a model or picture as a guideline
	read the tutorials and the FAQs
	post your pictures for critique
	(or send them to a friend for critique)
	keep at it and have fun... <--- most important!

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	10) Do I have too much free time on my hands?


	Too much free time on my hands?? That's a funny one! _ _
	As a mother of four kids, I can testify that I hehehehe (.)(.)
	don't have excess time! However, I will confess that \ / () \
	my laundry pile is larger than it ought to be! _ \ '--' / _
	Laundry time has taken a backseat to ASCII art { '-`""""`-' }
	time. ASCII art is a hobby-- most people have `"/ \"`
	hobbies. ASCII art is mine. Usually I create this \ /
	ASCII art late at night when the kids have gone to _/ /\ \_
	bed. I try not to spend my life in front of the j { / \ }
	computer. Really! `"` `"`

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	[Guidelines For Using this ASCII Art ][-=[ GO ]=-]

	to main pageSearch this site

	.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:._.:~:.

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_targon.txt
	https://web.archive.org/web/19990501044414/http://users.inetw.net/~mullen/tarteach.htm

	Note: some of the directions apply only to the GEnie computer service.

	Punch Art is not as hard as you would think if you prepare your canvas
	first. Here are some tips that might help.


	1. I start my canvas by selecting this topic from aladdins j
	screen and selecting R to reply.
	2. When the reply screen is open I draw a line from the left
	boarder to one space from the right boarder.
	3. Then I hit return 20 times and draw another line at the
	bottem of the screen.

	(like so)

	-------------------------------------------------------------------
	(press return) { use the space bar to move the cursor to here !)
	(press return)
	(repeat above 20 times) (you are doing this because the cursor
	can not be moved where it has never
	been before.)




	(bottom line)
	-------------------------------------------------------------------

	4. Then I return the cursor to the first line and use the
	space bar to move the cursor to one space from the end of the line.
	5. I use the arrow key to move the cursor down to the next
	line. It will automatically go to the beginning of the line. I then
	use the space bar to move it to one space from the end of the line.
	6. I repeat this until I reach the line I drew at the bottom
	of the canvas.

	Once this is done your canvas is ready. You can now use the arrow
	keys to move your cursor anywhere you want and you are ready to
	begin your drawing.

	7. To draw on the canvas, I press the insert key to go into
	typeover mode. This is important so that when you enter characters,
	your cusor does not insert spaces.
	8. If you make a mistake and want to erase a character just
	use the arrow key to move the cursor back to the character and use
	your space bar to erase it. (Do not use the backspace key or the
	delete key to correct mistakes. They will change the spacing)
	-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

	TIPS

	If you are drawing an animal or a person, start with the eyes then
	the nose and the mouth. Then draw the head. You will be able to
	judge the size the body needs to be from the head.

	Get familiar with the position of the following keys on the screen.

	[ ] ( ) . ` , ' ; : \ / \| " ^ < > - _ = ! ~

	Notice that they have all been typed on the same line, however they
	are positioned at different hights. You can use combinations of
	these keys to draw angles, slants, and sometimes circles.

	\ / \_ `-._ (increasing the
	\ / \_ `-._ amount of the _
	\ / \ can change the
	angle.)

	`----.______
	`------


	,----.
	," ",
	" "
	" "
	`. ,'
	`----'


	The following keys make good eyes, fingers, or toes.

	o O 0 ( ) c C

	eyes ----> 0 0 or (0) (0) or o o or (o) (o)

	toes -----> Oooo or Cooo

	If you get to the bottom line of your canvas and your picture is not
	finished, you can expand the canvas by hitting enter as many times
	as you need and using the space bar to prepare the canvas as you did
	when setting it up.


	If you cannot complete your drawing in one setting, type control k
	and then w. A window will open and ask you for a file name. Name the
	file. Then type ctrl a to abort the reply.

	When you're ready to resume the drawing, open the reply window from
	the j screen, then type control k and then r. When prompted for a
	file name, enter the name of your picture. It will be loaded back
	into the reply screen and you can continue.

	You can also use the above method to save a blank canvas after you
	prepare one. Then you don't have to make a new canvas for every
	drawing.

	Remember that every key on the key board can be used. Some of them
	make good shading keys. Such as @@@@@@@@@ or ######
	@@@@@@@@@ #####
	@@@@@@@ #####

	Don't be afraid to try different key combinations. If they don't
	work, experiment.

	Don't worry about pictures that don't work. I have many failures. It
	dosn't take long to realize you can't make a drawing work. I just
	give up on them.

	File: academy/tutorials/tut_veilleux.txt
	http://www.ascii-art.de/info/tut_veilleux.txt

	Normand Veilleux's ASCII Art Tutorial

	From: Normand Veilleux <nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca>

	Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 12:18:52 -0500 (EST)

	Several people have asked me how I do what I do (smoothing out
	pictures, etc.) First, I would like to say that I am a complete
	beginner myself. I had no drawing experience before Dec 11, 1993.
	At that time someone posted an ascii picture of Meriday (a
	professionally drawn nude, I think). I found that picture a lot
	more appealing than the GIFs I have seen or the mainframe pictures
	from my University years. Those tend to be hard the eyes from
	close up.

	Anyway, when someone else posted another nude that (I'm guessing
	here) was a cleaned up GIF. I immediately saw there was lots of
	room for improvement and I decided to give it a try. The only
	tools I had at my disposal were a PC with WordPerfect. The big
	advantage I saw with WP was that I could toggle between a normal
	view of the picture and a reduced version since WP allowed me to
	view a full page of text at once on the screen.

	In reduced format the text is actually transferred in graphics so
	that an '8' would actually appear as a black square. This gave the
	picture a rough look; the edges were all jagged. But, by
	experimenting with various character changes I soon realized that
	I could smooth out those jagged edges. I spent a lot of time
	flipping back and forth between the normal and the reduced views.

	Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. When I changed the font from
	"Courrier 10" to "Line Printer 16.67 cpi" for the LaserJet printer,
	I noticed that the jagged flaws appeared even more pronounced.
	This is why you'll see me mention once in a while that "the
	drawings I post are at their best when printed with 'Line Printer
	16.67 cpi' font or equivalent." They were worked on using that
	font. They still look very good in a regular font
	though. That's the beauty of it all.

	I still do the same thing now, only a little faster. It is a time
	consuming process and I see potential to automate some, if not a
	large portion of it. I have asked a few people on the NET if they
	knew of any software that could lighten or darken an ascii picture,
	reduce or enlarge it, etc. So far, no luck.

	I took a 15 hour bus ride (double it for the return trip) during
	the Christmas holidays up to Kapuskasing where my parents live. So
	I had some time to think about things. I came up with pseudocode
	for a program to lighten and darken a picture automatically. That
	is, if the picture is dark, it will lighten it and vice versa
	without any cumbersome parameters of any sort. It's extremely
	simple when you think about it for 3 to 4 hours. I haven't had the
	chance to program any of it yet but given a week or two it will be
	implemented.

	I also wrote pseudocode for flipping a picture horizontally, and
	for reducing and enlarging one. These were not quite as simple but
	it looks like it can work. If any of you out there know of
	programs that do just that already please let me know ASAP. You'll
	save me a lot of time.

	Thank's a million.

	I hope these "tips" have entertained as much as enlightened you.
	Like a person I use to listen to on radio often said "When I learn
	something during the day I go to bed at night less ignorant."

	And so it has been for me a joy to learn how to draw.

	From: Nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca (Normand Veilleux)
	Date: Sat Jan 08 16:08:26 CST 1994

	I have received a few requests to explain the "logic" behind the
	smoothing. So far I have only explained what tools I use to create
	it (flipping back and forth from normal to reduced view in
	WordPerfect). I will try to give here the same explanation I gave
	the first student who asked. Since I did not save that discussion
	this one will be slightly different.

	The whole thing is visual as you could have guessed. So, the best
	way I know to show you what I mean is by giving an example:

	Take this Doesn't this
	for example look smoother?

	8 8
	88 Yb
	88 Yb
	888 Y8a,
	88888 `"Y888

	BTW, that reminds me of a quote I saw not too long ago: "A truly
	wise person does not play leapfrog with a rhinoceros" :-)

	I consider the "smoothing problem" as nothing more than a "weight
	distribution problem". By shifting up the pixel density of an 8
	with characters such as P, Y, ", etc., where necessary, and by
	shifting down the pixel density of an 8 with characters such as b,
	d, a, etc., where necessary, the graphic takes on a smoother look.

	May sound simple when it's explained like that but I don't know
	where to start to program it. I'll start with easier stuff first,
	like flipping a picture horizontally. That's kids stuff. I used
	a semi-manual technique when I had to flip my ascii face around.
	The picture I had drawn was a mirror image, so it had to be flipped
	to look right. I created two small macros (less than 10 commands
	each) in WordPerfect which did the bulk of the work. After that
	all I needed to do was about 20 global search and replaces. It
	took about 5 - 10 minutes total. It would have taken hours to
	retype it in reverse or to write a program to do it.

	Since I don't have access to a scanner, but I sometimes want to
	take a picture from paper and draw it in ascii I developed a GRID
	technique to help me out. Anyone who wants to give it a try needs
	to create the grid electronically and then print it. Here is how
	it works. Start with the following grid:

	1.2.3.4.5.
	2.A.B.C.D.
	3.E.F.G.H.
	4.I.J.K.L.
	5.M.N.O.P.

	The dots can actually be replaced by spaces, so create the grid
	using your preference.

	Then, copy the whole grid horizontally until you fill all the width
	of the paper size you want to use. And then, copy this new grid as
	many times as needed to fill the length of the page. You will end
	up with something along these lines (with spaces):

	1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
	2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D
	3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H
	4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L
	5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P
	1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
	2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D
	3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H
	4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L
	5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P

	Now, get a printed copy of that grid and put it aside for a bit.

	BTW, this technique works best with pictures that are about 1/4 of
	an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. Larger pictures can also be done but
	are cumbersome and time consuming. That is how I created three
	ascii pictures so far: the hand that showed "that close", the ying
	yang, and my own face. The toughest thing about the face was to
	draw it on paper first.

	At this stage you need to find a picture that is reasonably simple
	in terms of complexity :-) In other words not too detailed; the
	coarser the better. Something taken from a colouring book would
	probably be an excellent choice (although I have not used any
	myself yet). You may need to "modify" the picture so that it will
	also "cooperate" to the process (especially if taken from a
	photograph or other source).

	With a photocopier, enlarge or reduce the picture so that it is
	close to the best size (as stated above). Then, use a wide black
	marker to "highlight" the lines and contours (this may not be
	necessary if the picture came from a colouring book). If there is
	a background image that you want to remove, just cut and tape white
	paper over those areas or just cut out the undesired areas. This
	is important since the "junk" you would otherwise leave in would
	eventually interfere with the grid.

	When the lines are all really dark and just about all the
	background has been removed you can photocopy the new picture on
	the grid. You may have to experiment a few times to get the
	picture to come out the same as the original on an upside up grid.

	When you have such an image you can now bring up the electronic
	grid. Work at it from left to right and from top to bottom. Put
	your word processor on typeover and space over the characters of
	the first line until you get to a character that is partially or
	completely covered by a dark line on the paper grid. Use the 1 to
	5 and the A to P to locate the correct position. When you get to
	such a character, try to find a character that resembles the shape
	of the line and type that in. Ex: '8' for a character that is
	totally covered, 'a' for a character that has the bottom half
	covered, etc. This is actually starting the smoothing process at
	the same time you are converting from paper to screen. Remember
	that shading complicates things unnecessarily, so ignore it
	completely.

	Repeat this process for all the lines of the grid until the picture
	is completely transferred to electronic form. You don't need to be
	an artist do this. You just need to have some time on your hands.

	Of course at this point the ascii picture is still slightly rough,
	but at least you have the right proportions, etc. Now you could
	try to smooth it out by using the "weight distribution" technique
	described above and perhaps a printed version of one of the ascii
	pictures I have smoothed (for concrete examples).

	It may sound very complicated at first, but just to give you an
	example, the ying yang I did (a few people informed me that I had
	forgotten the eyes):

	.,ad88888888baa,
	,d8P""" ""9888ba.
	.a8" ,ad88888888888a
	aP' ,88888888888888888a
	,8" ,88888888888888888888,
	,8' (888888888( )888888888,
	,8' `8888888888888888888888
	8) `888888888888888888888,
	8 "8888888888888888888)
	8 `888888888888888888)
	8) "8888888888888888
	(b "88888888888888'
	`8, (8) 8888888888888)
	"8a ,888888888888)
	V8, d88888888888"
	`8b, ,d8888888888P'
	`V8a, ,ad8888888888P' Normand
	""88888888888888888P" Veilleux
	""""""""""""

	took just over half an hour using that technique. I hope a few of
	you will be interested enough to try it out. If you do, let us
	know how it goes.

	EXPERIMENT: Would someone with access to a scanner and the
	GIF2ASC program (or an OCR) try the following:
	take a picture from a colouring book, scan it and
	then convert it to ascii. Alternatively, tell your
	scanner that what you are scanning is text, if you
	have an OCR. I am under the impression that the
	results would be quite presentable. Of course,
	sometimes theory and practice differ considerably.
	Please post your findings.

	From: Normand Veilleux <nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca>
	Date: 27 Jun 1994 20:26:35 -0500

	I have seen several ascii versions of the Mona Lisa circulating in
	alt.ascii-art but I was not happy with any of them. They all
	appeared to be converted GIFs and even the best one, which was
	distinctly superior to all the others, only looked decent when I
	stood back at least 5 feet from it. It also had the drawback of
	being stretched vertically. So I decided to make my own.

	I also wanted to take this opportunity to give a concrete example
	of how the special grid technique that I use, accelerates and
	simplifies the creation of many ASCII drawings. I wanted to
	explain, as much as possible, what was involved in drawing by
	"hand" the ASCII version of a relatively complex picture while
	starting from scratch.

	I have described the grid technique in a previous post (in Jan.
	'94), but a recapitulation is necessary before going any further.
	Basically, the grid was nothing more than a series of characters
	that filled up the area taken by the drawing. I realized that the
	characters composing the grid would be more useful if they were
	chosen to help pinpoint where a particular portion of the drawing
	was located within the grid.

	There was many ways of doing this, but I opted for the following
	rectangle (10 x 5 characters):

	1.2.3.4.5.
	2.A.B.C.D.
	3.E.F.G.H.
	4.I.J.K.L.
	5.M.N.O.P.

	This rectangle was then replicated horizontally and vertically
	until an area the size of an 8.5" x 11" page was filled up. I
	later decided to replace the periods by spaces to "lighten" the
	grid. This created an electronic grid which looked like this:

	1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
	2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
	3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
	4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
	5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O
	1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
	2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
	3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
	4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
	5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O

	The characters 1 to 5 produced horizontal and vertical guidelines.
	With these guidelines, I could quickly locate the approximate area
	of the grid that I wanted to work on. To pinpoint the exact
	location, I relied on the letters A to P which appeared only once
	inside each rectangle.

	Of course, the electronic grid alone was not very useful until I
	could somehow relate it to the drawing. To do so, I printed out
	the grid and then photocopied it on an acetate for reusability.
	Then, whenever I wanted to work on a picture, I taped a photocopy
	of it to the back of the acetate and brought up the electronic grid
	on the screen. By the intermediary of the grid, I automatically
	had a relationship between the picture on paper and the screen.

	TIP: If you ever print a grid on an acetate, make sure to cover the
	acetate with clear tape afterwards to prevent your fingers
	from eroding the toner. I learned the hard way.

	Now, back to Mona. You may find the discussion a little difficult
	to follow at times without a picture, so either find a copy of the
	Mona Lisa or print out this file.

	In search of a decent reproduction of the Mona Lisa I went to the
	closest library and found an excellent example on page 25 of the
	book "Leonard de Vinci" published by McGraw-Hill in 1974. The
	picture measured about 9.5" x 12" and was in full colour.

	Next, I photocopied the picture. The lowest darkness setting gave
	the best result, but was still a little bit too dark in certain
	areas to distinguish some of the lines. Before addressing that
	problem, I decided to cut the photocopy so that the resulting
	picture could fit in 55 lines by 78 columns. This was
	approximately double the height of the head and was wide enough to
	show a large portion of both shoulders.

	To make the barely discernable lines more visible, I highlighted
	them with a blue pen. I made sure to draw those lines about one
	sixteenth of an inch thick so they would be clearly visible.
	Experience had taught me that very fine lines were often too
	difficult to distinguish from a dark background once the grid was
	superimposed on the picture. The affected lines were: the lines
	between veil and hair, hair and background, chin and throat, and
	the lines on each side of the face and on each side of the arched
	garment extending to her left shoulder (referred to as the shawl in
	the rest of this document). While I was at it, I also highlighted
	the contours of the lips, nose and eyes in the same manner. I then
	taped the touched up photocopy behind the acetate which had the
	grid.

	The next step was to load the electronic version of the grid in my
	favourite word processor (WordPerfect). Before starting work, I
	decided to represent the dark areas of the picture with an "8" (I'm
	sure you guessed that), the shawl with an "I" and the veil with an
	"8" if it was covering any hair and with an "I" if it was not (or
	to show its border in the hair). I chose those characters since
	they contrasted very well: it was easy to distinguish a line of
	I's in an area filled with 8's.

	Then, I determined which character of the acetate corresponded to
	the top of her left shoulder and located that character on the
	electronic grid. While holding the acetate in my left hand and
	marking my position on it with my thumb, I delimited the contour
	(only one character wide) around the bottom of the picture (counter
	clockwise) up to her right shoulder by replacing the characters of
	the grid with 8's except for the ends of the shawl which needed
	I's.

	I then continued up the picture, line by line, while overwriting
	the grid's characters with spaces until I got to the first
	character delimiting the border of Mona's hair or veil, as
	determined from the acetate. At that point, I typed one of four
	characters: "8", "d", "`" or "," depending on which one
	corresponded best to the dark portion of the picture at that
	location on the acetate. I then typed two more 8's and a space;
	just enough to define the contour. Of course, when I was in the
	area where the veil was the first thing to be reached I used I's
	instead of 8's.

	I repeated that process for each line until I reached the top of
	the head. There, I decided to follow the inside line of the hair
	while going down the right side of the picture. So, I first
	started by defining the hair line on the forehead and filling the
	top of the head with 8's. Then, starting at the inside line for
	the hair I typed 8's until I reached the other side of the hair and
	then added a "b" or a "," if necessary. I also made sure to drop
	an "I" along the way at the exact location where I had shown the
	veil to start covering the hair (it was a blue line on the
	photocopy). I continued this, line by line, until I reached the
	top of the shawl.

	So, half an hour after loading the grid I was at this stage:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,8888888888888888888888888,
	,888888888888888888888888888888,
	,8888888888888888888888888888888888,
	d88888PP"""""""YY888888888888888888888,
	,88 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 ""Y8888888888888,
	,II 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E IIII8888888888,
	,II 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J `888III8888888,
	,II P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N `888888I888888,
	,II 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 `888888I8888b
	,II C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 8888888I8888,
	II8 G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H `8888888I888b
	II8 K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888I888
	II8 O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888I888,
	II8 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 ,888888888I88b
	,II B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 8888888888I888
	II8 F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888,
	,II J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888b
	II8 N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I888
	II8 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I888,
	II8 B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I888b
	II8 F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 88888888888I8888,
	II8 J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888888I8888b
	II8 N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I88888
	II8 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I88888
	`II B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I88888
	II8 F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888888,
	`II J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888888b
	`II O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 8888888888I8888888
	`II 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 `888888888I8888888,
	II8 D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 888888888I88888888,
	,II G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H `88888888I888888888,
	II8 K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 88888888I8888888888,
	II8 O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 88888888I888888888888,
	,II 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 `8888888I88888888888888,
	II8 C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 8888888I888888888888888b
	,II F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 ,8888888I8888888888888888
	,88 J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J I
	,88 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N I
	,88 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 I
	,88 C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B I
	,88 G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F I
	d88 J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J I
	8 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N 8
	8 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 8
	8 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B 8
	8 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F 8
	8 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J 8
	8 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N 8
	8 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 8
	8 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B 8
	8 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F 8
	8 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J 8
	8888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888888888

	Here, it seemed appropriate to fill in the shawl with I's which
	automatically led to filling in the bottom right corner with 8's
	and adding my name. I then completed the small portion of hair at
	the top of the shawl. Then, I defined the upper portion of the
	garment, beside the veil, and filled in the section below that with
	8's. Next, I filled the rest of the hair (on the left side of the
	picture) with 8's while defining the hair's inside line. I also
	filled in, with spaces, the area of skin from the top of the
	garment up to the throat. Next, I drew the veil on the forehead
	and filled in the rest of the forehead with spaces. And finally I
	smoothed all the lines drawn so far, leaving the face for last.

	So, after one hour of work I was at this stage:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
	,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
	,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
	d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
	,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
	,8II-'" "```IIII8888888888,
	,I88' `Y88III8888888,
	,II88I `Y88888I888888,
	,II888' `888888I8888b
	,II8888 Y888888I8888,
	II88888 `8888888I888b
	II88888, 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888I888
	II88888I 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888I888,
	II88888' 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 ,888888888I88I
	,II88888 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D d888888888I888
	III88888, 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888,
	,III88888I 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888I
	III888888I 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I888
	II88888888, 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I888,
	II88888888I A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I888b
	]I888888888, E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 88888888888I8888,
	II888888888I I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888888I8888I
	II8888888888b N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I88888
	II888888888888a 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I88888
	`II8888888888888b, D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I88888
	II888888888888888ba,_ E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888888,
	`II88888888888888888b I J K L 4 I J K L I888888888I888888b
	`II88888888888888888 M N O P 5 M N O P I888888888I8888888
	`II8888888888888888 `888888888I8888888,
	II8888888888888888, Y88888888I8888888b,
	,II8888888888888888b `88888888I88888888b,
	II888888888888888P"I 88888888I8888888888,
	II888888888888P" ` Y8888888I88888888888b,
	,II888888888P" `8888888I8888888888888b,
	II888888888' 8888888I888888888888888b
	,II888888888 ,8888888I8888888888888888
	,d88888888888 d888888I8888888888IIIIIII
	,ad888888888888I 8888888I8888IIIIIIIIIIIII
	,d888888888888888' 888888IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
	,d888888888888P'8P' Y888IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
	,8888888888888, " ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
	d888888888888888, ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
	888888888888888888a, _ ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888
	888888888888888888888ba,_d' ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,IIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888
	888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII8888888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888 Normand 88
	88888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
	8888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888888888

	I found the shawl to be much too pale in comparison to the rest of
	the garment, so I tried replacing the I's with darker characters
	such as M, H, A, etc. Unfortunately, even though I could see the
	difference on the screen reasonably well, I could not see any
	difference between those characters and the surrounding 8's when I
	used the reduced view feature of WordPerfect. I have been using
	this feature to view an entire page at a time on the screen. It's
	only when I tried a 'Z' that I was able to distinguish between the
	two characters in the reduced view. So, 'Z' had my vote.

	I then worked on the face for about half an hour, defining the
	mouth, nose, eyes, etc. I tried my preferred style first, but it
	looked awful so I tried line draw instead without any more success.
	Nothing seemed to work, so I reverted back to my preferred style of
	ASCII drawing and to be true to it I did not add any shading to the
	face.

	This was how the picture looked at that stage:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
	,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
	,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
	d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
	,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
	,8II-'" "```IIII8888888888,
	,I88' `Y88III8888888,
	,II88I `Y88888I888888,
	,II888' `888888I8888b
	,II8888 Y888888I8888,
	II88888 `8888888I888b
	II88888, .aag, ,gaaP"" 88888888I888
	II88888I ___"b d" ____ 88888888I888,
	II88888' <^I88>I I <^I888' ,888888888I88I
	,II88888 . `""" I I `""" . d888888888I888
	III88888, ```` b '''' 8888888888I888,
	,III88888I 8888888888I888I
	III888888I , \, 88888888888I888
	II88888888, I' "I 88888888888I888,
	II88888888I `"baad"' ,88888888888I888b
	]I888888888, ,P88888888888I8888,
	II888888888I "Y88bd888P" ,d" 88888888888I8888I
	II8888888888b `""""" _,8" ,88888888888I88888
	II888888888888a _,P"' ,d88888888888I88888
	`II8888888888888b, _,d"' ,aP"88888888888I88888
	II888888888888888ba,__,,ad"" _,aP" 8888888888I888888,
	`II88888888888888888b"ba,,,,aadP"' I888888888I888888b
	`II88888888888888888 `""""' I888888888I8888888
	`II8888888888888888 `888888888I8888888,
	II8888888888888888, Y88888888I8888888b,
	,II8888888888888888b `88888888I88888888b,
	II888888888888888P"I 88888888I8888888888,
	II888888888888P" ` Y8888888I88888888888b,
	,II888888888P" `8888888I8888888888888b,
	II888888888' 8888888I888888888888888b
	,II888888888 ,8888888I8888888888888888
	,d88888888888 d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
	,ad888888888888I 8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888888' 888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888P'8P' Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,8888888888888, " ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	d888888888888888, ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	888888888888888888a, _ ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
	888888888888888888888ba,_d' ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
	888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand 88
	88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
	8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888

	Since I could not seem to improve the face, I decided to try and
	experiment with shading to see if that could help. Well, it did
	not turn out the way I thought it would: the shading was too pale.
	So I ended up losing half an hour to get to this stage:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
	,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
	,d88888888I88888888888888888888888b,
	d88888PP""" """YY88888888888888888888b,
	,d88"'__,,--------,,,;:::""Y8888888888888,
	,8II:'" .,:.":::IIII8888888888,
	,I88:. ...::::::Y88III8888888,
	,II88I:. :..:::::Y88888I888888,
	,II888'.. :.:...:::::888888I8888b
	,II8888. .::::::Y888888I8888,
	II88888: .:::::::8888888I888b
	II88888; .aag, ,gaaP""... .:.::::::88888888I888
	II88888I:::::::"b d":::::;;::, :..:::::88888888I888,
	II88888'::<^I88>I I::.<^I888' ..:.::;888888888I88I
	,II88888 . `""" I I:.. `""" . ..:.::d888888888I888
	III88888, ```` b;. '''' ..:.:::8888888888I888,
	,III88888I :. ..:.::::8888888888I888I
	III888888I , :, :::.::::88888888888I888
	II88888888;: I' "I :.:.:::::88888888888I888,
	II88888888I:. `"baad": .:::.::::88888888888I888b
	]I888888888;:.:. :.:..:.:: ..:.:.:::::88888888888I8888,
	II888888888I:. ."Y88bd888P" ..::.::::::88888888888I8888I
	II8888888888b::. `""""'.:.:.:.::.::::::;88888888888I88888
	II888888888888a:. :::::.:. .:,aP:::::;d88888888888I88888
	`II8888888888888b;. ..::.;aP":::::;aP:88888888888I88888
	II888888888888888ba,__,,aP"::::::;aP::::8888888888I888888,
	`II88888888888888888b"ba;;;;aadP":::::::I888888888I888888b
	`II88888888888888888 .:::::::::::::::::I888888888I8888888
	`II8888888888888888 .::::::::::::::..`888888888I8888888,
	II8888888888888888, ..::.:::::.:.. Y88888888I8888888b,
	,II8888888888888888b .::..:.. `88888888I88888888b,
	II888888888888888P"I ..:. 88888888I8888888888,
	II888888888888P"::.` Y8888888I88888888888b,
	,II888888888P".::: `8888888I8888888888888b,
	II888888888' 8888888I888888888888888b

	Later, I decided to give line drawing another chance and started
	working on the face with no shading. I managed to get a decent
	looking nose in about 5 minutes so I continued and slowly but
	surely the rest of the face took on a new look that was much better
	than anything obtained so far. It took about half an hour of trial
	and error to get to this:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
	,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
	,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
	d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
	,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
	,8II-'" "```IIII8888888888,
	,I88' `Y88III8888888,
	,II88I `Y88888I888888,
	,II888' `888888I8888b
	,II8888 Y888888I8888,
	II88888 `8888888I888b
	II88888, ---. ..----- 88888888I888
	II88888I _,,_ `. .' _,,_ 88888888I888,
	II88888' <'(@@> \| \| <'(@@> ,888888888I88I
	,II88888 `""" \| \| `""" d888888888I888
	III88888, ` 8888888888I888,
	,III88888I 8888888888I888I
	III888888I , ', 88888888888I888
	II88888888, (_ _) 88888888888I888,
	II88888888I `--' ,88888888888I888b
	]I888888888, ,P88888888888I8888,
	II888888888I "Y88bd888P" ,d" 88888888888I8888I
	II8888888888b `""""" _,8" ,88888888888I88888
	II888888888888a _,P"' ,d88888888888I88888
	`II8888888888888b, _,d"' ,aP"88888888888I88888
	II888888888888888ba,__,,ad"" _,aP" 8888888888I888888,
	`II88888888888888888b"ba,,,,aadP"' I888888888I888888b
	`II88888888888888888 `""""' I888888888I8888888
	`II8888888888888888 `888888888I8888888,
	II8888888888888888, Y88888888I8888888b,
	,II8888888888888888b `88888888I88888888b,
	II888888888888888P"I 88888888I8888888888,
	II888888888888P" ` Y8888888I88888888888b,
	,II888888888P" `8888888I8888888888888b,
	II888888888' 888888I8888888888888888b
	,II888888888 ,888888I88888888888888888
	,d88888888888 d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
	,ad888888888888I 8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888888' 888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888P'8P' Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,8888888888888, " ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	d888888888888888, ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	888888888888888888a, _ ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
	888888888888888888888ba,_d' ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
	888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand 88
	88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
	8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888

	I decided to consider this the final unshaded version.

	Now, the question remained: would it be worthwhile to add in the
	shading? I showed the unshaded version of the picture to a friend
	who is a graphic designer. It didn't take him long to mention
	shading as the next step. I showed him the first attempt
	(displayed above) and admitted that I had no idea how to improve
	it. He suggested using a printed copy of my unshaded picture and
	drawing the shading on it first, before attempting to draw it on
	the computer.

	Well, that almost discouraged me right there. Drawing simple stuff
	on paper was not a problem, but when it came to shading I didn't
	have a clue how it could be done. He helped by pointing out that
	I could start by drawing the outer edge of the faintest shading as
	though it were a regular object. I could then define another line
	that would represent the "middle ground" of the shading. He
	suggested not to use more than 2 or 3 different levels of shading.
	So off to the drawing board I went.

	I did not keep all the stages of the shading, but suffice to say
	that it took about twice as much time then all the rest of the
	picture. This was the final result of the shaded version:

	_______
	_,,ad8888888888bba,_
	,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
	,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
	,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
	d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
	,d88"'__,,--------,,,,.;ZZZY8888888888888,
	,8IIl'" ;;l"ZZZIII8888888888,
	,I88l;' ;lZZZZZ888III8888888,
	,II88Zl;. ;llZZZZZ888888I888888,
	,II888Zl;. .;;;;;lllZZZ888888I8888b
	,II8888Z;; `;;;;;''llZZ8888888I8888,
	II88888Z;' .;lZZZ8888888I888b
	II88888Z; _,aaa, .,aaaaa,__.l;llZZZ88888888I888
	II88888IZZZZZZZZZ, .ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ;llZZ88888888I888,
	II88888IZZ<'(@@>Z\| \|ZZZ<'(@@>ZZZZ;;llZZ888888888I88I
	,II88888; `""" ;\| \|ZZ; `""" ;;llZ8888888888I888
	II888888l `;; .;llZZ8888888888I888,
	,II888888Z; ;;; .;;llZZZ8888888888I888I
	III888888Zl; .., `;; ,;;lllZZZ88888888888I888
	II88888888Z;;...;(_ _) ,;;;llZZZZ88888888888I888,
	II88888888Zl;;;;;' `--'Z;. .,;;;;llZZZZ88888888888I888b
	]I888888888Z;;;;' ";llllll;..;;;lllZZZZ88888888888I8888,
	II888888888Zl.;;"Y88bd888P";;,..;lllZZZZZ88888888888I8888I
	II8888888888Zl;.; `"PPP";;;,..;lllZZZZZZZ88888888888I88888
	II888888888888Zl;;. `;;;l;;;;lllZZZZZZZZW88888888888I88888
	`II8888888888888Zl;. ,;;lllZZZZZZZZWMZ88888888888I88888
	II8888888888888888ZbaalllZZZZZZZZZWWMZZZ8888888888I888888,
	`II88888888888888888b"WWZZZZZWWWMMZZZZZZI888888888I888888b
	`II88888888888888888;ZZMMMMMMZZZZZZZZllI888888888I8888888
	`II8888888888888888 `;lZZZZZZZZZZZlllll888888888I8888888,
	II8888888888888888, `;lllZZZZllllll;;.Y88888888I8888888b,
	,II8888888888888888b .;;lllllll;;;.;..88888888I88888888b,
	II888888888888888PZI;. .`;;;.;;;..; ...88888888I8888888888,
	II888888888888PZ;;';;. ;. .;. .;. .. Y8888888I88888888888b,
	,II888888888PZ;;' `8888888I8888888888888b,
	II888888888' 888888I8888888888888888b
	,II888888888 ,888888I88888888888888888
	,d88888888888 d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
	,ad888888888888I 8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888888' 888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,d888888888888P'8P' Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	,8888888888888, " ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	d888888888888888, ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
	888888888888888888a, _ ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
	888888888888888888888ba,_d' ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
	888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
	88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
	8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand 88
	88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
	8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888

	As you can see, the grid system that I have been working with since
	January '94 allows to very quickly transfer the large details from
	paper to screen while keeping the proportions of the original
	picture. This eliminates a lot of the time-consuming
	experimentation otherwise required to get the right proportions.
	You can't go wrong with the grid: the characters that compose it
	allow you to "see" where you should start and where you should
	stop. The skills required to use it are fairly simple as well,
	although they do need to be practiced. One thing the grid cannot
	do though, is eliminate the experimentation needed for the
	finishing touch: the smaller details, the smoothing, the shading,
	etc.

	---<-<@ ---<-<@ ---<-<@ ---<-<@ ---<-<@

	A big thank you goes to Rowan Crawford who spent time revising an
	earlier draft of this document and who provided many useful
	suggestions to improve its contents.

	The pictures I post are at their best when printed with a
	'Line Printer 16.67 cpi' font or equivalent.

	___ _______
	,88888, ,d88888888a
	,88" `Y8, ,88"' `"Y8i ,ggggg, ,ggggg, ,ggg,,ggg,,ggg,
	I8b, `8b ,88' d8I dP" "Y8ggg8""""8I ,8" "8P" "8P" "8,
	`Y8P 88.88' ,88' i8' ,8I 8I I8 8I 8I 8I
	(8V8' d8P I8, ,d8' Y8,,dP 8I 8I Yb,
	(88P ,8P `Y8888P" `Y88P' 8I 8I `Y8ba
	d88 d8'
	,88' ,8P _,,ggdd888bbgg,,_
	d8P I8I _,gd8888P"""""""""Y8888bg,_
	,88 I8b _,gd88P"""' `"""Y88bg,_
	88' `Y8b,__,gd8P""' Normand Veilleux `""Y8bg,_
	d8P `Y88888P"' nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca `"Y88ba