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FAQ: New to ASCII art? Read me first!

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         ___   __  ___  () ()      ___  _,_ _/|_
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Answers to frequently asked questions in the ASCII art discussion groups 
* news:alt.ascii-art * news:alt.ascii-art.animation * news:rec.arts.ascii
Author: Matthew Thomas 
Version: 2.0 
Last changed: 1998-05-10
NOTE: If you are new to Usenet News, please read the messages in 
news.announce.newusers before posting to any discussion groups.
This FAQ is regularly posted to the newsgroups news:alt.ascii-art , 
news:rec.arts.ascii , and news:alt.ascii-art.animation.
It is also available at the following locations:
* http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm 
* http://artpacks.acid.org/faqs/faq-altasciiart.html 
* http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm. 
* http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html 
* http://fmf.ml.org/~shimrod/asciiart/FAQ.html
* http://www.gwtc.net/~bakd/asciifaq.html




Contents
        What is ASCII art? 
        What isn't ASCII art? 
        What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups? 
        How do I view ASCII art? 
        How do I draw my own ASCII art? 
        What should I know before posting ASCII art? 
        Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII? 
        Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture? 
        How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art? 
        Can I post or use other people's ASCII art? 
        What should I know about signature files? 
        Where can I find more ASCII art? 



    1. What is ASCII art? 
    ASCII art is any kind of artwork -- pictures, charts, cartoons, whatever -- 
    drawn with the characters in the ASCII character set.
    The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character set 
    is a set of 128 characters (0 to 127) which are standard on almost all types 
    of computer. The only characters used in ASCII art are those with the values 
    32 to 126, which are shown below, and 13, which represents a carriage return 
    (new line). The other characters in the ASCII character set (0-12, 13-31, 
    and 127) are control codes for representing things such as `end of file' and 
    `backspace'; they should not be used in ASCII art.
032 [space] 048 0       064 @       080 P       096 `       112 p
033 !       049 1       065 A       081 Q       097 a       113 q
034 "       050 2       066 B       082 R       098 b       114 r
035 #       051 3       067 C       083 S       099 c       115 s
036 $       052 4       068 D       084 T       100 d       116 t
037 %       053 5       069 E       085 U       101 e       117 u
038 &       054 6       070 F       086 V       102 f       118 v
039 '       055 7       071 G       087 W       103 g       119 w
040 (       056 8       072 H       088 X       104 h       120 x
041 )       057 9       073 I       089 Y       105 i       121 y
042 *       058 :       074 J       090 Z       106 j       122 z
043 +       059 ;       075 K       091 [       107 k       123 {
044 ,       060 <       076 L       092 \       108 l       124 |
045 -       061 =       077 M       093 ]       109 m       125 }
046 .       062 >       078 N       094 ^       110 n       126 ~
047 /       063 ?       079 O       095 _       111 o
    These characters are almost completely standard, except for a few slight 
    variations which you should keep in mind when drawing and viewing ASCII art:
        # (hash/pound): 
        a hash sign on most computers, a pound (- currency) sign on some 
        British ones 
        | (bar): 
        a vertical line in most fonts, but in some it is split in the middle 
        ^ (caret): 
        differs in size depending on the font used 
        ~ (tilde): 
        appears in the middle of the line in some fonts, at the top in others 
        ' (apostrophe/single quote): 
        tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, is vertical in others (this 
        also applies to the comma ,). 
    Here's a small example of ASCII art using some of these variable characters: 
    a snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark. How good it looks will depend 
    to some extent on which font and computer system you are using to view it. 
          ____
       .-" +' "-.
      /.'.'A_'*`.\
     |:.*'/\-\. ':|
     |:.'.||"|.'*:|
      \:~^~^~^~^:/
       /`-....-'\
  jgs /          \
      `-.,____,.-'
    People use ASCII art for a variety of reasons, some of which are:
    * it is the most universal computer art form in the world -- every computer 
    system capable of displaying multi-line text can display ASCII art, without 
    needing to have a graphics mode or support a particular graphics file 
    format;
    * an ASCII picture is also hundreds of times smaller in file size than its 
    GIF or BMP equivalent, while still giving a good idea of what something 
    looks like;
    * it is easy to copy from one file to another;
    * it's fun to do! 
    2. What isn't ASCII art? 
    The following specialized artforms are not ASCII art and are not welcome in 
    the ASCII art discussion groups.
        ANSI or `extended ASCII' art. Many computer systems have an extended 
        character set of 256 or more characters, based on the ANSI or Unicode 
        character sets and having the first 128 characters identical to ASCII. 
        These characters should not be used in ASCII art because many types of 
        computer system do not support them, and even those that do may not 
        display them in a standard way (for example, the Windows ANSI character 
        set is different from the Mac ANSI character set). 
        HTML art. HTML, the language used in Web pages, can be used to add 
        special effects such as colours, font size, and blinking text to ascii 
        art, and HTML can be read by some newsreaders. However, the key word 
        here is `some'. To many newsreaders, HTML art will just appear as a 
        jumble of <TAGS> and will be totally unrecognizable. 
        If you want to create HTML art, do so by all means, but put it on a Web 
        page and post the page address (URL) to the appropriate discussion 
        group. Advice on how to do this can be found at 
        http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/asciionpage.htm.
        ASCII art animated using JavaScript. This relies not only on the 
        newsreader being able to display HTML, but also being able to run 
        JavaScript. As with HTML art, put it on a Web page and post the address 
        to news:alt.ascii-art.animation. 
    Not all "ASCII" is ASCII! Certain computer operating systems use their own 
    specific character sets which are modified hybrids of the original 
    128-character ASCII set. These "strains", if you will, have been deceivingly 
    dubbed as "Extended ASCII" or "High ASCII" as they have added symbols beyond 
    the first 128. Realize that while these extra characters may seem to give 
    you more flexibility in your artwork, you are severely limiting your viewing 
    audience to those who use the same operating system as you -- thus defeating 
    the purpose of ASCII entirely!
    Please refrain from using these special characters in addition to the 33 
    special control codes in the real ASCII character set. Remaining within the 
    32-126 range benefits everyone in a multitude of ways. Not only by 
    maximizing the number of potential viewers, but it also ensures proper 
    interpretation of your artwork by others and will alter the way they 
    perceive your abilities. This is just one of the necessary disciplines of 
    becoming a true ASCII artists. [RaD Man] 
    
    
    3. What goes on in the ASCII art discussion groups?? 
    In the ASCII art discussion groups people discuss ASCII art, post ASCII 
    pictures, post improved versions or variations of pictures other people have 
    drawn, and generally have fun.
    Types of messages which we usually enjoy seeing include: 
        look, here's an ASCII picture I drew ... 
        REQ: xyz (ie, has anyone got any ASCII pictures of xyz?) 
        suggestions on, or improvements of, other people's ASCII pictures 
        hey-guys-love-your-work-type messages! 
    Types of messages which we usually don't enjoy seeing include: 
        messages with the subject `ASCII art' (try to be a bit more informative, 
        please) 
        make money fast!!! ... (yawn, yawn, snore) 
        heres the adress of my web site, come see it pleez (why should we?) 
        don't read this, this is a test (that's what alt.test, misc.test, and 
        many other `test' newsgroups are for) 
    There are three ASCII art discussion groups.
        news:alt.ascii-art is the main group, where most of the discussion takes 
        place. 
        news:rec.arts.ascii is identical in purpose to news:alt.ascii-art, but 
        it is a moderated group -- all messages pass through an intermediary 
        (the moderator) who checks them for appropriateness before sending them 
        to the group itself. The advantage of this is that there isn't any 
        unwanted advertising in the group; however, the frequency of postings to 
        news:rec.arts.ascii is very low at the time of writing (it was 
        resurrected in November 1997 after the previous moderator, Bob Allison 
        (`Scarecrow') retired in December 1996). 
        If your news server isn't set up to allow direct posting to 
        news:rec.arts.ascii, e-mail your message to the moderator, Don Bertino 
        <bertino@netcom.com>.
        news:alt.ascii-art.animation is specifically for discussion and postings 
        of animated ASCII art [see Question 12]. 
        
        
    4. How do I view ASCII art?
    If a picture you see posted to this newsgroup looks like a complete mess to 
    you, don't panic. There are several reasons why it may look weird.
        If none of the pictures in the newsgroup look like what the sender 
        describes them as, then you're probably using a proportional font. To 
        view (and draw) ASCII art, you must use a fixed-width font -- one where 
        all characters are the same width (like on a typewriter). If you're not 
        sure if your font is fixed-width or not, check the following two lines 
        and see if they're the same length.
        
        iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|
        mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm|
        
        If they aren't, find the option in your news reader which lets you 
        specify which font to use. If you just have a choice between 
        proportional and fixed width, choose fixed width. If you have a choice 
        of which font to use, try different ones until you find a fixed-width 
        one (using the `i's and `m's above as a guide). Popular fixed width 
        fonts include Courier, Monaco, and Fixedsys; anything with `fixed' or 
        `terminal' will probably be fixed-width. 
        Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supply newsreaders to their 
        customers which, strange as it seems, don't allow them to use a 
        fixed-width font. If this applies to you, there's not much you can do 
        except to ask them for a newsreader which does, or switch ISPs. 
        If there are a lot of almost-blank lines in the picture, then the 
        message is probably suffering from `wrapping'. This wrapping may be 
        being done by your newsreader; see if it has an option called `wrap long 
        lines' or similar, and make sure it is turned off. If this doesn't work, 
        then the wrapping was probably done by the news program of the person 
        who sent the picture, in which case there's not much you can do -- 
        everybody else will be seeing the same thing. 
        If there are a lot of < and > symbols in the picture, with words like 
        HTML, FONT COLOR, B, I, and so on inside them, then the picture has been 
        sent in HTML format (see Question 2), and your newsreader does not 
        understand HTML (most newsreaders don't). 
        If you still can't work out what the picture is supposed to be, try 
        reducing the font size (if you can), and moving a couple of metres away. 
        If it still looks unrecognizable, then it's probably a problem with the 
        news program used by the person who sent the message -- or maybe it's 
        just a really bad picture! 
    5. How do I draw my own ASCII art? 
    You don't need a special program to draw ASCII art with. It can be drawn 
    using any text editor, such as SimpleText or BBEdit in MacOS, Notepad in 
    Windows, nedit, vi, or pico in Unix, BEd or AZ in AmigaOS, edit in DOS, or 
    any of the various Emacs editors. You can use a word processor to draw ASCII 
    art, but remember: (1) use a fixed-width font (see Question 4); and (2) 
    using any special formatting (bold/italic/coloured etc) is a waste of time, 
    as it will be lost when you post the picture.
    There are some features of editors/word processors which can help when 
    drawing ASCII art.
        Overtype, also known as overstrike: removes the need for you to 
        constantly realign characters using the Backspace, Space, and Delete 
        keys. Try the Insert key if there is one on your keyboard, or look in 
        your program's Options or Preferences. 
        Rectangular copy and paste: allows you to select rectangular sections of 
        text (not just rows or parts of rows). On programs which have this 
        feature, it is usually done by holding down a key such as Ctrl while 
        selecting text. 
        Find/Change: allows you to change all the characters of one type to 
        another (eg all the ~s to "s). 
    But before you start, a word about fonts. For ASCII art you should use a 
    fixed-width font (see Question 4), because every type of computer system is 
    guaranteed to have one, and that after all is one of the main reasons ASCII 
    art exists -- because everyone can view it. Different fixed-width fonts do 
    vary slightly in the height of the characters, but for most drawings this 
    doesn't matter that much.
    DON'T try to post pictures drawn in a proportional-width (ie non-fixed- 
    width) font: even if you specify the exact font you used, the chances of 
    other people being able to read it are pretty slim (even `standard' 
    proportional fonts such as Times New Roman can vary in width from computer 
    to computer).
    The other thing to be aware of with fonts is the difference between serif 
    and sans serif. Here's roughly how an `m' looks in both: 
__ __   __        __   __
 |/  \ /  \     |/  \ /  \
 |    |    |    |    |    |
 |    |    |    |    |    |
_|_  _|_  _|_   |    |    |

    Serif        Sans serif
    The serif version has little strokes, or serifs, at the end of most of the 
    main strokes, while the sans serif version doesn't (sans means `without'). 
    For example, Courier is a serif font, and Monaco is sans serif. This isn't 
    often important, but if you're using a sans serif font, just remember to use 
    the vertical bar (|, above \ on most keyboards) to draw vertical lines, and 
    not the capital i (I), otherwise it will look weird for people using serif 
    fonts. It also means that you should think carefully before using characters 
    like L and 7 for various corners -- they won't always look that good with a 
    serif font.
    One way to make drawing ASCII art easier is to type a row of spaces for 
    however wide you want your picture, and then copy this row and paste it for 
    however many rows high you think your art will get. Then turn overtype on, 
    stick your cursor somewhere in the middle, and you're ready to draw.
    If nothing springs to mind immediately, start with the ASCII art equivalent 
    of the stick figure: 
 O
/H\  Person
/ \ 
    Fiddle with it, and see what you can do... 
 A                    _                o            _
 O   Person wearing   O`              _O_          (< =  Person about
/H\  a dunce's hat   /H\  Professor   XHX  Angel   /H-'  to eat a
/ \                  / \              / \          / \   sandwich...?
    Gradually you'll be able to add things like scenery around the person: 
 ___  ,---.
/ __\/---. ._,
 /  \@-.  -(_)-
     @     ' `    Person playing a banjo
    ,P            while sitting against a
    d'O_,     MT  palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::::::
    Draw your cat, your toaster, your musical instruments, your partner, 
    anything that will sit still long enough -- practice makes, if not perfect, 
    then at least pretty good. Whether you do small drawings (less work 
    involved) or large ones (easier to make a drawing recognizable) is up to 
    you.
    The things which give beginning ASCII artists the most trouble are usually 
    diagonal lines and circles. Here are some lines of various angles: 
|   |   /      ,'      ,-'     _,-'
|  .'  /     ,'     ,-'    _,-'
|  |  /    ,'    ,-'   _,-'          __..--""
| .' /   ,'   ,-'  _,-'      __..--""
| | /  ,'  ,-'  ,-'  __..--"" _______________
    And here are a few circular shapes: 
                                           _____              __
                                        .-'     `-.        ,dP""Yb,
                                      .'           `.    ,d"      "b,
                                     /               \   d'    _   `Y,
                             _      ;                 ;  8     8    `b
                  __      ,'" "`.   |                 |  `b,_,aP     P
          __    ,'  `.   /       \  ;                 ;    """"     d'
        .'  `. /      |  |       |   \               /            ,P"
     _  |    | |      /  \       /    `.           .'     a,.__,aP"
. o (_) `.__.'  `.__.'    `.___.'       `-._____.-'        `"""''
    The spiral is a good example of anti-aliasing -- using the particular shape 
    of some characters (especially b, d, and P) to smooth the edge of a solid 
    shape.
    A final point: don't use the Tab key. Pressing Tab will go along a certain 
    number of spaces in your editor/word processor -- but that `certain number' 
    is different for different newsreaders, editors, and so on, so your picture 
    may suffer from what is known as `tab damage' when other people try to view 
    it. Just use spaces instead.
    Here are a couple links to existing ASCII art tutorials:
    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/dcau.htm (Daniel Au's Tutorial)
    http://www.inetw.net/~mullen/asciiart.htm (Allen Mullen's Site- several 
    tutorials)
     
    
    
    6. What should I know before posting ASCII art?
    It doesn't matter if it's not particularly good -- we'd like to see it 
    anyway. We won't be rude about it (although you'd better tell us what it is, 
    or we might ask :-), but if it shows potential, you may find that other 
    people will `re-diddle' it -- change a few characters, make it a bit better, 
    and re-post it.
    HOWEVER, there are a few things you should check before you post any piece 
    of ASCII art.
        Are you sending it as plain text? Some news programs, particularly those 
        built in to Web browsers, read and write messages in HTML (HyperText 
        Markup Language, the language which Web pages are written in). HTML 
        allows colours and (using JavaScript) animations in ASCII art, but few 
        newsreaders support it, and those which don't will show a whole lot of 
        garbage text with your picture hidden inside it. 
        So if you have one of these HTML-sending programs, PLEASE select the 
        option which tells it to send messages as plain text only. If you have a 
        picture which uses HTML for a particular feature (such as colours or 
        animation), put it on a Web page, and post the URL of the page to 
        alt.ascii-art, rather than posting the whole picture.
        Is it under 72 characters wide? Most news readers can only show lines 
        which are under either 72, 76, or 80 characters wide, so if your picture 
        is wider than 72 characters it may get wrapped (see Question 4). Also 
        remove any unnecessary space characters from the end of each line of the 
        picture, to prevent lines from being too long (and getting wrapped) 
        without your realizing. 
        
        
        Have you used any control codes? Inserting control codes (ASCII 
        characters 0 to 31) in a picture can sometimes achieve interesting 
        effects on your computer screen or news reader, such as reversing text, 
        changing its colour, and so on. DO NOT post any of these pictures to 
        alt.ascii-art, for two reasons: 
            the effects that the control codes have on your news reader are 
            almost certainly going to be different from those on the thousands 
            of other news readers that other people use 
            on some news readers, control codes can cause messed up displays, 
            messages not appearing, or (in some cases) the news reader crashing.
            
        If your first line starts with one or more spaces, stick a dummy line 
        (such as -- or .) above it, to prevent the spaces from being ignored by 
        your news program (this only applies to some news programs, and only to 
        the first line of the message). 
    If you're not sure about whether your message will turn out ok, post it to a 
    test newsgroup (such as news:alt.test or news:misc.test) first and make sure 
    (using a different newsreader, if you can) that you can read it ok.
    [See Question 10 for advice on posting someone else's ASCII art.]
    
    
    7. Can I post to ask for some text drawn in ASCII?
    Probably not, unless we're REALLY bored. The reason for this is that there 
    is a program called Figlet which does that sort of thing automatically -- 
    you type in `Jane Smith', and you get back 
    ___              __,               
   ( /              (          o _/_ / 
    / __,  _   _     `.  _ _  ,  /  /_ 
  _/_(_/(_/ /_(/_  (___)/ / /_(_(__/ /_
 //                                    
(/                                     
    in this and a whole lot of other fonts (lettering styles). The ASCII 
    text-art produced by Figlet can be quite stunning, so it's best to try it 
    first before asking for help from the newsgroup.
    The Figlet home page is at http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html. 
    This site links to the FTP site ftp://ftp.internexus.net/pub/figlet where 
    you can download versions of the program for many different platforms.
    If you have a Web browser which has form support (most browsers do), you can 
    run Figlet on the Internet by going to one of the following sites and 
    choosing your text and options on the Web page. Different sites offer 
    different options (eg multiple fonts at once, justification, line length 
    etc). Some of these sites also provide an e-mail Figlet service for people 
    with browsers which don't support forms.
    
        http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/ 
        http://wwwcn.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html 
        http://www.schnoggo.com/figlet.html 
        http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet/ 
        http://saigon.mit.edu/dinhyen/figlet/figlet.html 
        http://www.mediacube.de/cgi-bin/moniteurs/figlet/ 
        http://www.sconnect.net/figlet/index.cgi 
        http://boulder.Colorado.EDU/~kai/figlet.html 
        http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/cgi-bin/bwagner/FIGLET/figlet.pl 
        http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~mcchau3/cgi-bin/express.html 
        http://www.webserve.com/gateways/figletgateway.pl 
    (Thanks to Shimrod and Veronica Karlsson for the original list.)
    If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you can post to 
    the newsgroup with your request. Make sure that you include:
        the fact that you have already tried Figlet, or don't have access to it 
        (otherwise you will probably just get told to use it) 
        a description of the kind of lettering you want, along with any other 
        symbols or logos which you would like incorporated into it. 
 
    8. Can I post to ask for an ASCII art picture?
    Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject `REQ: xyz' if 
    you're looking for a picture of an xyz, then in the message describe more 
    exactly what you're looking for. Generally, the more specific you are, the 
    more likely you are to get someone to draw what you want: if you just say 
    something like `can someone draw me a fish' then you're not likely to get 
    many replies, because people won't be sure whether or not they're wasting 
    their time by drawing something you won't want. If you don't have Web 
    access, mention this fact, otherwise you may get replies consisting only of 
    URLs for the kind of pictures you're looking for.
    
    
    
    9. How do I get an existing picture converted to ASCII art?
    There are computer programs which convert graphics files of a particular 
    format (usually GIF) to ASCII art. They go by names such as ascgif, gifa, 
    gifscii, and gif2ascii. Do a Web search for any of these programs to find 
    places where you can download them. Try: 
        gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70 
        ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/. 
    However, the output from these programs is often not good (fiddling with the 
    picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help). In this case, you 
    can post a request to the newsgroup asking for someone to `asciify' it, but 
    please don't post the picture itself. To save downloading time for people 
    reading the messages, if possible give the URL (Web address) of the picture 
    instead.
    If you saw the picture on a Web page, you can find out its URL by right- 
    clicking on it (on the Macintosh, holding down the mouse button) and 
    selecting `Open this image' (or its equivalent for your Web browser), then 
    copy the URL from the Location bar to your news program (make sure you copy 
    it exactly).
    If the picture is not on a Web site anywhere, put it up on your own site (if 
    you have one), or get a friend to put it up on their site, and post the URL 
    to alt.ascii-art. If you can't do this, post your request to alt.ascii-art 
    and wait for an artist to reply, then e-mail the picture to them.
    
    
    10. Can I post or use other people's ASCII art?
    Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a newsgroup, that gives you 
    the right to use it however you like; copyright laws still apply. For more 
    information, see the article `Copyright Myths FAQ: 10 big myths about 
    copyright explained' in news:news.announce.newusers. (It is also available 
    at http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.)
    ASCII art is often an exception to this rule, though: generally, ASCII 
    artists don't mind if you copy their pictures and repost them or put them on 
    your own Web site for your personal use. There are a few important 
    conditions, however.
        If the picture contains a few letters in one corner which don't seem to 
        be part of the picture, they're the artist's initials. DO NOT remove 
        these initials -- would you cut away the part of a Van Gogh painting 
        containing his name? Leaving the initials on is a small price to pay for 
        being able to use the picture for free.
        
        If you're going to use a picture in your signature file, or in a place 
        (such as a log-in screen) which means you're going to be using it a lot, 
        you should really e-mail the artist (or post to the newsgroup, if you 
        don't know their address) and ask for permission, because otherwise 
        people may get the mistaken impression that you were the one who drew 
        the picture. 
    As for posting other people's ASCII art, after a discussion in 
    news:alt.ascii-art the following rules were agreed upon: 
        If an ASCII ART picture has initials on it, leave them on when posting 
        it. 
        If an ASCII ART picture doesn't have initials on it, mention that you 
        didn't draw it when posting it. 
        If somebody posts a picture without initials and you have an original 
        copy with initials, feel free to repost the original version. The repost 
        ought not to be taken personally, as we all know that ASCII art often 
        loses proper credits. Responses to the repost are not necessary. 
        [Donovan]
         
        
        
    11. What should I know about signature files? 
    A signature file (or `sig' for short) is a small, personalized text file 
    which an e-mail or news program adds to the end of every message a person 
    sends -- the equivalent of a letterhead for dead-tree (paper) mail. Usually 
    it contains little more than the person's name, organization, and e-mail 
    address, and an inspirational quote of some sort; but some people like to 
    incorporate ASCII art into their signature files as well.
    The biggest problem that this causes is the number of lines that the 
    signature file takes up. This is a topic which, despite its lack of 
    importance in relation to global warming, violence in society, and so on, 
    can be the subject of heated arguments. To summarize, (almost) no-one will 
    complain if your signature file is four lines long or fewer -- and it is 
    quite possible to draw good ASCII pictures which are that small. Some 
    examples are at:
        http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~kenter/sigs.html 
        http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/sigs.htm. 
    Some e-mail programs don't allow you to have a signature file which is 
    longer than four lines, while others just complain. Five or six lines is 
    usually acceptable, but any longer, and you're starting to take the risk 
    that your signature will be longer than some of your e-mail messages; this 
    wouldn't really make sense on paper, so it isn't really acceptable in 
    cyberspace either. The exception is in messages posted to alt.ascii-art 
    itself -- we're used to seeing long sigs, so we won't complain.
    But no matter what the length of your signature, make sure it's fewer than 
    72 characters wide, otherwise it may end up a horrible mess -- see Question 
    6. 
     
    
    12. Where can I find more ASCII art? 
    Lots of ASCII artists put up libraries of their own and others' ASCII art on 
    their Web sites, 
    as well as tutorials on how to draw ASCII art. Allen Mullen has links to 
    many of these sites at 
    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm. 
    Yahoo also has a page dedicated to ASCII art, at 
    http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Computer_Generated/ASCII_Art/. 
    And try Joan Stark's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/.
    To find out how to animate ASCII art using JavaScript, see 
    http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/faq_hta.htm 
    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/animlesson.htm.
THE END


This document may be freely copied as long as Matthew Thomas is identified as 
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