# ASCII Art > ASCII Art is a text-based visual form originating in 1966 using 95 printable ASCII characters to create images from emoticons to elaborate portraits—a precursor to modern text-based memes on bulletin board systems and Usenet. ASCII Art is a graphic design technique that uses the 95 printable characters of the ASCII standard to create visual images, from simple emoticons to elaborate portraits composed of thousands of symbols. The practice traces back to typewriter art in the 19th century but exploded through bulletin board systems and Usenet in the 1980s and 1990s[1]. It's one of the oldest forms of internet-native visual expression and a direct ancestor of text-based memes and emoticons. ## Origin Making pictures from text is far older than computers. Shaped poetry, where words arrange into images of their subject, dates to ancient Greece in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE[1]. George Herbert's 1633 poems "Easter Wings" and "The Altar" arranged text into visual forms within *The Temple*[4]. Lewis Carroll's 1865 *Alice in Wonderland* featured the Mouse's Tale typeset as a curving tail shape, an early landmark in printed text art[4]. By the 1950s and 1960s, the concrete poetry movement pushed text arrangement further, with European artists treating words as visual objects beyond their literal meaning[4]. Typewriters opened up new artistic methods in the 19th century[1]. The earliest well-documented typewriter artist was Flora F. Stacey, a British typist who created eight elaborate framed artworks using a Bar Lock typewriter in the early 1890s, displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and published in Pitman's Phonetic Journal in 1898[7]. Between 1923 and 1929, Dutch typographer H.N. Werkman produced a series of abstract works he called *Tiksels*, from the Dutch verb *tikken* ("to type")[3]. Werkman fed paper through his typewriter at different angles on repeated passes, layering characters into compositions that look strikingly modern[3]. Several of these pieces were curated in a 2008 exhibit at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum[3]. Werkman was executed by the Gestapo in April 1945 for producing underground resistance publications during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands[3]. Computer-based ASCII Art started at Bell Labs in the mid-1960s. Kenneth Knowlton, a computer-art researcher, began generating images from text characters around 1966[1]. His collaboration with Leon Harmon, "Studies in Perception I," is among the oldest known computer-generated text images[1]. Early printers had no graphics capability at all, so characters stood in for visual marks[5]. Bulk printers also used text art for large banner pages that separated different users' print jobs[1]. - **Platform:** Bell Labs (computer ASCII art), typewriters (pre-digital origins), BBS / Usenet (internet spread) - **Creator:** Kenneth Knowlton (computer ASCII art pioneer, Bell Labs), Flora F. Stacey (earliest documented typewriter artist) - **Date:** 1966 ## Overview ASCII Art builds pictures from the letters, numbers, and punctuation defined by the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a character encoding system standardized in the early 1960s[5]. Of the 128 characters in the ASCII set, 95 are printable and usable for art[1]. Artists choose characters by visual density: glyphs like `@` and `#` fill more space and read as dark, while `.` or a space reads as light[12]. The interplay of character density creates shading and form from nothing but typed text. Proper display requires a monospaced font like Courier, since proportional fonts break the precise alignment that holds images together[1]. This made ASCII Art a natural fit for early computer terminals, email clients, and forum interfaces that defaulted to fixed-width rendering. The scale varies enormously. At one end, it's someone typing `:)` into a chat[5]. At the other, it's a photorealistic portrait spanning hundreds of carefully composed lines[12]. Some artists hand-place every character individually. Others use conversion software that analyzes a photograph's brightness values and maps them to text[9]. "ASCII Art" also works as a loose umbrella for related text-based art forms. ANSI art extends the palette to 256 characters and adds color through terminal escape sequences[1]. PETSCII used the character set of Commodore 64 computers to create its own visual tradition[2]. These formats are technically distinct, but casual use lumps them all under the ASCII Art label. ## How It Spread Through the late 1970s and 1980s, ASCII Art moved from research labs into the wider online world via bulletin board systems. BBS operators crafted intricate welcome screens and user signatures that gave each board a visual identity[9]. The underground software piracy ("warez") scene adopted ASCII Art heavily, using elaborate compositions in their release files as a form of competitive branding[6]. Instructional content had already introduced the techniques to general audiences. A 1948 *Popular Mechanics* article taught readers how to create "Keyboard Art" using typewriters, with similar guides appearing in the magazine as early as 1939[1]. But the internet brought the kind of audience that print tutorials never could. The 1990s were the golden age. Two dedicated Usenet newsgroups, `alt.ascii-art` and `rec.arts.ascii`, were both active by 1993[7]. Artists hosted personal galleries on their websites, while Andreas Freise's ASCII Art Dictionary at ascii-art.de became one of the web's largest curated collections, running since 1997[10]. Jason Scott's Textfiles.com preserved thousands of BBS-era text art files, from VT100 terminal animations to novelty printouts[6]. The daily webcomic ASCII Art Farts ran from June 25, 1999, through March 9, 2014, publishing over 5,370 entries of topical humor rendered in text[11]. In Japan, a parallel text art tradition developed on 2channel using the Shift JIS character set. Japanese users call it simply "AA." Unlike Western ASCII Art built for monospaced fonts, Shift JIS art is designed around the proportional-width MS PGothic font bundled with Japanese Windows. The *Densha Otoko* (Train Man) movie and TV series in 2004-2005 brought Shift JIS art to mainstream Japanese audiences, featuring it prominently in screen transitions and as a story device[8]. ## How to Use ASCII Art works at several levels of complexity: **Inline emoticons and kaomoji.** Type short character combinations directly into text: `:)` for a smiley, `(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻` for a table flip, `¯\_(ツ)_/¯` for a shrug. These go into any text field that supports standard characters. **Copy-paste from archives.** Find pre-made ASCII Art from community collections like Textfiles.com or ascii-art.de and paste it into a message[6][10]. This is how most people encounter and share ASCII Art. The art displays correctly in any monospaced text environment. **Hand-crafted originals.** Open a text editor, set a monospaced font, and build an image character by character. Dense characters (`@`, `#`, `M`, `W`) produce dark areas, medium-density characters (`*`, `+`, `=`) create mid-tones, and sparse characters (`.`, `,`, space) make highlights[12]. Work from a reference image and think in terms of a grid. **Automated generation.** Upload any image to a web-based ASCII Art converter. The software divides the image into cells, measures brightness, and maps each cell to a character of matching visual weight[9]. High-contrast images with simple compositions give the best results[9]. For any ASCII Art to render properly, the viewing context needs a monospaced font. Discord code blocks (triple backticks), Reddit code formatting (four-space indent), and HTML `
` tags all force fixed-width display.

## Cultural Impact
Emoticons grew from the same creative impulse that drives ASCII Art. The smiley `:-)` and its descendants are miniature text art, and the rich ecosystem of Japanese kaomoji extends the technique with wider character sets[1]. Short-form ASCII Art became the universal language of emotional expression in text communication.

The warez scene turned ASCII Art into a competitive performance. Piracy groups treated `.nfo` file artwork as branding and reputation, and the best ASCII and ANSI artists earned real status within underground communities[6]. This parallel scene pushed technical skills forward and generated its own subculture of group competitions and curated archives.

Community archives kept the art form's history from vanishing. Textfiles.com rescued BBS-era text art that would have disappeared with its host systems[6]. Freise's ascii-art.de operated as one of the web's longest-running curated galleries[10]. Stark's archived Geocities site is considered one of the most complete histories of the art form ever compiled[1].

In programming culture, ASCII Art found a permanent niche. Source code headers decorated with text logos, CLI tools rendering OS information in character art, and the entire roguelike game genre all keep ASCII Art visible in daily technical work. The art form's nostalgic appeal and inherent shareability also gave it a second life in meme culture, where copy-paste text images travel through Discord servers, Twitch chats, and Reddit threads[13].

## Fun Facts
- Todd Rundgren may have created the first "ASCII selfie." His 1974 double album *Todd* included a poster depicting his face composed entirely from the names of fans who had mailed back postcards from his previous release[1].
- During the Korean War (circa 1950), a Korean artist named Gwang Hyuk Lee hand-drew a portrait of Jesus using the full text of the Bible's "Book of John"[1].
- ASCII Art Farts ran as a daily text-art comic for nearly 15 years, publishing 5,372 entries between its first installment on June 25, 1999, and its final one on March 9, 2014[11].
- Early computing students in 1970s computer labs shared a rite of passage: learning to print a Snoopy banner on the line printer. It was one of the first things new arrivals figured out[1].
- Guillaume Apollinaire's handwritten "calligrams" from the early 20th century, visual poems shaped into images, are considered precursors to both concrete poetry and modern text-based art[4].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is ASCII Art?
ASCII Art is a graphic design technique that creates images using the 95 printable characters of the ASCII standard, including letters, numbers, and symbols like `@`, `#`, and `/`[5]. The practice ranges from inline emoticons to complex photorealistic compositions[1].

### Where did ASCII Art come from?
Text-based visual art traces to typewriter art in the 19th century. Flora F. Stacey created the earliest well-documented typewriter artworks in the 1890s[7]. Computer-based ASCII Art began at Bell Labs in 1966 with Kenneth Knowlton's text-character images[1].

### What does ASCII Art mean?
"ASCII" stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the character encoding system standardized in 1963[5]. "ASCII Art" literally refers to images composed from these text characters, though the term also loosely covers related formats like ANSI art[1].

### How do you use ASCII Art?
Most people copy and paste pre-made ASCII Art from community archives or use online generators to convert images into text[9]. Creating original work requires a text editor, a monospaced font, and careful character-by-character placement[12].

### Is ASCII Art still popular?
The dedicated ASCII Art community peaked in the 1990s with active Usenet groups and personal gallery websites. The art form is still widely used in programming culture, chat platforms like Discord, and as copy-paste meme content across social media[13].

### Who are some notable ASCII artists?
Joan G. Stark ("jgs" or "Spunk") is considered one of the most prolific, with hundreds of works created between 1996 and 2003[1]. Other well-known figures include Blazej Kozlowski ("bug") and the artist known as Faux_Pseudo ("F_P")[2].

### What's the difference between ASCII Art and ANSI Art?
Standard ASCII Art uses the 95 printable characters of the ASCII set. ANSI Art extends this to 256 characters and adds color through ANSI terminal escape sequences, producing more detailed and colorful compositions[1].

### How does Shift JIS Art differ from Western ASCII Art?
Western ASCII Art is designed for monospaced fonts where every character occupies equal width. Japanese Shift JIS Art uses the Shift JIS character set and is built around the proportional MS PGothic font, giving it a different visual structure[8].

### What was the first computer-generated ASCII Art?
Kenneth Knowlton and Leon Harmon's "Studies in Perception I" from 1966, created at Bell Labs, is among the oldest known examples of computer-generated text imagery[1].

### When was the golden age of ASCII Art?
The 1990s are widely considered the peak. Usenet groups like `alt.ascii-art` were active by 1993, personal gallery websites thrived, and artists like Joan Stark built large followings across the community[1].

### Was ASCII Art used for pornography?
Yes. ASCII-based nude images were among the earliest forms of internet pornography because they loaded instantly over slow dial-up connections, unlike image files that took minutes to transfer[2].

### How do ASCII Art generators work?
Generator tools analyze an uploaded image, divide it into a grid, calculate the average brightness of each cell, and assign a text character of matching visual density to produce a text approximation of the original photo[9].

## References
1. [H.N. Werkman's "ASCII art" in the Van Gogh Museum]()
2. [ASCII art | Computer Graphics, Digital Art & Pixel Art | Britannica]()
3. [Ascii Art History | Asciiville]()
4. [ASCII Art - Know Your Meme]()
5. [Shift JIS art]()
6. [ASCII Art - Urban Dictionary]()
7. [ASCII art]()
8. [Urban Dictionary: ASCII art]()
9. [History of ASCII Art]()
10. [ASCII Porn Predates the Internet But It’s Still Everywhere]()
11. [From Code To Canvas: A Deep Dive Into The World Of ASCII Art Designs]()
12. [What is ASCII Art? History & Modern Uses | ASCII Art Generator]()
13. [Exploring the Influence of ASCII Art on Internet Memes – ASCII Everything]()
14. [A Brief Guide to Concrete Poetry | Academy of American Poets]()
15. [ASCII Art Farts]()
16. [Ascii Art Dictionary (Andreas Freise)]()
17. [T E X T F I L E S]()
18. [HIGH WEIRDNESS BY E-MAIL]()

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