Editing ASCII art (section)

==Types and styles==
Different techniques could be used in ASCII art to obtain different artistic effects.

"Typewriter-style" lettering, made from individual letter characters:<ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/>{{nat|&nbsp;

 H   H EEEEE L     L      OOO       W   W  OOO  RRRR  L     DDDD  !!
 H   H E     L     L     O   O      W W W O   O R   R L     D   D !! 
 HHHHH EEEEE L     L     O   O      W W W O   O RRRR  L     D   D !! 
 H   H E     L     L     O   O  ,,   W W  O   O R   R L     D   D    
 H   H EEEEE LLLLL LLLLL  OOO  ,,    W W   OOO  R   R LLLLL DDDD  !!
}}
Line art, for creating shapes: 
 .--.     /\                ____
 '--'    /__\    (^._.^)~ <(o.o )>

Solid art, for creating filled objects:
 .g@8g.  db
 'Y8@P' d88b

Shading, using symbols with various intensities for creating gradients or contrasts:
 :$#$: "4b. ':.
 :$#$:   "4b. ':.

Combinations of the above, often used as signatures, for example, at the end of an email:
   |\_/|        ****************************    (\_/)
  / @ @ \       *  "Purrrfectly pleasant"  *   (='.'=)
 ( > º < )      *       Poppy Prinz        *   (")_(")
  `&gt;&gt;x&lt;&lt;´       *   (pprinz@example.com)   *
  /  O  \       ****************************

As-pixel characters use combinations of ░ , █ , ▄, ▀ ([[Block Elements]]), and/or ⣿, ⣴, ⢁, etc ([[Braille ASCII]]) to make pictures:
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠿⠿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣾⣿⣷⣦⣌⠙⢿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡈⢻⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⠟⠋⣉⠙⢻⣿⣿⣿⣷⠀⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⡷⢀⣿⣿⣿⡿⠀⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣼⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⠁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⠟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣧⡈⠻⢿⣿⡿⠋⣠⣾⣿⣿⡟⢁⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣶⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿

===Emoticons===
{{Main|Emoticon}}
The simplest forms of ASCII art are combinations of two or three characters for expressing emotion in text. They are commonly referred to as '[[emoticon]]', 'smilie', or '[[smiley]]'. There is another type of one-line ASCII art that does not require the mental rotation of pictures, which is widely known in Japan as [[kaomoji]] (literally "face characters".)

More complex examples use several lines of text to draw large symbols or more complex figures. [[List of emoticons|Hundreds of different text smileys]] have developed over time,<ref name="smileys2">{{cite web| last        = textfiles| title= Collection of ASCII Smileys| date= 2008| url = http://artscene.textfiles.com/asciiart/smileys.txt| access-date = 5 March 2008| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080310030328/http://artscene.textfiles.com/asciiart/smileys.txt| archive-date = 10 March 2008| url-status= live}}</ref> but only a few are generally accepted, used and understood.

===ASCII comic===
An ASCII comic is a form of [[webcomic]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

====The Adventures of Nerd Boy====
'The Adventures of Nerd Boy', or just 'Nerd Boy', was an ASCII comic, published by Joaquim Gândara between 5 August 2001 and 17 July 2007, and consisting of 600 strips. They were posted to ASCII art [[newsgroup]] alt.ascii-art and on the website.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nerd-boy.net/nerdboypak.php| title= The Adventures of Nerd Boy—Episodes 1-635 | last= Gândara|first= Joaquim| year= 2006| publisher= Nerd-Boy.net| access-date= 5 March 2008}}</ref> Some strips have been translated to [[Polish language|Polish]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilk|2006}} episodes 1 to 172
</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|nb-pl.jogger.pl|2006}} episodes 208 to 470</ref> and [[French language|French]].

===Styles of the computer underground text art scene===
===={{anchor|ATASCII art}}Atari 400/800 ATASCII====
The [[Atari 8-bit computers|Atari 400/800]], which were released in 1979, did not follow the ASCII standard and had their own character set, called [[ATASCII]].<ref>{{cite web| last= Štěrba|first= Radek| title= ATASCII
| date= 20 December 2005| url=http://raster.infos.cz/atari/chars/atascii.htm|access-date  = 20 December 2005| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051220204949/http://raster.infos.cz/atari/chars/atascii.htm| archive-date = 20 December 2005}}(gif image)</ref><ref>{{cite web| last1= Moeser| first1= David| last2= Fusik| first2= Piotr| url= http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/faq/section-49.html| date= 13 May 2007|title= 7.2: What is the ATASCII character set? | publisher= faqs.org|access-date= 5 March 2008}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2012}} The emergence of ATASCII art coincided with the growing popularity of [[Bulletin board system|BBS Systems]] caused by availability of the [[acoustic coupler]]s that were compatible with the 8-bit home computers. ATASCII text animations are also referred to as "break animations" by the Atari sceners.

===={{anchor|PETSCII art}}C-64 PETSCII====
The [[Commodore 64]], which was released in 1982, also did not follow the ASCII standard. The C-64 character set is called [[PETSCII]], an extended form of [[ASCII]]-1963. As with the Atari's ATASCII art, C-64 fans developed a similar scene that used PETSCII for their creations.

===="Block ASCII" / "High ASCII" style ASCII art on the IBM PC====
{{Contradicts other|date=June 2012|1=ANSI art}}
[[File:ASCII notepad acidview compare.png|right|200px|thumbnail|Block ASCII display via Notepad versus ACiDView for Windows]]
So-called "block ASCII" or "high ASCII" uses the extended characters of the 8-bit [[code page 437]], which is a proprietary standard introduced by [[IBM]] in 1979 (ANSI Standard x3.16) for the IBM PC DOS and MS-DOS operating systems. "Block ASCIIs" were widely used on the PC during the 1990s until the Internet replaced BBSes as the main communication platform. Until then, "block ASCIIs" dominated the [[Computer art scene|PC Text Art Scene]].<ref name="asciistyles">{{cite web| url= http://www.RoySAC.com/roy-sac_styles_of_underground_text_art.html| title= The Three ASCII Art Styles of the Underground Text Art Scene| last= Roy/SAC| website= www.roysac.com| access-date = 19 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="ddarthistory">[http://cd.textfiles.com/darkdomain/www/html/history-art_scene.html An Abbreviated History of the Underground Computer Art Scene] by Napalm, 11 October 1998, The History of Art and Technology</ref>

The first art scene group that focused on the extended character set of the PC in their artwork was called "Aces of ANSI Art", or {{proper name|[[A.A.A|<A.A.A>]]}}. Some members left in 1990 and formed a group called "ANSI Creators in Demand", or [[ACiD]]. In that same year the second major underground art scene group "Insane Creators Enterprise", or [[iCE Advertisements|ICE]], was founded.<ref name="100years">[http://www.cow.net/conned/notacon/artscene/notacon-100artscene-transcript.txt 100 YEARS OF THE COMPUTER ART SCENE], Presented by [[Jason Scott Sadofsky]] and [[RaD Man]] ([[ACiD Productions|ACiD]]), [[Notacon]] Conference – Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 23–25 April 2004.</ref>

There is some debate between ASCII and block ASCII artists, with "Hardcore" ASCII artists maintaining that block ASCII art is in fact not ASCII art, because it does not use the 128 characters of the original ASCII standard. On the other hand, block ASCII artists argue that if their art uses only characters of the computer's character set, then it is to be called ASCII, regardless if the character set is proprietary or not.

Microsoft Windows does not support the [[American National Standards Institute|ANSI Standard]] x3.16. One can view block ASCIIs with a text editor using the font "[[Terminal (font)|Terminal]]", but it will not look exactly as it was intended by the artist. With a special ASCII/ANSI viewer, such as ACiDView for Windows {{crossreference|(see: {{slink|List of text editors|ASCII and ANSI art|nopage=y}})}}, one can see block ASCII and ANSI files properly. An example that [[#"Block ASCII" / "High ASCII" style ASCII art on the IBM PC|illustrates the difference]] in appearance is part of this article. Alternatively, one could look at the file using the [[TYPE (DOS command)|TYPE]] command in the command prompt.

===="Amiga"/"Oldskool" style ASCII art====
[[File:Paso-IceCream-AmigaVsPC.png|right|200px|thumbnail|Oldschool/Amiga ASCII look on Commodore Amiga computer showing noticeably tighter spacing than on the IBM PC]]
In the art scene one popular ASCII style that used the 7-bit standard ASCII character set was the so-called "Oldskool" style. It is also called "Amiga style", due to its origin and widespread use on [[Amiga|Commodore Amiga]] computers. The style uses primarily the characters <code>_/\-+=.()<>:</code> and looks more like the outlined drawings of shapes than real pictures. The accompanying image is an example of "[[Amiga]] style" (also referred to as "old school" or "oldskool" style) [[computer art scene|scene]] ASCII art.<ref name="asciistyles"/>

The Amiga ASCII scene surfaced in 1992, seven years after the introduction of the Commodore [[Amiga 1000]]. The Commodore 64 PETSCII scene did not make the transition to the Commodore Amiga as the C64 demo and warez scenes did. Among the first Amiga ASCII art groups were ART, Epsilon Design, Upper Class, Unreal (later known as "DeZign"). This means that the text art scene on the Amiga was actually younger than the text art scene on the PC. The Amiga artists also did not call their ASCII art style "Oldskool". That term was introduced on the PC; when and by whom is unknown and lost to history.

The Amiga style ASCII artwork was most often released in the form of a single text file, which included all the artwork (usually requested), with some design parts in between, as opposed to the PC art scene where the art work was released as a [[ZIP archive]] with separate text files for each piece. Furthermore, the releases were usually called "ASCII collections" and not "art packs" like on the IBM PC.

=====In text editors=====
<pre style="float:right;">
 _____ ___ ____ _      _   
|  ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_ 
| |_   | | |  _| |/ _ \ __|
|  _|  | | |_| | |  __/ |_ 
|_|   |___\____|_|\___|\__|

</pre>
This kind of ASCII art is handmade in a text editor. Popular editors used to make this kind of ASCII art include [[Microsoft Notepad]], [[CygnusEd]]itor also known as CED ([[Amiga]]), and EditPlus2 ([[Wintel|PC]]).

The accompanying image shows an [[Oldskool font]] example done with the ASCII editor [[FIGlet]] on a PC.

====Newskool style ASCII art====
[[File:Roy-csnewskool.png|right|200px|thumbnail|Newskool ASCII screenshot]]
"Newskool" is a popular form of ASCII art which capitalizes on character strings like "$#Xxo". In spite of its name, the style is not "new"; on the contrary, it was very old but fell out of favor and was replaced by "Oldskool" and "Block" style ASCII art. It was dubbed "Newskool" upon its comeback and renewed popularity at the end of the 1990s.<ref name="asciistyles"/>

Newskool changed significantly as the result of the introduction of [[character encoding|extended proprietary characters]]. The classic 7-bit standard ASCII characters remain predominant, but the extended characters are often used for "fine tuning" and "tweaking". The style developed further after the introduction and adaptation of [[Unicode]].