ASCII ART

ASCII art
 n.

   The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character set (mainly
   |, -, /, \, and +). Also known as character graphics or ASCII
   graphics; see also {boxology}. Here is a serious example:


    o----)||(--+--|<----+   +---------o + D O
      L  )||(  |        |   |             C U
    A I  )||(  +-->|-+  |   +-\/\/-+--o -   T
    C N  )||(        |  |   |      |        P
      E  )||(  +-->|-+--)---+--|(--+-o      U
         )||(  |        |          | GND    T
    o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+

    A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier circuit
    feeding a capacitor input filter circuit

   And here are some very silly examples:


  |\/\/\/|     ____/|              ___    |\_/|    ___
  |      |     \ o.O|   ACK!      /   \_  |` '|  _/   \
  |      |      =(_)=  THPHTH!   /      \/     \/      \
  | (o)(o)        U             /                       \
  C      _)  (__)                \/\/\/\  _____  /\/\/\/
  | ,___|    (oo)                       \/     \/
  |   /       \/-------\         U                  (__)
 /____\        ||     | \    /---V  `v'-            oo )
   /   \       ||---W||  *  * |--|   || |`.         |_/\

               //-o-\\
        ____---=======---____
    ====___\   /.. ..\   /___====      Klingons rule OK!
  //        ---\__O__/---        \\
  \_\                           /_/

   There is an important subgenre of ASCII art that puns on the standard
   character names in the fashion of a rebus.

   +--------------------------------------------------------+
   |   ^^^^^^^^^^^^                                      |
   | ^^^^^^^^^^^         ^^^^^^^^^                       |
   |              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
   |     ^^^^^^^         B       ^^^^^^^^^               |
   |  ^^^^^^^^^       ^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^      |
   +--------------------------------------------------------+
             " A Bee in the Carrot Patch "

   Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire
   flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are
   reproduced in the examples above, here are three more:


         (__)              (__)              (__)
         (\/)              ($$)              (**)
  /-------\/        /-------\/        /-------\/
 / | 666 ||        / |=====||        / |     ||
   *  ||----||    *  ||----||       *  ||----||
   ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~
   Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie   Cow in love

   Finally, here's a magnificent example of ASCII art depicting an
   Edwardian train station in Dunedin, New Zealand:

                                  .-.
                                 /___\
                                 |___|
                                 |]_[|
                                 / I \
                              JL/  |  \JL
   .-.                    i   ()   |   ()   i                    .-.
   |_|     .^.           /_\  LJ=======LJ  /_\           .^.     |_|
   ._/___\._./___\_._._._._.L_J_/.-.  .-.\_L_J._._._._._/___\._./___\._._._
       ., |-,-| .,       L_J  |_| [I] |_|  L_J       ., |-,-| .,        .,
       JL |-O-| JL       L_J%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%L_J       JL |-O-| JL        JL
   IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII|_|=======H=======|_|IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII_HH_
   -------[]-------[]-------[_]----\.=I=./----[_]-------[]-------[]--------[]-
 _/\_  ||\\_I_//||  _/\_ [_] []_/_L_J_\_[] [_] _/\_  ||\\_I_//||  _/\_  ||\
 |__|  ||=/_|_\=||  |__|_|_|   _L_L_J_J_   |_|_|__|  ||=/_|_\=||  |__|  ||-
 |__|  |||__|__|||  |__[___]__--__===__--__[___]__|  |||__|__|||  |__|  |||
   IIIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIL___J__II__|_|__II__L___JIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIIII[_]
 \_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_[_]\II/[]\_\I/_/[]\II/[_]\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_/ [_]
   ./   \.L_J/   \L_J./   L_JI  I[]/  \[]I  IL_J    \.L_J/   \L_J./   \.L_J
   |  |L_J|   |L_J|    L_J|  |[]|     |[]|  |L_J     |L_J|   |L_J|     |L_J
   |_____JL_JL___JL_JL____|-||  |[]|  |[]|  ||-|_____JL_JL___JL_JL_____JL_J

   The next step beyond static tableaux in ASCII art is ASCII animation.
   There are not many large examples of this; perhaps the best known is
   the ASCII animation of the original Star Wars movie at
   http://www.asciimation.co.nz/.

   There is a newsgroup, alt.ascii-art, devoted to this genre; however,
   see also {warlording}.
    

ASCII art
ASCII graphics
character graphics

   <graphics> (Or "character graphics", "ASCII graphics") The
   fine art of drawing diagrams using the {ASCII} character set
   (mainly "|-/\+").

   See also {boxology}.  Here is a serious example:

      o----)||(--+--|<----+   +---------o + D O
        L  )||(  |        |   |             C U
      A I  )||(  +-->|-+  |   +-\/\/-+--o -   T
      C N  )||(        |  |   |      |        P
        E  )||(  +-->|-+--)---+--)|--+-o      U
           )||(  |        |          | GND    T
      o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+

      A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier
      circuit feeding a capacitor input filter circuit

                            Figure 1.

   And here are some very silly examples:

      |\/\/\/|     ____/|              ___    |\_/|    ___
      |      |     \ o.O|   ACK!      /   \_  |` '|  _/   \
      |      |      =(_)=  THPHTH!   /      \/     \/      \
      | (o)(o)        U             /                       \
      C      _)  (__)                \/\/\/\  _____  /\/\/\/
      | ,___|    (oo)                       \/     \/
      |   /       \/-------\         U                  (__)
     /____\        ||     | \    /---V  `v'-            oo )
    /      \       ||---W||  *  * |--|   || |`.         |_/\

   		//-o-\\
   	 ____---=======---____
        ====___\   /.. ..\   /___====      Klingons rule OK!
      //        ---\__O__/---        \\
      \_\                           /_/

   				    _____
   			    __...---'-----`---...__
   		       _===============================
     ,----------------._/'      `---..._______...---'
     (_______________||_) . .  ,--'
         /    /.---'         `/
        '--------_- - - - - _/
   	       `--------'

   			   Figure 2.

   There is an important subgenre of ASCII art that puns on the
   standard character names in the fashion of a rebus.

    +--------------------------------------------------------+
    |      ^^^^^^^^^^^^                                      |
    | ^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^^^^^^^^                       |
    |                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
    |        ^^^^^^^         B       ^^^^^^^^^               |
    |  ^^^^^^^^^          ^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^      |
    +--------------------------------------------------------+
   	     "A Bee in the Carrot Patch"

                          Figure 3.

   Within humorous ASCII art, there is, for some reason, an
   entire flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows.  One is
   shown in Figure 2; here are three more:

   	  (__)              (__)              (__)
   	  (\/)              ($$)              (**)
      /-------\/        /-------\/        /-------\/
     / | 666 ||        / |=====||        / |     ||
    *  ||----||       *  ||----||       *  ||----||
       ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~
     Satanic cow    This cow is a Yuppie   Cow in love

   			  Figure 4.

   (http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow.html).

   (1996-02-06)