2. ASCII Art

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2. ASCII Art

ASCII Art: picture from text

ASCII art has a very long history. ASCII art in its purest form consists of text that is made with a monospaced font, like Courier (New) and Typewriter. Originally, ASCII art is made on a typing machine. Today, ASCII art is the only type of graphics that is instantly viewable on any terminal, emulation, or communications software. For examples and more information, please check out these popular websites: http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ and http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/ and http://www.chris.com/ASCII/

ASCII art is not easy to make, and time consuming to do it right. Usually a minimum of characters is used to create a simple but graphically beautiful effect, e.g. for banner-text and e-mail stationeries. This is an example from a popular website ( http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/t/tiger.txt):

   _
  ( \                ..-----..__
   \.'.        _.--'`  [   '  ' ```'-._
    `. `'-..-'' `    '  ' '   .  ;   ; `-'''-.,__/|/_
      `'-.;..-''`|'  `.  '.    ;     '  `    '   `'  `,
                 \ '   .    ' .     '   ;   .`   . ' 7 \
                  '.' . '- . \    .`   .`  .   .\     `Y
                    '-.' .   ].  '   ,    '    /'`""';:'
                      /Y   '.] '-._ /    ' _.-'
                      \'\_   ; (`'.'.'  ."/
                       ' )` /  `.'   .-'.'
                        '\  \).'  .-'--"
                          `. `,_'`
                            `.__)  AsH/sk

With Textaizer you can create basic ASCII art, and the effects can be great if the user takes time and effort to prepare the original (source picture) and the chosen character set. Use our basic filters to tune the source picture or properly prepare a picture with e.g. Adobe Photoshop or any other cheaper solution, such as IrfanView.

The ASCII Art settings

(Bitmap) size multiplier increases the size of the resulting bitmap. The maximum value is 16x, the minimum 0.5x. For instance when a bitmap has 89x46 characters and is 1.5 Mb in size, a multiplier value of 2.0x will increase the size to 178x92, and a size of 5.5Mb 9 (so: the end result becomes 4x the size). With increasing sizes, the calculation time increases accordingly. On slow systems, text mosaic creation may then take tens of seconds.
Font size sets the size of the font. The font typeface is defined in the 'Tools' tab ('Font settings'). With the choice of font size, the amount of characters per line is estimated. This is the number of characters that is seen on one line of the ASCII art picture, in the web browser or in Notepad. This is a useful indicator to check that the ASCII file does not exceed 80 lines, the usual maximum characters on single line of an e-mail program (inherited from the old days of MS DOS...).
Open in Notepad or in Internet Browser: when checked the result is also shown in the default web browser, and/or in Notepad.

Text options

Coverage is the degree of (surface) coverage by the ASCII characters. Moving this slider to the right creates a very thick and 'filled' result. The ASCII result may look fully 'typed in' and details can be suppressed. Moving the slider to the left creates a 'thinner' effect. The ASCII result will improve, but the bitmap result may look worse. In the example below the effect is clearly seen.

Variance is the amount of character variation. Textaizer calculates a 'top X' characters that may fit with the target picture. To create a more vivid result, Textaizer Pro randomly selects one of these top X characters. When the variance is low, the 'top X' is small (e.g. X = 3) and if the variance is hight, the 'top X' characters is large (e.g. X = 27). As a consequence a high variance may lead to a less fitting character, but can create a more vivid (variant) result. When the variance is set to 0 only the best fitting character is chosen (no random selecting from the 'top X' - or: X = 1).
Cut-off is the luminance threshold below which the text will be placed. A low cut-off will result in a full picture, while a high value will cut-off the highlights and leave only the darkest areas for the ASCII Art picture. The example below explains the effect.

Use typewriter font selects a type-writing font (is part of the Textaizer installation files). Like the Courier New font, this font is monospaced, and therefore suitable for ASCII art. However, this font is not or hardly used in HTML pages.

Use block characters will force to use the block characters from the extended ASCII set (only applicable in HTML pages). These are the special characters (

) and will create more solid shaped pictures, that can not be made with plain alphanumeric characters. The big advantage of block characters is a very short loading time of the HTML page, since it is not a picture, just plain text. With block characters, pretty realistic effects can be achieved.

Black and white HTML removes the colour code of each character in the HTML file, resulting in the black and white ASCII art. If left unchecked, the ASCII Art result is fully coloured, and it's recommended to select the proper background colour. Black is usually a very good choice.