From: zneg.ngxvaf@ovtsbbg.pbz (Martin Atkins)
Reply-To: zneg.ngxvaf@ovtsbbg.pbz
Subject: All you need for ASCII Art: Monospaced Fonts, Text Editors and ASCII Utils (UPDATED!)
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 20:02:09 GMT
-
All you need for ASCII Art Monospaced Fonts, Text Editors and ASCII Utils (UPDATED!).nws
INFO:


         >-----------------------------------------------------<
      __  ________   _______________   ____
     /  |/  /  _/ | / /  _/ ____/   | / __ \ _
    / /|_/ // //  |/ // // /_  / /| |/ / / /(_)
   / /  / // // /|  // // __/ / ___ / /_/ /_   All the stuff you need for
  /_/  /_/___/_/ |_/___/_/   /_/  |_\___\_(_)         ASCII Art!

         >------------------ By Martin Atkins -----------------<

         Monospaced Fonts
                                Text Editors
                                                         Ascii Utils

         >-----------------------------------------------------<
          __  __                                                _
         |  \/  | ___  _ __   ___  ___ _ __   __ _  ___ ___  __| |
         | |\/| |/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \/ __| '_ \ / _` |/ __/ _ \/ _` |
         | |  | | (_) | | | | (_) \__ \ |_) | (_| | (_|  __/ (_| |
         |_|  |_|\___/|_| |_|\___/|___/ .__/ \__,_|\___\___|\__,_|
                          / _| ___  _ |_|| |_ ___
                         | |_ / _ \| '_ \| __/ __|
                         |  _| (_) | | | | |_\__ \
                         |_|  \___/|_| |_|\__|___/

Almost all ASCII art is created and intended to be viewed in a monospaced,
or fixed width font. Find your operating system/computer on the list below
and find a font on your system that is on the list.

Windows:  FixedSys                                 (Supplied with Windows)
          Courier New                              (Supplied with Windows)
          Courier                                  (Supplied with Windows)
          Lucida Console             (Supplied with Microsoft Win95 Plus!)
          Topaz New
          Monotype.com
          Terminal
          Lucida Sans Typewiter
          OCR A Extended
          OCRB

Amiga:    Topaz                                                   (In ROM)
          Courier                             (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
          Pearl
          Siesta
          XEN                                         (Comes with MagicWB)
          XCourier                                    (Comes with MagicWB)
          ascii
          tiny

AppleMac: Courier
          Monaco
          ZTerm

Acorn:    Corpus                                            (in Resources)
          Homerton                                          (in Resources)
          System                                            (in Resources)

If you can`t find any of the fonts on the list, please try looking at this
in all fonts available:

iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii|
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm|

In a fixed width font, both of the | symbols should match in distance from
the left side of the screen. If you find a common font that isn`t on the
list, please email mart.atkins@bigfoot.com and tell me about it, along
with what operating system/computer it is from.

.---- To get a Monospaced/Fixed Width font in MS Outlook Express -->
|Click Tools/ Options.
|Click the Read tab.
|Click the Fonts button.
|Select Courier or another fixed width font for ALL of the listboxes.
|Select Smallest.
|Click OK.
|Click OK.
'------------------ (Thanks to aardvarko) ------------------------->

         >------------------------------------------------------<
                             _____         _
                            |_   _|____  _| |_
                              | |/ _ \ \/ / __|
                              | |  __/>  <| |_
                      _____   |_|\___/_/\_\\__|
                     | ____|__| (_) |_ ___  _ __ ___
                     |  _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__/ __|
                     | |__| (_| | | || (_) | |  \__ \
                     |_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_|  |___/


A lot of ASCII art is made in a text editor - usually like a wordprocessor
but without text formatting functions.

Un*x:      vi
           pico
           emacs
           jed
           joe
           ed
           jove

Windows95: Notepad                                   (Comes with Windows!)
           EDIT.COM                                  (Comes with windows!)
           MicroEMACS
           EditPad
           PFE32
           UltraEdit                                   (www.ultraedit.com)
           TextPad                           (www.textpad.com - shareware)

Windows3:  Notepad                                   (Comes with Windows!)
           MicroEMACS
           PFE
           UltraEdit                                   (www.ultraedit.com)

MSDOS:     EDIT           (Comes with DOS 5/6 - Type EDIT at command line)
           QEdit
           MicroEmacs
           GNU Emacs
           TheDraw                                             (shareware)
           AcidDraw                                            (shareware)

Amiga:     Ed           (On Workbench Disk - run 'Ed <filename>' in shell)
           MicroEMACS             (Supplied with Workbench on Extras disk)
           Blacks Editor
           CygnusEd
           AZ
           NotePad                   (included with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3)
           TED                        (Included with ACID Blitz Basic 2.1)
           SuperTED              (Included with Blitz Basic support suite)

AppleMac:  Nisus
           SimpleText                                (included with MacOS)
           TeachText                                 (included with MacOS)
           Saint Edit                                      (shareware $10)
           BBEdit         (commercial but free light version is available)
           Tex-Edit Plus                                       (shareware)

Linux:     joe
           nedit

Acorn:     !Edit                                            (in Resources)

Atari:     Everest
           QED
           Steno
           EditPro

Commodore  Zed
   64/128: NovaPic

         >------------------------------------------------------<
                _    ____   ____ ___ ___
               / \  / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| _   _ _   _ _
              / _ \ \___ \| |    | | | | | | | | |_(_) |___
             / ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | | | | | | __| | / __|
            /_/   \_\____/ \____|___|___|| |_| | |_| | \__ \
             ---------------------------  \___/ \__|_|_|___/

Some utils to help with the creation of ASCIIArt:

* FIGlet
    This great program makes ascii 'banners' from text - the titles in
   these lists are a good example.
    A few examples:
               _____ ___ ____ _      _
              |  ___|_ _/ ___| | ___| |_
              | |_   | | |  _| |/ _ \ __|
              |  _|  | | |_| | |  __/ |_
              |_|   |___\____|_|\___|\__|

              88888888888 88   ,ad8888ba,  88
              88          88  d8"'    `"8b 88              ,d
              88          88 d8'           88              88
              88aaaaa     88 88            88  ,adPPYba, MM88MMM
              88"""""     88 88      88888 88 a8P_____88   88
              88          88 Y8,        88 88 8PP"""""""   88
              88          88  Y8a.    .a88 88 "8b,   ,aa   88,
              88          88   `"Y88888P"  88  `"Ybbd8"'   "Y888

              8"""" 8  8""""8
              8     8  8    " e     eeee eeeee
              8eeee 8e 8e     8     8      8
              88    88 88  ee 8e    8eee   8e
              88    88 88   8 88    88     88
              88    88 88eee8 88eee 88ee   88

    Various fonts are availiable (.flf files) and there are versions of
   FIGlet for almost any operating system and computer type:
       http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html
       ftp://nicoh.com/pub/figlet/

    The windows version of FIGlet, FigWin, is still only in beta and has a
   few bugs. Also, you dont always get the results you want without
   experimenting with the options first.  However it does have features
   not found in many other versions, like vertical smushing and weird line
   fitting.

    There are also many online, web based versions of FIGlet available
   also, one of which is http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/

    If you are a DOS user, you can get a GUI for DOS FIGlet at:
       http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/fdg.htm
   which should make the running of FigDOS easier.
    FIGlet+the GUI are also available from this page.

    If required, I will email FigDOS and the GUI in one zip file - just
   email mart.atkins@bigfoot.com and ask!

* GIFscii
    GIFscii, and it`s variants, will take an image file (usually GIF) and
   convert it to an ascii picture. The results arn`t brilliant, but can
   serve as a good starting point for an ASCII picture.
    Do a web search for one of these, as they are everywhere. Versions are
   available for a wide variety of operating systems and computer types.

    These conversions can be viewed as graphics using ASC2PIC, a program
   that will basically 'draw' ascii art using grey pixels on the screen.
    For a copy, email mart.atkins@bigfoot.com.

Try the following URLs for a starting point
     gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
     ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
       [URLs taken from alt.ascii-art FAQ by Matthew Thomas]

                                                          
           .- Sample output from BMP2ASC -----.           
           |         ;$XXHXXXXXXX+.           |           
           |      :XXXHHHHHXHHHHXXX$.         |           
           |    /XXXXHHHXXHHHHHHHXXXH/        |           
           |   /XXXXXHHH$HHHHHHHHHHHHH%       |           
           |  .XXXXXXHHX$HHHHHHHHHHHHHH;      |           
           |  ;XXXXXHX$XX$$$XHHHHHHHHXHX.     |           
           | .$XXXH%/;;;::::;/$HHHHHHHXX;     |           
           | =XXXHX//;;:::::;;/+HXHHHHHH$     |           
           | /HXXH$//;;;;::::;;/$XHHHHHXX-    |           
           | %HXXH%/;;;;;;;;+$$%$XHHHHHHX/    |           
           | XXXXHX$X$%+//+++;$%HXHHHHHHX$.   |           
           |.XXXXHX+/////://;///+$XHHH@HHHHH/.|           
           |,X$XXHH%;;;;/;///;;;+$XHHH@HHHH@@@|           
           |-X$XXH@H+/++/;/++;//%XHHHH@HHHH@@@|           
           |=$$XXHHH@@%%$$%++++%$XXHHHHHXH@@@@|           
           |=$$XXX$$@@@H%++++%%%$$XHXH@HH@@@@@|           
           |=$XHXX%$@@@@@%+++%$%$$XXXHH$H@@@@@|           
           |-+%XHHH@@@@@@@X+/+%$$$$$$%%/=$@@@@|           
           | //XXXH@@@@@@@@@@@@X%%++///=--/H@@|           
           |   %XXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X+;/;;=-,,,-$@|           
           |  =XHXHH@@@@@@@@@@@@X/,. ..-,..,,/|           
           |  $H@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@XH;....,......|           
           '------------------- for Windows! -'           
                                                          
* ASC-TOOL
    This program does rotation and flipping of ascii art. It is most
   useful when you need a left facing ascii art to face right, or
   something like that.

* RESIZE
    Performs 'pixel' resizes on ASCII Art... adding or removing
   characters to resize the pic. The size is a percentage of the
   original.

* ASC2PIC
    This is the reverse of GIFscii... takes solid style ascii and
   'draws' it as a picture on the screen. Good for viewing ASCII
   conversions as the graphics they came from.

* ASCHALF
    Resamples asciiart to 50% graphically. It resamples the picture
   as if it were a .GIF or something, and then converts it back
   to ascii art using a similar method to GIFscii.

* LGIFScii
    Line GIFscii... like GIFscii but with lineart. This program is
   not finished yet, but will hopefully be released if the results
   are good enough when it is complete.

* TRIM
    Removes blank spaces from the end of lines in text files. Not
   specifically an asciiart utility but useful just the same.

* TheDraw
    TheDraw is primarily an ANSI editor, but is suitable for ASCII art
   also.  It features many features not availiable in most 'standard' text
   editors, like filling an area with a character, or dragging a block
   around. There are many features specific to DOS ansi editing, which
   I will not go into here.

* AcidDraw
   AcidDraw is a similar program developed by artists for artists. A
   similar feel and feature set of TheDraw, but geared more towards a
   static-screen (non-animated) drawing.  It's sole purpose in life is to
   create ASCII and ANSI art.  Some nifty features include the ability to
   flip screens horizontally and vertically and otherwise manipulate
   text-based art in ways that a normal text-EDITOR simply can not do.
   Also shareware. (And the programmer is still alive but no bugs have
   ever been reported, to the fault of the software.)
      [Text supplied by RaD Man]

        Both TheDraw and ACiDDraw latest versions are available at
                http://artpacks.acid.org/programs/editors/

        Please note that none of these ASCII Utils are necesary for
             creation of ASCII Art, but merely to aid creation
          It is totally possible to make ASCII Art in any of the
                   editors on the 'Text Editors' list.
        TheDraw and AcidDraw, however are editors in their own
           right, so could be used instead of a 'traditional'
                              text editor.
        I have a few of these editors, but not all. If you email
                 me and ask I`ll send it if I have it!
        My email address is at various places in this document.

         >------------------------------------------------------<

                .-----------------------------------------.
                |Compiled by Martin Atkins with help from:|
                | * Veronica Karlsson                     |
                | * Jorn Barger                           |
                | * Colin Douthwaite                      |
                | * Randy Gardner                         |
                | * Ilmari Karonen                        |
                | * aardvarko                             |
                | * gumby                                 |
                | * Valentin Valciu                       |
                | * Hayley Jane Wakenshaw                 |
                | * llizard                               |
                | * Sami Sihvonen                         |
                | * Doug Wilson                           |
                | * Brock Kevin Nambo                     |
                | * Cipher                                |
                | * Ben Norwood                           |
                | * Matthew Thomas                        |
                | * RaD Man                               |
                | * natedac                               |
                | * Joergen                               |
                '-----------------------------------------'

         >------------- Last Updated 22-08-98 -----------------<

                     Also available on the web at:
            http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/minifaq.htm
            http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/vk/q/mga_faq.html
           http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/minifaq.htm
         http://bungleandmart.dyn.ml.org/i/ighaig/ascmfaq.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  ASCII ART NOT LOOKING RIGHT? READ THIS!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>> If you can`t see what a picture is, take a read through this...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

First check... do the following two lines look the same length:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII|

If they don`t, you are using the wrong font... use one of these, making
sure you have the right list for your system:

Windows:  FixedSys                                 (Supplied with Windows)
          Courier New                              (Supplied with Windows)
          Courier                                  (Supplied with Windows)
          Lucida Console             (Supplied with Microsoft Win95 Plus!)
          Topaz New
          Monotype.com
          Terminal
          Lucida Sans Typewiter
          OCR A Extended
          OCRB

Amiga:    Topaz                                                   (In ROM)
          Courier                             (Supplied with WorkBench 2+)
          Pearl
          Siesta
          XEN                                         (Comes with MagicWB)
          XCourier                                    (Comes with MagicWB)
          ascii
          tiny

AppleMac: Courier
          Monaco
          ZTerm

Acorn:    Corpus                                            (in Resources)
          Homerton                                          (in Resources)
          System                                            (in Resources)

                                                  [Taken from the MiniFAQ]

If you can`t find any of the fonts listed, just try different fonts until
the MMM line and the III line above line up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second Idea: Are you using Outlook Express?
Microsoft, in their infinate wisdom, decided that noone ever needs a
single space at the start of a line, so they made Outlook Express zap it
when the message is displayed. In the following examples, assume the line
of 'i' is the left margin, as if I used the true margin outlook express
would just zap the lines!

With a 'normal' newsreader:
   i |||||
   i| o o |
   i|  >  |
   i| \_/ |
   i \___/

With Outlook Express:
   i|||||
   i| o o |
   i|  >  |
   i| \_/ |
   i\___/

Which of the above does the following look like to you?

 |||||
| o o |
|  >  |
| \_/ |
 \___/


If you _are_ using Outlook Express then I`m afraid there`s not much you
can do about it... it`s hard coded that way. You`ll have to copy it to
Notepad and put all of the spaces back in by hand.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next: Does it have lots of words in pointed brackets, like <HTML> and <B>?

If so, it`s an HTML Rich Message, and since your newsreader doesn`t seem
to support HTML, you`ll need to copy everything from the <HTML> to the
</HTML> into a text editor or wordprocessor, and save it in plain text
format with a filename ending in .HTM and view it in a web browser.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does every other line look sort of ok to make a pic? It`s possible that
you or the poster are experiencing Word Wrap, where long lines are
continued on the line below... causing effects like this:

Assuming the word wrap limit was set to eight (which is not likely, it is
usually set to about 80)

...this:
    |||||
   | o o |
   |  >  |
   | \_/ |
    \___/

would become this:

    |||
||
   | o
o |
   |  >
  |
   | \_
/ |
    \__
_/

because when the lines reach column eight, they are 'wrapped' onto the
next line.

You may or may not be able to fix this. If it is *your* word wrap settings
that are at fault, you can probably either turn off or increase the word
wrap limit in your newsreader.  However, if the wrapping was done by the
newsreader of the poster, unfortuately there is nothing you can do and
everyone will be seeing it this way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next possibility is what we call 'Tab Damage', where the artist has
used the TAB key instead of pressing space repeatedly.
The reason this causes a problem, is because everyone can usually set
the size of their tabs to any number, so if I made this picture with TAB
setting of 8 characters, (and only used TAB on some of the lines)

         |||||
        | o o |
        |  >  |
        | \_/ |
         \___/

it may come out like this with a tab setting of 4:

         |||||
    | o o |
        |  >  |
    | \_/ |
     \___/

Yet again there`s not a lot you can do, apart from go through the pic and
change all of the TABs into the correct amount of spaces.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The artist may have used 'extended ascii' characters, or some sort of
control codes.  This is not the place to go into detail of what these are,
but all you need to know is that these differ from system to system and
can cause all manner of problems, from strange looking pics to crashed
newsreaders.
There is no fix, and if it crashes your newsreader, just delete the
message. :o(

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If all of these things don`t apply to you, then you need to post a plea
for help, stating which picture you are having problems with (if it is a
specific pic) and make sure you say you have read and tried this file, or
you will probably be told to read it. The final possibility I will suggest
is that it is not your fault at all... and It`s just a bad picture! If
this is the case, it`s the creator`s fault... you could have a go at
improving it for them! Note that if you do, It`s common practice to add
your initials/name to the picture in addition to that of the original
artist`s, for example if you were jms and you were diddling a pic by
mga, you would change the 'mga' to 'mga/jms'.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
             PICTURE VIEWING HELP, WRITTEN BY MARTIN ATKINS
                  LAST UPDATED THURSDAY JULY 13th 1998
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


