ASCII art facts for kids

ASCII art is a cool way to make pictures using only letters, numbers, and symbols from your keyboard. Think of it like drawing with text! These pictures can be very simple, like a smiley face made with a colon and a parenthesis (like this: `: )`), or they can be much bigger and more detailed, using many lines of characters to create complex images.

People first started making ASCII art when computers could only show text characters, not fancy graphics. It was a clever way to "draw" pictures on screens or printers that didn't have advanced image capabilities. Even today, many people enjoy creating and sharing ASCII art, especially in online chats or text files.

What is ASCII?

ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It's a special code that computers use to represent text characters. Every letter, number, and symbol on your keyboard has its own unique ASCII code. For example, the letter 'A' has one code, and the symbol '*' has another.

When you type on a computer, the computer uses ASCII to understand which character you pressed. ASCII art uses these standard characters to build images, almost like building a picture with tiny text blocks.

How is ASCII Art Made?

Creating ASCII art can be done in a few ways:

• Typing by hand: Some artists carefully type out each character, placing them just right to form shapes and shadows. This takes a lot of patience and skill!
• Using special programs: There are computer programs that can convert regular images into ASCII art. These programs analyze an image and replace its pixels with characters that have similar brightness or texture.
• From old printers: In the past, people even used typewriters or early computer printers to make art. They would use different characters to create darker or lighter areas, making a picture appear on the paper.

Different Styles of ASCII Art

Over the years, different styles of ASCII art have become popular. Each style uses characters in a unique way to create its look.

Oldskool or Amiga Style

This style often uses a limited set of characters and focuses on clear outlines and simple shading. It was popular on older computers like the Commodore Amiga. The characters are often spaced tightly together, giving the art a solid, blocky feel.

"Oldskool" or "Amiga" style

Newskool Style

Newskool ASCII art is more detailed and often uses a wider range of characters, including special symbols and punctuation marks. Artists use these characters to create finer details, smoother curves, and more complex textures. It often looks more like a traditional drawing.

"Newskool" style

Block or High ASCII Style

This style uses special characters that are like small blocks or shaded areas. These characters allow artists to create images with more solid fills and smoother gradients, almost like a low-resolution pixel art. It's sometimes called "High ASCII" because it uses characters from the extended ASCII set. This style is closely related to ANSI art.

"Block" or "High ASCII" style, cf. ANSI art

Where Can You See ASCII Art?

Even though computers can show amazing graphics now, ASCII art is still around!

• Online chats and forums: People often use simple ASCII art like emoticons (like `:)` or `<3`) to express feelings or create small pictures.
• Code and text files: Sometimes, programmers include ASCII art in their code comments or in "readme" files to make them more fun or decorative.
• Retro gaming: Some old computer games used ASCII characters to create their graphics.
• Creative expression: Many artists still enjoy the challenge and unique look of creating art with just text.

It's a cool example of how creativity can bloom even with simple tools!

Images for kids

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  The alphabet in Newskool style (Note: artificially shrunk vertically)

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  A picture of Dag Hammarskjöld, printed using a teleprinter in 1961-62.

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  An illustration of the constellation "Sirius" from a very old 9th-century book about astronomy.

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  A part of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper from January 6, 1875, showing advertisements made from typewriter art.

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  A self-propelled howitzer (a type of military vehicle) and a truck, both made using ASCII art.

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  Block ASCII art shown in Notepad compared to a special viewer called ACiDView for Windows.

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  How Oldschool/Amiga ASCII art looked on a Commodore Amiga Computer versus how it looked on an IBM PC (notice the tight spacing).

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  A screenshot of Newskool ASCII art.

See also

In Spanish: Arte ASCII para niños