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ASCII
Jan 21, 2006 15:03:05 GMT -5
Post by Bartimeaus on Jan 21, 2006 15:03:05 GMT -5
Ysqure3's Crash Course to ASCII The first thing you need is a picture you want to make into ASCII. You don't technically need one, but freehand is much, much harder than tracing.
• copy your picture into Microsoft Word • on the toolbar, go into "View" and change it to "Web Layout View" • right click the image, go to "Format Picture", go to the "Layout" tab, and select "Behind Text" • make sure your font is Arial, size 10 • start tracing over the image with your text
Basically, just use the slopes for borders and the shading for the rest.
Slopes and stuff:
¸„-^'´ „-^´ „-* „-" „^´ „* ¸* ¸" ƒ | \ "¸ *¸ *„ `^„ "-„ *-„ `^-„ `'^-„¸
UPDATE: The character – (ALT-0150) is incredibly useful where you'd normally have extended runs of hyphens. It's roughly (very roughly) equal to the length of two hyphens,
but consecutive –'s merge together and don't leave gaps. EXAMPLE: ––– vs. ------
UPDATE: The characters ^ (SHIFT-6) and * (SHIFT-8) are useful for added accuracy on the high end of a line. The ^ is located (in terms of height) between the ~ and the *
and is slightly thinner than the ~ but significantly thicker than the *; the * is slightly lower than the " as well as slightly thicker. Both ^ and * can be used without an
intermediate character like a hyphen for slopes between „-" and /. EXAMPLE: „* „^
UPDATE: The characters ` and ´ (ALT-0180) are extremely useful when implying a slope at the top of a line. EXAMPLE: `~„ „-^´
UPDATE: The character • (ALT-7) is useful for when you want a character with the same height as ~, but less thick. EXAMPLE: „•´ ¸¸„„–•~^^**'''¯
UPDATE: The character ¸ (ALT-0184) is useful for an intermediate character between _ and „„ EXAMPLE: _¸¸„„
and the reverse. For gradual horizontal, go easy like this:
__„„„„––~^^**''''''¯¯''''''**^^~––„„„„__
For vertical, you can't really use intermediate characters, so just stagger |'s to create a near-vertical slope.
For the near-vertical slopes that are kinda tricky to get, don't worry to use slopes without intermediate characters like – and ~ to get much steeper slopes.
EXAMPLE:
„* and „^ are right between „-" and /
.......| ......'/ .…'„* ...„^ „-"
The main difference between slopes that use „ and slopes that use ¸ is where the slope below it should go. When one uses ¸, the slope in the line below should connect
lower, and thus a little further to the right (or left, depending on the direction of the slope).
*¸ ..*¸ …'*¸
*„ ..'*„ ....'*„
Try to preserve alignment well, especially vertically. For example...
| '| .| .'| ..| ..'| ...| …| ...'| …'| …'| ...'| …| ...| ..'| ..| .'| .| '| |
This segment of near-vertical slope is extremely smooth, as I used careful combinations of periods, ellipses, and apostrophes to align it such that all of it is one smooth,
connected piece. It looks much better than something like...
| .| ..| .'| ..| ..| ..'| .'/ '/ | '\ .'|
See how the line is a lot more staggered and has different slopes that change abruptly? It's visually distracting and makes for a less professional-looking ASCII.
For shading, I use the
........ :::::::: ;;;;;;;;
continuum, with gradients like .:.:.:.: or :;:;:;:; when I want stuff in between. I generally do NOT use commas, because they are not cenetered the same way as periods,
colons, and semicolons.
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., .,.,.,.,.,.,.,., .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,
See how the commas are shifted to the right within their character block? It's visually distracting and makes for a worse ASCII. Commas alone are generally all right
(,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,) but are tricky to use because of the difficulty in working the borders between a block of commas and any other shade gradient. The only time I generally use
.,.,.,.,.,., is when I am trying to create the impression of an atmospheric effect; like in Thardus, the Helghast, and Clank.
Here are a few circles with the shading continuua I use:
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´...........'`^„ '/..................\ |....................| . . BLANK (WHITE) '\..................'/ .'`•„............„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´.:.:.:.:.:.'`^„ '/.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:\ |.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.'| . . FAIRLY LIGHT '\.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:/ .'`•„.:.:.:.:.:.„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´:::::::::::'`^„ '/::::::::::::::::::\ |:::::::::::::::::::'| . . MEDIUM SHADING '\::::::::::::::::::/ .'`•„:::::::::::„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´:;:;:;:;:;:'`^„ '/:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;\ |:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:'| . . DARKER (NEAR BLACK) '\:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;/ .'`•„:;:;:;:;:;:„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´:;;:;;:;;:;'`^„ '/:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;\ |:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:'| . . ALMOST BLACK (DEEP SHADOW) '\:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;/ .'`•„:;;:;;:;;:;„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´;;;;;;;;;;;'`^„ '/;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;\ |;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;'| . . DARKEST POSSIBLE (BLACK) '\;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;/ .'`•„;;;;;;;;;;;„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
....'¸„„–~–„„¸ .'„^´.:.:.::::::'`^„ '/.:.:.:.:.:::::::::\ |.:.:.:.:.:.::::::::'| . . FADE FROM LIGHT TO MEDIUM '\.:.:.:.:.:::::::::/ .'`•„.::::::::::„•´ ....'`^~–-~^´
Tips:
• Use the „ (alt-0132) character instead of the , (comma) character in slopes; it is the exact same width but makes for a darker, more visible slope.
• If you wanna reduce the character count of your ASCII, use CTRL-H and replace...
............. (13 periods) with ………… (4 ellipses (alt-0133))
Exact same length, but you go from 13 characters to 4.
• Don't forget about the over- and underscores. (shift-hyphen and alt-0175). The underscore is lower than the „ and the overscore is above the quotation mark. _„"¯ It's wider,
though, and thus harder to position
• The quotation mark (") is ever so slightly thicker than the apostrophe ('). Use that to your advantage in slopes and other uses.
• Be creative!
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ASCII
Jan 21, 2006 15:04:50 GMT -5
Post by Bartimeaus on Jan 21, 2006 15:04:50 GMT -5
______________________####____####____####___######__######_____________________ _____________________##__##__##______##__##____##______##_______________________ _____________________######___####___##________##______##_______________________ _____________________##__##______##__##__##____##______##_______________________ _____________________##__##___####____####___######__######_____________________
ASCII FAQ v1.1 By warriorness This FAQ is © 2004 Ned Randersoff (AKA warriorness), and may not be reproduced in any way, in full or in part, without written (or typed) consent of the author (me).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Contents 2. Introduction 3. Overview of ASCII 4. Fixed Width (Shading) ~~~~a. Fixed Width Overview ~~~~b. Shades ~~~~c. Spacing ~~~~d. Tips 5. Patamon Style (Tracing) ~~~~a. Patamon Style Overview ~~~~b. Slopes ~~~~c. Spacing ~~~~d. Shading ~~~~e. Line shading ~~~~f. Tips 6. Text ~~~~a. Five Line ~~~~b. Seven Line ~~~~c. Ten Line ~~~~d. 3-D, Bold, and Italic 7. Cool Stuff ~~~~a. Oni Lukos's Character Width Chart ~~~~b. The Amazing One's Character Width Chart 8. Credits, Update History, Legal Mumbo Jumbo, and Contact Information ~~~~a. Credits ~~~~b. Update History ~~~~c. Legal Mumbo Jumbo ~~~~d. Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wrote this FAQ for a number of reasons. The first reason is because I'm bored, and there's nothing better to do this fine Sunday. Well, there is, but I don't feel like doing it. The second reason is that I think by writing this FAQ, I will get better at ASCII. The third reason is because I see a lot of people around who can't do ASCII and want to, can do ASCII decently but want to be able to do it better, or can make excellent ASCIIs, but can stand to be able to do it better. And what better way to improve your ASCII-making skills than by reading this FAQ (other than practicing, of course.) Well, now that I've run out of things to say that seem like they would belong in an introduction, I think I'll finish my introduction right here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. OVERVIEW OF ASCII ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this section I'm supposed to put everything that's too general to be put in the other sections.
ASCII is an acronym, and it stands for the American Standard Code for Imformation Interchange. Wow, big words there. That basically means, all the symbols that you type or write that are used for "interchanging information". The term "ASCII art" means the use of ASCII symbols to create a picture (or text). The title up at the beginning of this FAQ is a fine example. Anyways, the term "ASCII", which is supposed to mean what I said earlier, has become interchangeable with the term "ASCII art".
Anyways, there are two styles of putting symbols together so they look like a picture. Well, two styles that are used on GameFAQs, at least (which uses Arial size 10 text). The first (and most simple) is what I, and most ASCII artists on GameFAQs, call "Fixed Width". The second, harder method is generally called "Patamon Style". You'll see why they're called what they're called in the two sections of this FAQ pertaining to each style.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. FIXED WIDTH (SHADING) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. FIXED WIDTH OVERVIEW
Fixed Width is the first, and easier to make, style of ASCII. It's called that because it uses a grid system, and each "grid square" has a character with a different shade in it. The "grid squares" are formed because all the characters used in this style are the same length (at least in Arial 10 size text). So, when lined up, all the lines are the same. See how the same number of different characters form lines exactly the same length.
########## 8888888888 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ XXXXXXXXXX ¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶ __________ 7777777777
B. SHADES
Each Fixed Width character has a different shade (usually). Here's a shade scale of commonly used Fixed Width characters, mostly numbers (darkest on top, lightest on bottom*).
¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶ ################# $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ 44444444444444444 99999999999999999 ,/'|___ Note that 6 and 9 66666666666666666 '\,|¯¯¯ are the same shade. 88888888888888888 00000000000000000 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 55555555555555555 22222222222222222 33333333333333333 77777777777777777 11111111111111111 _________________
* If you haven't figured that out yet, you're definitely not smart enough to be reading my FAQ.
C. SPACING
Spacing is pretty easy to do in Fixed Width, seeing as how all the characters are the same length. I generally use the Underscore _ for spacing, since it provides a "white" background to your wonderful (maybe not?) Fixed Width ASCII. If, however, you want a black background, use this symbol ¶ (alt+0182). You can use other characters as a background, but make sure not to use that character in your art unless it's exactly the same color.
D. TIPS
For all ASCII art, I suggest tracing over a picture to make ASCII art. You can do this by pasting the picture over which you want to trace in Microsoft Word. Edit > Paste Special > Picture, then right click on the picture and Format Picture > Layout > Behind Text. Then make the text Arial size 9.5 (eighty characters in 10 size won't fit unless you extend the margin, which I guess you could do). Make one line of eighty underscores, copy it, and stretch the picture out to the end of the line. Then paste a bunch of those eighty underscore lines over your picture, and hit the "insert" button on your keybord. This makes it so when you type, you replace the next character with the character you typed, instead of making the line longer, it stays the same. Now go and trace over your picture. When you're done, I suggest making the darkest character ¶, unless that's your background, in which the darkest character should be a 4 (for contrast, you won't be able to see the # character).
Also, here's the list of all the GameFAQs-compatible characters that are standard Fixed Width length, credit to Oni Lukos. His full chart can be found in 7D: Cool Stuff- Oni Lukos's Character Width Chart. (Note: Some characters, when bolded, italic, or both, are this length. See The Amazing One's list in section 7: Cool Stuff to see which characters are like this.
111111 222222 333333 444444 555555 666666 777777 888888 999999 000000 ###### $$$$$$ ______ aaaaaa bbbbbb cccccc dddddd eeeeee gggggg hhhhhh kkkkkk nnnnnn oooooo pppppp qqqqqq ssssss uuuuuu xxxxxx yyyyyy zzzzzz LLLLLL TTTTTT XXXXXX ZZZZZZ ?????? €€€€€€ ƒƒƒƒƒƒ †††††† ‡‡‡‡‡‡ –––––– šššššš ¢¢¢¢¢¢ ££££££ ¤¤¤¤¤¤ ¥¥¥¥¥¥ §§§§§§ «««««« ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ±±±±±± µµµµµµ ¶¶¶¶¶¶ »»»»»» ðððððð ÷÷÷÷÷÷ øøøøøø þþþþþþ ÿÿÿÿÿÿ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. PATAMON STYLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. PATAMON STYLE OVERVIEW
The reason this is called "Patamon Style" is that Patamon is the most well-known (and, in many people's opinions, including myself, the best) ASCII artist who does this style. Unlike the Fixed Width style, Patamon Style uses mainly punctuation characters to make lines instead of shades. The slopes are more clearly defined, and more detail is possible. Here's a circle in both Patamon Style and Fixed Width style, so you can see the difference:
Patamon Style:
..,~"¯¯¯¯"~, ,/'...............'\, |..................| '\,..............,/' .."~,____,~"
Fixed Width:
___#####___ _#########_ ########### _#########_ ___#####___
B. SLOPES
The most essential part of Patamon Style ASCII art is knowing how to make different slopes. Here are some ways to make slopes in Patamon Style:
,-~" ,~" ,-" ,/' / | \ '\, "-, "~, "~-,
(note: you can also use ,-' or '-, for a slope in between ,-" and ,/' but that will make your lines lighter and they will look bad, especially when they're right next to a darker one such as above.)
Also, if the slope is less, you can do this sort of thing __,,---~~"¯¯ by using these symbols to make horizontal or slightly sloped lines:
__________„„„„„„„„„„„„„„„-----------------~~~~~~~~~""""""""""""""¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
C. SPACING
Spacing in Patamon Style is easy to do, but hard to master. Some people use underscores as Fixed Width spacing instead of the normal patamon-style spacing. Patamon Style, like Fixed Width style, should be done in Word, especially if you are tracing over a picture, which is reccommended. (See section 4D, Fixed Width Tips, for instructions on how to trace over a picture in Word.) The period character should be used for spacing. If you have Auto Format on in word (reccommended), typing three periods will convert it to one character. This character is one pixel longer than three one period characters, and two pixels shorter than four one period characters.
Note the difference:
...| three period characters …| one three-period character ....| four period characters
To get precise spacing, you must use a combination of both. There is a one pixel difference between each of the following lines.
……...| Two three period character and three one period characters ………| Three three period characters ..........| Ten one period characters ….......| One three period character and seven three period characters ……....| Two three period characters and four one period characters ……….| Three three period characters and one one period character
When you want to undo an Auto Format action, press backspace immediately after it's done. For example, typing three one period characters will give you one three period character. But typing three one period characters and hitting backspace will give you three one period characters.
(Note: when doing a Patamon style ASCII in word, it will mess up the spacing a little, because Word's Arial font is slightly different from GameFAQs's Arial. the quotation marks and commas are slightly longer in word. After I'm done tracing a picture in Word, I put the almost-finished ASCII in Notepad, and set the font to Arial 10, because Notepad's Arial 10 is the same as it is on GameFAQs.)
D. SHADING
Shading in a tough thing to do in Patamon Style. It's done when you need spacing inside of the object you're tracing. The characters used are the period, space, and colon (semicolon is optional for a dark shade). They're all the same length. Here's the shading scale:
. . . . . . . . . . : : : : : : : : : : ::::::::::::::::::: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
E. LINE SHADING
Basically, this means how dark your lines are. this is very hard to do sometimes, and I don't have good dark lines in most of my earlier ASCIIs. Making dark lines is easy most of the time, when you use symbols like / | \ or _ to make straight lines, but sometimes you might use characters that make your lines too light and then they look bad.
Most of the time when your lines are too light, you've used too many commas, or done this: ,-' If the slope of the line you need is somewhere in between / and ,~' don't put ,-' in your ASCII, unless the line you're making should be very light (in which case you shouldn't be using characters like / | or \ maybe put this ,' instead.). Do this ,/' or ,-" instead. Also, if you've made a line like this ¯¯¯"""""~~~----,,,,___ you'll notice that the commas make the line look bad. Use this character „ (Alt+0132) instead. It's a lot darker and it's just about the same size. Now your line looks like this ¯¯¯"""""~~~----„„„„___
(Note: In Word, when you type a quotation mark, it shows up as this character " but in any other program, it'll be this " which is slightly different. It's a pixel longer, and that means that using it will make lines slightly lighter than Word's character will. If that was confusing, just look here. Line made with Word's character: ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ Line made with other character: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Use word's character for darker lines, and the other character in lighter lines.)
F. TIPS
Not much to say here, everything is pretty much covered, but a few things aren't. If two (or more) lines are close together, and you can only do one of them, do the one that is most important. If a character has a fold in his clothing, ignore it. Some lines are unimportant to the image, and you should leave them out of the ASCII. Also, you can use certain symbols that are exactly the shape of a part of the picture. Patamon style isn't just limited to punctuation. Be creative.
Note the use of black dots (alt+7) for Trogdor's eyes.
…………………..'\.,-~"..'-,………….,-',-~"¯……………..\. ./………… ……………………¯¯'-,../.."~,_…_,--'~'~~~~---,,,_…… •..\/..•…..,--,… ………..---,,__………. .~~~~-,>''………………….¯"~---,____,,--/.O.\… ………………¯"~~………__,/………………………………………….. |…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6. TEXT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. FIVE LINE
ASCII Text isn't really art, but it's still using ASCII symbols to create a larger image. Text is the easiest form of ASCII "art" to make, especially 5-line text.
Here's the five-line alphabet:
__####__ _##__##_ _######_ _##__##_ _##__##_
_#####__ _##__##_ _#####__ _##__##_ _#####__
__####__ _##__##_ _##_____ _##__##_ __####__
_#####__ _##__##_ _##__##_ _##__##_ _#####__
_######_ _##_____ _######_ _##_____ _######_
_######_ _##_____ _######_ _##_____ _##_____
__######__ _##_______ _##__####_ _##____##_ __######__
_##__##_ _##__##_ _######_ _##__##_ _##__##_
_######_ ___##___ ___##___ ___##___ _######_
_____##_ _____##_ _____##_ _##__##_ __####__
_##__##_ _##_##__ _####___ _##_##__ _##__##_
_##_____ _##_____ _##_____ _##_____ _######_
_##____##_ _###__###_ _########_ _##_##_##_ _##_##_##_
_##__##_ _###_##_ _######_ _##_###_ _##__##_
__####__ _##__##_ _##__##_ _##__##_ __####__
_#####__ _##__##_ _#####__ _##_____ _##_____
__######__ _##____##_ _##_##_##_ _##__###__ __#######_
_#####__ _##__##_ _#####__ _##_##__ _##__##_
__#####_ _##_____ __####__ _____##_ _#####__
_######_ ___##___ ___##___ ___##___ ___##___
_##__##_ _##__##_ _##__##_ _##__##_ __####__
_##__##_ _##__##_ _##__##_ __####__ ___##___
_##______##_ _##__##__##_ _##__##__##_ __########__ ___##__##___
_##__##_ __####__ ___##___ __####__ _##__##_
_##__##_ _##__##_ __####__ ___##___ ___##___
_######_ ____##__ ___##___ __##____ _######_
Very easy to do. Note how most of the letters are six characters wide (not including the spaces on either side). You can also do punctuation, symbols, and foreign letters if you want.
B. SEVEN LINE
Also easy, but a little harder. You can make more detail with more space (lines), and therefore your letters are clearer. I'm not going to make the entire seven line alphabet. But here's an example. Each of these letters (some others may need to be longer) are eight characters long, not including the spaces in between.
_##____##___########___##_________##__________######____##_ _##____##___##_________##_________##_________##____##___##_ _##____##___##_________##_________##_________##____##___##_ _########___######_____##_________##_________##____##___##_ _##____##___##_________##_________##_________##____##___##_ _##____##___##_________##_________##_________##____##______ _##____##___########___########___########____######____##_
C. TEN LINE
These are HUGE. Instead of vertical lines being two characters wide, they're three, and you use two lines for a horizontal line. I try to make each letter ten characters long, not counting spaces.
_###____###___#########___###_________###___________######_____###_ _###____###___#########___###_________###__________########____###_ _###____###___###_________###_________###_________###____###___###_ _###____###___###_________###_________###_________###____###___###_ _##########___#######_____###_________###_________###____###___###_ _##########___#######_____###_________###_________###____###___###_ _###____###___###_________###_________###_________###____###___###_ _###____###___###_________###_________###_________###____###_______ _###____###___#########___#########___#########____########____###_ _###____###___#########___#########___#########_____######_____###_
D. 3D, BOLD, AND ITALIC
These are VERY easy to do, once you know how to do it, and already have made your text.
To do 3D, take your text (I'll use 5 line for all of these), and replace all the "#_"s with "#x". In Microsoft Word, "find & replace" is ctrl+F, and in Notepad, it's ctrl+H. (Note: I reccommend making three spaces between each letter in 5 line instead of two.)
This:
_##__##___######___##_______##________####____##_ _##__##___##_______##_______##_______##__##___##_ _######___####_____##_______##_______##__##___##_ _##__##___##_______##_______##_______##__##______ _##__##___######___######___######____####____##_
Turns into this:
_##x_##x__######x__##x______##x_______####x___##x _##x_##x__##x______##x______##x______##x_##x__##x _######x__####x____##x______##x______##x_##x__##x _##x_##x__##x______##x______##x______##x_##x_____ _##x_##x__######x__######x__######x___####x___##x
For bold, do the same thing (including the three-character space), but instead of replacing "#_" with "#x", you replace "#_" with "##".
So, you get this:
_###_###__#######__###______###_______#####___### _###_###__###______###______###______###_###__### _#######__#####____###______###______###_###__### _###_###__###______###______###______###_###_____ _###_###__#######__#######__#######___#####___###
Italics is different. Take the original word, and starting at the bottom, put no extra underscores on the first line, 1 extra on the second, 2 on the third, 3 on the fourth, and four on the fifth. (Note: you chan choose whether two or three character spaces looks better.
So, you get this:
_____##__##___######___##_______##________####____##_ ____##__##___##_______##_______##_______##__##___##_ ___######___####_____##_______##_______##__##___##_ __##__##___##_______##_______##_______##__##______ _##__##___######___######___######____####____##_
Bold italic is doing both bold and italic. It doesn't matter in which order you do them, just remember to use three character spaces.
_____###_###__#######__###______###_______#####___### ____###_###__###______###______###______###_###__### ___#######__#####____###______###______###_###__### __###_###__###______###______###______###_###_____ _###_###__#######__#######__#######___#####___###
You can also do stuff like Bold 3D, Italic 3D, or Bold Italic 3D, but that's pretty self-explanatory how to do it. So I won't bother to tell you, you can figure it out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7. COOL STUFF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. ONI LUKOS'S CHARACTER WIDTH CHART
This is basically a chart showing all the GameFAQs-compatible characters lined up so you can easily see differences in their width. It doesn't, unlike The Amazing One's chart in section B, show the widths of bold, italic, and bold italic characters. Here it is.
'''''' !!!!!! ffffff iiiiii jjjjjj llllll IIIIII |||||| ‚‚‚‚‚‚ '''''' '''''' ¡¡¡¡¡¡ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ `````` (((((( )))))) ------ rrrrrr tttttt ;;;;;; :::::: ,,,,,, ...... ////// \\\\\\ [[[[[[ ]]]]]] {{{{{{ }}}}}} „„„„„„ ˆˆˆˆˆˆ ‹‹‹‹‹‹ """""" """""" ˜˜˜˜˜˜ ›››››› ¨¨¨¨¨¨ ªªªªªª ²²²²²² ³³³³³³ ´´´´´´ ······ ¸¸¸¸¸¸ ¹¹¹¹¹¹ ****** ^^^^^^ vvvvvv """""" •••••• °°°°°° ºººººº JJJJJJ 111111 222222 333333 444444 555555 666666 777777 888888 999999 000000 ###### $$$$$$ ______ aaaaaa bbbbbb cccccc dddddd eeeeee gggggg hhhhhh kkkkkk nnnnnn oooooo pppppp qqqqqq ssssss uuuuuu xxxxxx yyyyyy zzzzzz LLLLLL TTTTTT XXXXXX ZZZZZZ ?????? €€€€€€ ƒƒƒƒƒƒ †††††† ‡‡‡‡‡‡ –––––– šššššš ¢¢¢¢¢¢ ££££££ ¤¤¤¤¤¤ ¥¥¥¥¥¥ §§§§§§ «««««« ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ±±±±±± µµµµµµ ¶¶¶¶¶¶ »»»»»» ðððððð ÷÷÷÷÷÷ øøøøøø þþþþþþ ÿÿÿÿÿÿ ~~~~~~ ====== ++++++ FFFFFF <<<<<< >>>>>> ¬¬¬¬¬¬ ¿¿¿¿¿¿ ×××××× &&&&&& wwwwww AAAAAA BBBBBB CCCCCC DDDDDD EEEEEE HHHHHH KKKKKK NNNNNN PPPPPP RRRRRR SSSSSS UUUUUU VVVVVV YYYYYY ŠŠŠŠŠŠ ŸŸŸŸŸŸ ÐÐÐÐÐÐ ÞÞÞÞÞÞ ßßßßßß GGGGGG OOOOOO QQQQQQ ©©©©©© ®®®®®® ØØØØØØ mmmmmm MMMMMM ¼¼¼¼¼¼ ½½½½½½ ¾¾¾¾¾¾ %%%%%% œœœœœœ ææææææ @@@@@@ WWWWWW ……………… ŒŒŒŒŒŒ —————— ™™™™™™ ÆÆÆÆÆÆ ‰‰‰‰‰‰
B. THE AMAZING ONE'S CHARACTER WIDTH CHART
This one has two sections, one with all the characters accesible on a standard keyboard, and one with some (but not all) characters accessible with the alt+number pad combinations. This one shows the lengths of bold characters and italic characters (and bold italic), but it doesn't have all the characters that are GameFAQs-compatible, unlike the previous one.
This chart is based on the apostrophe is one "unit" long (which is two pixels), and all the other characters' widths are in terms of the apostrophe's width..
(Note: I edited it some to make it easier to see, but I didn't change any of the characters.) (Note: The "3.5 units" group is standard "Fixed Width" length.)
The following characters are 1 unit long '
The following characters are 1.5 units long ! | I i l f j ' l j ' I
The following characters are 2 units long ` , . ; : - [ ] { } \ / ( ) r t ! I i l f j ` , . ; : [ ] ( ) t ! I i f , ; : [ ] { } ( ) \ / r t ! l i f j ` ; : - [ ] ( ) (Note: The "space" character is in this group.)
The following characters are 2.5 units long ^ * " v { } r * { } r *
The following characters are 3 units long J " s ^ v y x "
The following characters are 3.5 units long 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 # $ q e T y u o p a s d g h k L Z z X x c b n ? v J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 # $ y k Z z c J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 # $ q e u o p a s d g h L z c n ? v J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 # $ y a s z x c
The following characters are 4 units long ~ =+<>F^~=+<>FqeTuopadghLxbn?EYTkZb~+Fw^qTuopdghkzLbn?~+FP
The following characters are 4.5 units long & w E R Y U P A S D H K C V B N X & R U P A S D H K C V B N X & E R Y U P A S D H K C V B N Z X & E R Y U S D H K C V B N
The following characters are 5 units long Q O G Q O G % Q O G M w A Q O G
The following characters are 5.5 units long M m w M m %
The following characters are 6 units long % m % M m @
The following characters are 6.5 units long @ W @ W @ W W
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8. CREDITS, LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO, AND CONTACT INFORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. CREDITS
Thanks go to the following people:
Me, for inspiring myself to make ASCII art, and to write this FAQ to help others make ASCII art; CJayC, for creating such a fine message board community in which we can make ASCII art; Patamon, for introducing the GameFAQs message board community to "his" style of ASCII art; Keoni4842, for making the hidden ASCII board, and inviting all the fine ASCII artists to it; All my other fellow ASCII artists, for supporting me in my creation of ASCII art, and this FAQ; The board Life, the Universe, and Everything, for inspiring me to start creating ASCII; And anybody else whome I forgot to mention (Contact me if I did!).
B. UPDATE HISTORY
7-14-04 v1.1 Added a note about properly spacing ASCII done in word to section 5C. Added section 5E Line Shading. Added section 8B Update History.
(I forgot the dates that I did this >_<) v1.0 Wrote original FAQ. Here's what the Table of Contents looked like. 1. Contents 2. Introduction 3. Overview of ASCII 4. Fixed Width (Shading) ~~~~a. Fixed Width Overview ~~~~b. Shades ~~~~c. Spacing ~~~~d. Tips 5. Patamon Style (Tracing) ~~~~a. Patamon Style Overview ~~~~b. Slopes ~~~~c. Spacing ~~~~d. Shading ~~~~e. Tips 6. Text ~~~~a. Five Line ~~~~b. Seven Line ~~~~c. Ten Line ~~~~d. 3-D, Bold, and Italic 7. Cool Stuff ~~~~a. Oni Lukos's Character Width Chart ~~~~b. The Amazing One's Character Width Chart
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ASCII
Jan 21, 2006 15:07:02 GMT -5
Post by Bartimeaus on Jan 21, 2006 15:07:02 GMT -5
Bartimeaus's Indepth Guide to Shading The Basics:
White: ………… ………...
Medium :::::::::::: ::::::::::::
Black: ;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;
These are the basic shading units used in my ASCII.
.„/.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:./…………………….../…..„-“;:„„-~”¯:.:¯¯_„„–~””¯.:.:::::.::::.:::.:::.:.::..::.::.::.„„–––~~~*****””””””¯¯~~*****””””””””””¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯;;:;’|…:…:…:..:..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. This is a part of my ASCII from Valefor, notice the units used in the middle and the far right sections.
Here’s my table of light to dark:
White: ..................... +1: …:…:…:…:…: +2: ..:..:..:..:..:..:..: +3: .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: +4: .::.::.::.::.::.::.::. +5: :::.:::.:::.:::.:::.:: Med ::::::::::::::::::::: +5: :::;:::;:::;:::;:::;:: +4: ::;::;::;::;::;::;::;: +3: ;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;: +2: ;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:;;:; +1: ;;;:;;;:;;;:;;;:;;;:;; Black: ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
This scale measures the shading in intensity. I would advise using these units on bigger ASCII
I hope these come to some use to beginning ASCII’ist and even the more advanced ones to
Barti's Shortcuts Bartimeaus’s ASCII Shortcuts
On my keyboard, I made several shortcuts for an easier time while making ASCII
First I deiced which symbol I’d use the most, which is the „ (alt-0133) I changed it to alt-1 I made the overscore ¯ (alt-0175) I changed it to alt-2 I changed – character (alt-0150) to alt-3 I changed the • character to alt-4 I changed the ƒ character to alt-5
How to change character shortcuts: Go up to inset, next select symbol, the select the symbol whose shortcut you want to change by clicking on it, next click on shortcut key, and type in the new shortcut you want it to be, last select ok.
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ASCII
Jan 21, 2006 15:14:00 GMT -5
Post by Bartimeaus on Jan 21, 2006 15:14:00 GMT -5
History of ASCII (from wikipedia, i found it very informing)
There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), generally pronounced [æski], is a character encoding based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. Most modern character encodings have a historical basis in ASCII.
ASCII was first published as a standard in 1967 and was last updated in 1986. It currently defines codes for 33 non-printing, mostly obsolete control characters that affect how text is processed, plus the following 95 printable characters (starting with the space character):
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?
@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz[\]^_
`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~
Overview
Like other character representation computer codes, ASCII specifies a correspondence between digital bit patterns and the symbols/glyphs of a written language, thus allowing digital devices to communicate with each other and to process, store, and communicate character-oriented information. The ASCII character encoding[1] — or a compatible extension (see below) — is used on nearly all common computers, especially personal computers and workstations. The preferred MIME name for this encoding is "US-ASCII".
ASCII is, strictly, a seven-bit code, meaning that it uses the bit patterns representable with seven binary digits (a range of 0 to 127 decimal) to represent character information. At the time ASCII was introduced, many computers dealt with eight-bit groups (bytes or, more specifically, octets) as the smallest unit of information; the eighth bit was commonly used as a parity bit for error checking on communication lines or other device-specific functions. Machines which did not use parity typically set the eighth bit to zero, though some systems such as Prime machines running PRIMOS set the eighth bit of ASCII characters to one.
ASCII only defines a relationship between specific characters and bit sequences; aside from reserving a few control codes for line-oriented formatting, it does not define any mechanism for describing the structure or appearance of text within a document. Such concepts are within the realm of other systems such as the markup languages-
History
ASCII developed from telegraphic codes and first entered commercial use as a seven-bit teleprinter code promoted by Bell data services. The Bell System had previously planned to use a six-bit code, derived from Fieldata, that added punctuation and lower-case letters to the earlier five-bit Baudot teleprinter code, but was persuaded instead to join the ASA subcommittee that had started to develop ASCII. Baudot helped in the automation of sending and receiving telegraphic messages, and took many features from Morse code; however, unlike Morse code, Baudot used constant-length codes. Compared to earlier telegraph codes, the proposed Bell code and ASCII both underwent re-ordering for more convenient sorting (especially alphabetization) of lists, and added features for devices other than teleprinters. Bob Bemer introduced features such as the 'escape sequence'.
The American Standards Association (ASA, later to become ANSI) first published ASCII as a standard in 1963. ASCII-1963 lacked the lowercase letters, and had an up-arrow (↑) instead of the caret (^) and a left-arrow (←) instead of the underscore (_). The 1967 version added the lowercase letters, changed the names of a few control characters and moved the two controls ACK and ESC from the lowercase letters area into the control codes area.
ASCII was subsequently updated and published as ANSI X3.4-1968, ANSI X3.4-1977, and finally, ANSI X3.4-1986.
Other international standards bodies have ratified character encodings that are identical or nearly identical to ASCII. These encodings are sometimes referred to as ASCII, even though ASCII is strictly defined only by the ASA/ANSI standards:
ASCII has also become embedded in its probable replacement, Unicode, as the 'lowest' 128 characters. Some observers consider ASCII the most "successful" software standard ever promulgated.
ASCII control characters
ASCII reserves the first 32 codes (numbers 0–31 decimal) for control characters: codes originally intended not to carry printable information, but rather to control devices (such as printers) that make use of ASCII. For example, character 10 represents the "line feed" function (which causes a printer to advance its paper), and character 27 represents the "escape" key often found in the top left corner of common keyboards.
Code 127 (all seven bits on), another special character, equates to "delete" or "rubout". Though its function resembles that of other control characters, the designers of ASCII used this pattern so that it could "erase" a section of paper tape (a popular storage medium until the 1980s) by punching all possible holes at a particular character position, thus effectively replacing any previous information. Since Code 0 (null,all bits off) was also ignored it was possible to leave gaps and then make corrections by blanking characters before or after the gap and then entering new characters in the gap.
Many of the ASCII control codes serve (or served) to mark data packets, or to control a data transmission protocol (e.g. ENQuiry [effectively, "any stations out there?"], ACKnowledge, Negative AcKnowledge, Start Of Header, Start of TeXt, End of TeXt, etc). ESCape and SUBstitute permit a communications protocol to, for instance, mark binary data so that if it contains codes with the same pattern as a protocol character, the recipient will process the code as data.
The designers of ASCII intended the separator characters ("Record Separator", etc.) for use with magnetic tape systems.
Two of the device control characters, commonly interpreted as XON and XOFF, generally function as flow control characters to throttle data flow to a slow device (such as a printer) from a fast device (such as a computer) - so data does not overrun and get lost.
Early users of ASCII adopted some of the control codes to represent "meta information" such as end-of-line, start/end of a data element, and so on. These assignments often conflict, so part of the effort in converting data from one format to another involves making the correct meta information transformations. For example, the character(s) representing end-of-line ("newline") in text data files/streams vary from operating system to operating system. When moving files from one system to another, the conversion process must recognize these characters as end-of-line markers and handle them appropriately.
Today, ASCII users use the control characters less and less—with the exception of "carriage return" and/or "line feed". Modern markup languages, modern communication protocols, the move from text-based to graphical devices, and the demise of teleprinters, punch-cards, and paper tapes have rendered most of the control characters obsolete.
1. Printable Representation, the Unicode glyphs reserved for representing control characters when it is necessary to print or display them rather than have them perform their intended function. 2. Control key Sequence, the traditional key sequences for inputting control characters. The caret (^) represents the "Control" or "Ctrl" key that must be held down while pressing the second key in the sequence. The caret-key representation is also used by some software to represent control characters. 3. The Backspace character can also be entered by pressing the "Backspace", "Bksp", or ← key on some systems. 4. The Delete character can also be entered by pressing the "Delete" or "Del" key. It can also be entered by pressing the "Backspace", "Bksp", or ← key on some systems. 5. The Escape character can also be entered by pressing the "Escape" or "Esc" key on some systems. 6. The Carriage Return character can also be entered by pressing the "Return", "Ret", "Enter", or ↵ key on most systems. 7. The ambiguity surrounding the Backspace key comes from systems that translated the DEL control character into a BS (backspace) before transmitting it. Some software was unable to process the character and would display "^H" instead. "^H" persists in messages today as a deliberate humorous device, e.g. "there's a sucker^H^H^H^H^H^H potential customer born every minute". A less common variant of this involves the use of "^W", which in some text editors means "delete previous word". The example sentence would therefore also work as "there's a sucker^W potential customer born every minute".
ASCII printable characters
Code 32, the "space" character, denotes the space between words, as produced by the large space-bar of a keyboard. Codes 33 to 126, known as the printable characters, represent letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols.
Seven-bit ASCII provided seven "national" characters and, if the combined hardware and software permit, can use overstrikes to simulate some additional international characters: in such a scenario a backspace can precede a grave accent (which the American and British standards, but only those standards, also call "opening single quotation mark"), a tilde, or a breath mark (inverted vel).
Structural features
The digits 0-9 are represented with their values in binary prefixed with 0011 (this means that bcd-ASCII is simply a matter of taking each bcd nibble separately and prefixing 0011 to it.
Lowercase and uppercase letters only differ in bit pattern by a single bit simplifying case conversion to a range test (to avoid converting characters that are not letters) and a single bitwise operation. Aliases for ASCII
RFC 1345(published in June 1992) and the IANA registry of character sets (ongoing), both recognize the following case-insensitive aliases for ASCII as suitable for use on the Internet:
ANSI_X3.4-1968 (canonical name)
ANSI_X3.4-1986
ASCII
US-ASCII (preferred MIME name)
us
ISO646-US
ISO_646.irv:1991
iso-ir-6
IBM367
cp367
csASCII
Of these, only the aliases "US-ASCII" and "ASCII" have achieved widespread use. One often finds them in the optional "charset" parameter in the Content-Type header of some MIME messages, in the equivalent "meta" element of some HTML documents, and in the encoding declaration part of the prolog of some XML documents. Variants of ASCII
As computer technology spread throughout the world, different standards bodies and corporations developed many variations of ASCII in order to facilitate the expression of non-English languages that used Roman-based alphabets. One could class some of these variations as "ASCII extensions", although some mis-apply that term to cover all variants, including those that do not preserve ASCII's character-map in the 7-bit range.
ISO 646 (1972), the first attempt to remedy the pro-English-language bias, created compatibility problems, since it remained a 7-bit character-set. It made no additional codes available, so it reassigned some in language-specific variants. It thus became impossible to know what character a code represented without knowing which variant to work with, and text-processing systems could generally cope with only one variant anyway.
Eventually, improved technology brought out-of-band means to represent the information formerly encoded in the eighth bit of each byte, freeing this bit to add another 128 additional character-codes for new assignments. For example, IBM developed 8-bit code pages, such as code page 437, which replaced the control-characters with graphic symbols such as smiley faces, and mapped additional graphic characters to the upper 128 bytes. Operating systems such as DOS supported these code-pages, and manufacturers of IBM PCs supported them in hardware.
Eight-bit standards such as ISO/IEC 8859 and MacRoman developed as true extensions of ASCII, leaving the original character-mapping intact and just adding additional values above the 7-bit range. This enabled the representation of a broader range of languages, but these standards continued to suffer from incompatibilities and limitations. Still, ISO-8859-1 its variant Windows-1252 (often mislabeled as ISO-8859-1) and original 7-bit ASCII remain the most common character encodings in use today.
Unicode and the ISO/IEC 10646 Universal Character Set (UCS) have a much wider array of characters, and their various encoding forms have begun to supplant ISO/IEC 8859 and ASCII rapidly in many ways.
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