- published: 13 Jun 2014
- views: 3971
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters (beyond the 128 characters of standard 7-bit ASCII). The term is also loosely used to refer to text based visual art in general. ASCII art can be created with any text editor, and is often used with free-form languages. Most examples of ASCII art require a fixed-width font (non-proportional fonts, as on a traditional typewriter) such as Courier for presentation.
Among the oldest known examples of ASCII art are the creations by computer-art pioneer Kenneth Knowlton from around 1966, who was working for Bell Labs at the time. "Studies in Perception I" by Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon from 1966 shows some examples of their early ASCII art.
One of the main reasons ASCII art was born was because early printers often lacked graphics ability and thus characters were used in place of graphic marks. Also, to mark divisions between different print jobs from different users, bulk printers often used ASCII art to print large banners, making the division easier to spot so that the results could be more easily separated by a computer operator or clerk. ASCII art was also used in early e-mail when images could not be embedded. ASCII art can also be used for typesetting initials.
Warriors made of lightnings
thunder and black steel
Armed with mighty weapons
for their destiny
To all who have betrayed us
hear the battle cry
You'd better run for your life
Or you will die
We fight we kill
We have no fear we feel no pain
Heavy metal devastation is our aim
Thunder warriors fight...kill...
...Feel their power
See our warriors the legion of doom
They are coming soon
When we play our metal
They will rule the hall
They are ready to fight
They are ready for war