Editing ASCII art (section)

==Other text-based visual art==
There are a variety of other types of art using text symbols from character sets other than ASCII and/or some form of color coding. Despite not being pure ASCII, these are still often referred to as "ASCII art". The character set portion designed specifically for drawing is known as the line drawing characters or [[pseudo-graphics]].

===ANSI art===
{{Main|ANSI art}}
The IBM PC graphics hardware in text mode uses 16 bits per character. It supports a variety of configurations, but in its default mode under DOS they are used to give 256 glyphs from one of the IBM PC code pages ([[Code page 437]] by default), 16 foreground colors, eight background colors, and a flash option. Such art can be loaded into screen memory directly. [[ANSI.SYS]], if loaded, also allows such art to be placed on screen by outputting escape sequences that indicate movements of the screen cursor and color/flash changes. If this method is used then the art becomes known as [[ANSI art]]. The IBM PC code pages also include characters intended for simple drawing which often made this art appear much cleaner than that made with more traditional character sets. Plain text files are also seen with these characters, though they have become far less common since Windows GUI text editors (using the [[Windows ANSI code page]]) have largely replaced DOS-based ones.

===Shift_JIS and Japan===
{{anchor|Monā}}[[File:Mona01.svg|thumb|{{nihongo||モナー|Monā}} Posted on {{nihongo|[[2channel]]|２ちゃんねる|Nichanneru}} in 2000]]
[[File:Gikoneko01.svg|thumb|{{nihongo|Giko cat|ギコ猫|Gikoneko}} Posted on 2channel in 2000]]
{{Main|Shift_JIS art}}
In Japan, ASCII art (AA) is mainly known as Shift_JIS art. [[Shift JIS]] offers a larger selection of characters than plain ASCII (including [[Japanese language and computers|characters from Japanese scripts]] and [[Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms|fullwidth forms of ASCII characters]]), and may be used for text-based art on Japanese websites.

Often, such artwork is designed to be viewed with the default Japanese font on a platform, such as the proportional MS P Gothic.<ref>
{{cite web| url= http://monafont.sourceforge.net/index-e.html|title= Mona Font| website= monafont.sourceforge.net| access-date = 19 October 2017}}</ref>

====Kaomoji====
{{Further|Emoticon#Japanese_style|List of emoticons#Eastern}}
Users on ASCII-NET, in which the word ''ASCII'' refers to the [[ASCII (company)|ASCII Corporation]] rather than the [[American Standard Code for Information Interchange]], popularised a style of {{Nihongo|emoticon|[[wikt:顔文字|顔文字]]|kaomoji|emoticon}} in which the face appears upright rather than rotated.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Icon
! Meaning
|-
| (^_^) (^^ゞ　(^_^;)　(-_-;)　(~_~;)　(・。・;)　(・_・;)　(・・;)　^^;　^_^; (#^.^#) (^ ^;) || Smiley, nervous, embarrassed, troubled, shy, sweat drop
|}

==={{anchor|Unicode art}}Unicode===
{{further|Unicode}}
[[Unicode]] would seem to offer the ultimate flexibility in producing text based art with its huge variety of characters. However, finding a suitable fixed-width font is likely to be difficult if a significant subset of Unicode is desired. (Modern UNIX-style operating systems do provide complete fixed-width Unicode fonts, e.g. for [[xterm]]. Windows has the [[Courier New]] font, which includes characters like {{nowrap|┌{{tsp}}╥{{tsp}}─{{tsp}}╨{{tsp}}┐}}♥{{hsp}}☺{{nowrap|{{tsp}}Ƹ̵̡{{tsp}}Ӝ̵̨̄{{tsp}}Ʒ}}). Also, the common practice of rendering Unicode with a mixture of variable width fonts is likely to make predictable display hard, if more than a tiny subset of Unicode is used. {{nowrap|≽<sup>ʌ</sup>ⱷ҅<sub>ᴥ</sub>ⱷ<sup>ʌ</sup>≼}} is an adequate representation of a cat's face in a font with varying character widths.

====Control and combining characters====
{{original research section|date=May 2015}}
{{Further information|Zalgo text}}
The [[combining character]]s mechanism of [[Unicode]] provides considerable ways of customizing the style, even [[obfuscation|obfuscating]] the text (e.g. via an online generator like Obfuscator,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://obfuscator.uo1.net/|title=Online Text Obfuscator|website=obfuscator.uo1.net}}</ref> which focuses on the filters<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3470669/should-unicode-be-allowed-in-usernames|title=web services - Should Unicode be allowed in usernames?|website=Stack Overflow}}</ref>). 'Glitcher' is one example of Unicode art, initiated in 2012: "These symbols, intruding up and down, are made by combining lots of diacritical marks. It’s a kind of art. There’s quite a lot of artists who use the Internet or specific social networks as their canvas."<ref>{{cite web|last= Zakas| first= Laimonas| title= Facebook Page Performance Art Glitchr|url= https://techcrunch.com/2012/01/11/facebook-page-performance-art-glitchr-purposefully-tries-to-activate-code-glitches/| website= TechCrunch| date = 12 January 2012|publisher= AOL| access-date = 23 June 2015|ref = Glitchr}}
</ref> The corresponding creations are favored in web browsers (thanks to their always better support<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~richard/unicode-sample-3-2.html|title=Unicode 3.2 test page|website=www.ltg.ed.ac.uk}}</ref>), as [[geek]]ily stylized usernames for social networks. With a fair compatibility, and among different online tools, Facebook symbols<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fsymbols.com/generators/facebook-name/|title=Facebook profile name style with symbols (fb name font generator)|website=fsymbols.com}}</ref> showcases various types of Unicode art, mainly for aesthetic purpose (Ɯıḳĭƥḙȡḯả Wîkipêȡıẚ Ẉǐḳîṗȅḍȉā Ẃįḵįṗẻḑìẵ Ẉĭḵɪṕḗdïą Ẇïƙỉpểɗĭà Ẅȉḱïṕȩđĩẵ etc.). Besides, the creations can be hand-crafted (by programming), or pasted from mobile applications (e.g. the category of 'fancy text'<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://play.google.com/store/search?q=fancy+text&c=apps|title=fancy text - Android Apps on Google Play|website=play.google.com}}</ref> tools on Android). The underlying technique dates back to the old systems that incorporated [[control character]]s, though. E.g. the German composite <code>ö</code> would be imitated on [[ZX Spectrum]] by overwriting<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ZXBasicManual/zxmanchap16.html|title=World of Spectrum - Documentation - ZX Spectrum manual - Chapter 16|website=www.worldofspectrum.org}}</ref> <code>"</code> after [[backspace]] and <code>o</code>.

===Overprinting (surprint)===
In the 1970s and early 1980s it was popular to produce a kind of text art that relied on overprinting. This could be produced either on a screen or on a printer by typing a character, backing up, and then typing another character, just as on a typewriter. This developed into sophisticated graphics in some cases, such as the [[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]] system (circa 1973), where superscript and subscript allowed a wide variety of graphic effects. A common use was for [[emoticon]]s, with WOBTAX and VICTORY both producing convincing smiley faces.<ref>[http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2012/09/plato-emoticons-revisited.html PLATO Emoticons, revisited], Brian Dear, ''[http://www.platohistory.org/ PLATO History: Remembering the future],'' 19 September 2012</ref> Overprinting had previously been used on typewriters, but the low-resolution pixelation of characters on video terminals meant that overprinting here produced seamless pixel graphics, rather than visibly overstruck combinations of letters on paper.

Beyond pixel graphics, this was also used for printing photographs, as the overall darkness of a particular character space dependent on how many characters, as well as the choice of character, were printed in a particular place. Thanks to the increased granularity of tone, photographs were often converted to this type of printout. Even manual typewriters or [[daisy wheel printer]]s could be used. The technique has fallen from popularity since all cheap printers can easily print photographs, and a normal text file (or an e-mail message or Usenet posting) cannot represent overprinted text. However, something similar has emerged to replace it: shaded or colored ASCII art, using ANSI video terminal markup or color codes (such as those found in [[HTML]], [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]], and many internet [[message board]]s) to add a bit more tone variation. In this way, it is possible to create ASCII art where the characters only differ in color.