What is ASCII/ANSI art?
ASCII art is text art, graphics that consist of ASCII characters. Most require a non-proportional font (f.e. “fixedsys”) for correct viewing. The logo in front of this FAQ is supposed to be ascii art too. 🙂 ANSI includes additional formating/displaying information, the most obvious difference is that ansi supports colours and the possibility to create animations. In the days of bulletin board systems (read: pre-internet era), when bandwidth and processing power was limited, ascii/ansi art was an efficient and easy way to display graphical content. In the late 90s, ASCII art made a comeback as email signature and SMS. ASCII art is often used to enrich info/readme files that come along with demoscene productions. Further information and examples: – http://www.ascii-art.de – http://www.thuglife.org – http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art – http://www.outworldarts.com/ansi.php – http://www.acid.org – http://www.ice.org – http://asciipr0n.
