ASCII art
Description
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters (beyond the 128 characters of standard 7-bit ASCII). The term is also loosely used to refer to text-based visual art in general. ASCII art can be created with any text editor, and is often used with free-form languages. Most examples of ASCII art require a fixed-width font (non-proportional fonts, as on a traditional typewriter) such as Courier or Consolas for presentation. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Kenneth Knowlton
Bell Labs researcher who pioneered computer-generated mosaic imagery; co-created 'Studies in Perception I' (1966), one of the earliest examples of character-based digital art.
Leon Harmon
Neuroscientist at Bell Labs who collaborated with Knowlton to create the famous 'Computer Nude' (Studies in Perception I), demonstrating how alphanumeric characters could represent tonal images.
Joan Stark
Prolific ASCII artist known by the handle 'jgs'; created thousands of intricate text-based artworks in the 1990s, becoming a legendary figure of early internet culture.
Vuk Ćosić
Slovenian net artist who created the 'ASCII History of Moving Images' project, converting iconic film sequences into text-based format and bridging ASCII art with contemporary art practice.
Paul Smith
American artist with severe cerebral palsy who created detailed typewriter art from the 1950s through the 2000s using only the keys @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, and ).
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
The term 'ASCII art' specifically refers to images made from the 95 printable characters of the 1963 ASCII standard, though the broader practice of 'typewriter art' dates back to at least 1867.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
During the 1980s–1990s BBS era, ASCII and ANSI artists formed competitive art groups - ACiD Productions and iCE (Insane Creators Enterprise) - that released monthly 'art packs' in a scene culture with its own rivalries, rankings, and aesthetics.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Joan Stark (jgs) was so prolific that her ASCII signatures became ubiquitous on early websites and in email signatures across the 1990s internet, making her handles recognizable to millions of users who never knew her real name.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org