Ascii Art

  /\ 
 /~~\scii Art

basically consists of pictures pieced together from characters (preferrably from the set defined by ASCII). They can be created with any text editor. Most require a [non-proportional font]? for correct viewing.

The simplest forms of Ascii Art are the smiley and its kin, little two or three character combinations for expressing emotion in text. :) Another example is the initial "A" of this article.

Some types ignore the particular shape of the characters and treat them as more-or-less filled boxes:

                  _a,
                 _yQa.
                _qTWW(
                je`?QX:
               <d+ -3Wm;
              _qos_s%mWw,
              a2?????TWW(
             sd(     -?Qm;.
           .amm;     .xmWmc
           """""`    """""""

[Colour Example]

Ascii Art is and was used wherever text can be more readily printed or transmitted than graphics. This includes typewriters, teletypes, computer terminals, early computer networking, e-mail and Usenet news messages.

Animated ascii art is possible by embedding ANSI escape sequences for cursor movement into the "picture".