How Do you Make Emoticons and Text ASCII Smileys?

How Do you Make Emoticons and Text ASCII Smileys?Emoticons, are also known as smileys/ smilies. Emoticons are used to show or explain emotion in the context of your writing. They are a great way to use text, and show emotion, in an otherwise flat email. Emoticons can make communication clear when you are teasing versus being serious. I’ve also used them to make sure someone understands what I have written was not meant to be taken overly seriously when I am sending a message about something important.… Read the rest

Descriptive ASCII Art – Word Play in Text

Rebus Puzzles, Wordies, Visual Puns, Pictogram Puzzles and Descriptive ASCII

I’ve seen this kind of insight puzzle several times over the years but if I knew the correct name for it I had forgotten. They are called Rebus Puzzles, also known as Wordies. In searching for more of these online I have found them called a variety of names: visual puns, pictogram puzzles and Descriptive ASCII.… Read the rest

Fonts that Work with ASCII Text Art

Making ASCII Art with Fixed Width, Sans-Serif Fonts.

I’ve been making ASCII art since 1998. I’m a great fan of the FixedSys font. It is a monospace font which works very well for illustrating with text. The individual characters are plain and straight up and down, without many flourishes. (Plain fonts, without flourishes are called sans-serif).… Read the rest

My First ASCII Art Picture

Created in 1998, when I was just getting into the ASCII Art newsgroup, this was the first ASCII art picture I finished. I thought it wasn’t too bad. But I didn’t like it. Other people in the group at the time, like Joan Stark, were making much better art. I remember many others but unless you were there at the time you won’t know them.… Read the rest

From the Original Respect ASCII Artists Campaign Page

From the Original Respect ASCII Artists Campaign Page

Plain text version (below) for those who can’t see small print very well, like myself. The above screenshot comes from what’s left of the site on the Wayback Machine with the Internet Archive.

What is the “Respect ASCII Artists Campaign”? Well, it’s something that I decided to do not long after a few things happened that I didn’t agree with.

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Olympic Games ASCII Text Art: Olympic Rings and the Olympic Torch

What do you think about when you think about the Olympic Games?

I think about the history of the Olympics, the people who have come and gone as athletes, family and friends, coaches. I even think about the ancient Olympians, the marathon runners who ran themselves to death passing the torch. For this reason, the Olympic torch really symbolizes the Olympic Games for me.… Read the rest

Edward Scissorhands

I’ve set myself a goal to create an illustration for Edward Scissorhands 20th Anniversary. I want to do it in ASCII Art. I have the design, the plan. But it’s going to be pretty big, I’ve been working with small illustrations lately and I’ve never tried for something that requires scrolling in the window I’m working in.… Read the rest