ASCII art facts for kids

    _    ____   ____ ___ ___              _
   / \  / ___| / ___|_ _|_ _|   __ _ _ __| |_
  / _ \ \___ \| |    | | | |   / _` | '__| __|
 / ___ \ ___) | |___ | | | |  | (_| | |  | |_
/_/   \_\____/ \____|___|___|  \__,_|_|   \__|

ASCII art is art made out of ASCII characters. This can be simple art like "<3" (it looks almost like a heart if you turn your head sideways), or it can be more complex, with characters carefully placed out, containing many lines of characters. ASCII art was originally used to "draw" pictures on computers that only allowed ASCII characters. Smilies are considered ASCII art.

Images for kids

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  "Oldskool" or "Amiga" style

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  "Newskool" style

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  "Block" or "High ASCII" style, cf. ANSI art

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  The alphabet in Newskool (Note: artificially shrunk vertically)

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  Dag Hammarskjöld, printout from teleprinter 1961-62

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  Illustration of the constellation "Sirius" from a 9th-century astronomical manuscript

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  A portion of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 6 January 1875, showing advertisements made from typewriter art.

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  A self-propelled howitzer and truck made using ASCII art

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  Block ASCII display via Notepad versus ACiDView for Windows

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  Oldschool/Amiga ASCII look on Commodore Amiga Computer versus look on the IBM PC (notice the tight spacing)

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  Newskool ASCII screenshot

See also

In Spanish: Arte ASCII para niños