New ASCII Art Contest at deviantART

Hello Everybody,

After a series of posts that were relatively unrelated to ASCII art and text art in general, now a pure one that ONLY talks about ASCII Art and nothing else. Ha, I knew that you missed those hehe.

Maija Haavisto aka DiamonDie organized another ASCII art contest over at deviantART.com. You might be familar with DiamonDie from Finland, because I have her ASCII Art Tutorial up on my site as part of my ASCII Art Academy for some time now.


What is she looking for?

Draw something in ASCII that I haven't seen before, something creative in technique, style, concept and/or subject matter. You could make something surreal, abstract, political, dadaistic or otherwise strange.

What is she NOT looking for?

... no kittens, Pikachus, roses or Santa Claus, unless you can make them stand out somehow.

No pornographic entries or anything that would violate the U.S. law, pretty much everything else goes.

There are the following technical requirements, because ASCII art is a bit too broad and not everything that falls under the term Text art or ASCII art is allowed for this contest.

• The entry must be an ASCII picture, of at least 10x10 and at most 80x200 characters (that's 80 characters per line and 200 lines). The entry must be drawn in a fixed-width font. Sorry, no extended characters (8-bit), colored ASCII or ANSI this time. If you don't know what this means, make sure you only use characters included in the green part of this table.
• The entry must be original and created by hand. Entries made with an image to ASCII converter are not taken into account. If your image looks converted or ripped, you will need to present a proof that you made it (ie. so called "step files", save the picture into several different files while drawing it).
• You can enter at most three pictures. You don't have to be a DA member to enter*.

* Just FYI. The deviantART membership is free and should not have been a hurdle for you in the first place that prevents you from entering the contest (or it would have been a very lame excuse if you would be using this excuse as a reason not to enter). Well, she does not make it a requirement this time, so it does not matter. One lame excuse was just eliminated before it even started hehe.

Submissions

Send a link to your artwork for download (you can upload it free at MediaFire.com or also at your account at deviantART (which is a bit trickier) via a personal note to DiamonDie using the deviantART internal mail system or via direct email to maija AT writeme DOT com.

Deadline

The deadline of the contest is 7/7/2008, July 7, 2008, no matter how you interpret the date (its the same in US and UK date format) :)

Prizes
What is in it for you?

The winner gets a "Dark Domain DVD" from ACiD Productions shipped free to your place anywhere on this planet (but where mail can be delivered). So living not in Europe or the United States is also not a reason for not entering the contest. :)

Dark Domain is a DVD-Rom (for the Computer), which contains text art from 1987 to the present, art packs, emags, text files and more. A complete and detailed list of all files included on this DVD-ROM may be found at www.darkdomain.org/allfiles.zip. The DVD is full and almost impossible to check entirely, unless you have some months of time to spare to look at the tens of thousands of images, ASCII and ANSI art pieces.

I list the DVD for a long time already at my scene related "online shop" here at RoySAC.com. There are a lot of other nice gems that might be of interest for you (sorry, but not part of the prizes for this contest)

To read all the details about the contest yourself, check out the original news post by DiamonDie at deviantART.com. Happy drawing and good luck to you.

Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

p.s. I might throw in something as well, like I did for Diamondie's ASCII art contest in 2006. I just don't know what I should throw in and if I should make it a surprise again as I did last time. I will check with Maija ;-).

100 Pieces of Nude ASCII Art Available Now!

Some quick, but exciting news. I introduced last summer my 30 Years of Naked ASCII Art gallery with 30 astonishing examples of text art that depict female nudity as motive for the pieces.

I expanded the gallery significantely today. I added a whopping 70!!! additional pieces. The gallery is 100 pictures big, or 200, if you count that every picture is available in the gallery in two different versions, one with black font on white background and another with white font on black background.

Here is how the selection screen looks like (image is a slightly scaled down version of the action selection screen due to space limitation at my blog)



I was so excited that I also created a banner animation to promote the gallery.



You can put it on your website as well, if you like to.
Here is the code:


<a href="http://www.roysac.com/asciinudes/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.roysac.com/banners/nudeascii468x60b.gif" border="0" title="100 pieces of NUDE ASCII art"></a>


Enjoy!

Cheers Carsten aka Roy/SAC

ANSI Art Tutorials for my ASCII Art Academy

Good news!

I extended the ASCII Art Academy with several new tutorials.

Only one of the new tutorials is for 7-bit ASCII, but hey, there I had already seven to begin with. The additional tutorial was created by "Cain" and it demonstrates how to draw a cool 7-bit newskool ASCII Logo.

The most important additions are the SIX ANSI art tutorials, because I didn't had any ANSI tutorials before and was constantly looking for some.

I found the tutorials in an unexpected place. They were originally published at the Acheron ANSI, ASCII and RIP art forums and portal at Acheron.org. Archeron was discontinued in 2004 and is now part of the Sixteencolors.net site, specificallly the Sixteencolors.net Wiki.

I found a backup of the whole site on the "Dark Domain DVD" by RaD Man/ACiD, which is actually an archive for ANSI/ASCII art packs and not a web archive per se. Well, thanks to Chris (RaD Man) and his collectors instinct, was I able to republish the ANSI art tutorials on the Internet again.

The Dark Domain DVD is available in my little "online shop" by the way and a must buy for all ANSI and ASCII art fans out there. Buy the DVD and stop collecting anything that was released before 2005, because the DVD has all of them in one small and handy package for an affordable price.

Now I need to find tutorials for 8-Bit block ASCII. I don't have anything for that style available at my academy yet.

I will continue looking for any tutorials, but play also with the idea of creating a tutorial myself, which covers some basics. I will have to see, if I find the time to do this or not. If you know about any 8-Bit ASCII tutorials, please let me know, I'd appreciate that.

Until then, check out the vast content that is already there, 7-Bit ASCII tutorials, now also ANSI tutorials, articles, background information, history and much more.
Visit the ASCII Art Academy now!

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Stats for Fun

I have an account at the social network and artist community deviantArt.com since March 3, 2006.

I looked at the statistics today and find it pretty interesting. Some numbers are not shown in the summary so I added them myself.

Stats Summary

• roy-sac has 9,985 pageviews total and his 306 deviations were viewed 23,717 times. He watches 60 people, while 86 people watch him.
• Overall, his deviations received 665 comments and were added to deviants' favourites 198 times, while he commented 1,383 times, making about 2.06 comments per day since he joined DA. This means that he gave 21 comments for every 10 that he received.
• His deviation with the most comments is deviantART ANSI Logo with 98 comments, and it is also his most favourited, with 73 favourites. His most viewed deviation is deviantART ANSI Logo with 5,266 views.
• 3 favourites were given for every 10 comments.
• Every 2.1 days he uploads a new deviation, and it's usually on a Sunday, with 66 (22%) of his deviations.
• His busiest month was July 2006 with 61 (20%) of his deviations.
• The majority of his deviations are uploaded to the Digital Art gallery (268), while his favourite category was Text Art > ASCII with 134 deviations.

• Comments per deviation: 2.17
• Favourites per deviation: 0.64
• Views per deviation: 77.5
• Comments per day: 0.99
• Favourites per day: 0.29
• Views per day: 35.35
• Pageviews per day: 14.88

Additional figures that were not provided in the summary by deviantArt.

• Deviation Comments: 671
• Deviant Comments: 373
• News Comments: 31
• Forum Posts: 16
• Journal Entries: 48
• Favorites: 490
• Items in Wish List: 31
• Scraps: 7
• Prints available in dA Shop: 13 which had 17 sales altogether. Most of the sales were done by myself hehe.
• I submit art to 21 categories, but the vast majority of them (306) were for the categories ASCII Text Art (134), ANSI Text Art (109) and Landscapes (15). The last one is for photographies.

The top four deviations by number of favorites.

1. deviantART ANSI Logo (73 favs, 98 comments, 5266 views)
2. deviantART Google Logo (24 favs, 64 comments, 2663 views)
3. deviantART ASCII Logo (6 favs, 10 comments, 1126 views)
4. TRSI Pixel Art VGA Logo (6 favs, 10 comments, 184 views)

My first ANSI for Melmac BBS is actually #4 by pageviews. It had 610 of them, which is three times more than the TRSI logo. However, the Melmac ANSI was never fav'ed though hehe.

It Was Time Again For A Clean-Up

As the title of this post already said, it was time again for a clean-up of my site RoySAC.com. Its content was growing significantely over the past months, which resulted in a very user unfriendly navigation and gave folks a hard time to find stuff on the site.



Homepage
The first thing you will notice is a much more cleaner, shorter and straight forward homepage of RoySAC.com. Old content from the homepage was moved to existing pages (SAC homepage, About Me page), to its own page (Closed Society BBS) or simply deleted.

ASCII Art Academy
The ASCII art primer and the three styles of the underground text art scene articles can not be found in the top navigation anymore. I created a whole new section call the ASCII Art Academy. The academy refers to those two articles and to a lot more stuff, including the existing ASCII art tutorials by Solid and DiamonDie plus five new ASCII art tutorials and the History of ASCII Art article by Joan G. Stark.

The new ASCII Art Academy can also be reached via the simple URL RoySAC.com/learn/.

Art Galleries
I had already four art galleries for my own stuff. Three more were added when my site took over as Superior Art Creations homepage. Then I added two more with ASCII and ANSI art from other artists and don't forget the special ASCII Nudes gallery and the ASCII morph pieces by Skylined.

Stuff was all over the place.

The galleries got a new "splash page" called... right, Art Galleries, which provides easy access to all the galleries and art pieces mentioned above.

Contact Page
In the case that you did not notice, I also have a contact form available now where you can send me a message without the need to dig for my email address and using your email client.

Site Navigation
The top navigation and additional text navigation in the footer of the site reflect the new structure of my site. I hope it makes things less confusing and make people actually find all the nice stuff, which I made available on my website.

Unchanged
The SAC section grew in size a little, the same is true for my About Me page, but the rest remained pretty much the same as it was before. Also the online shop, downloads page and links section did not require to be changed.

Feedback Wanted
Let me know what you think. I am open for any comments, suggestions, praise, complaints and other feedback about the new site structure and navigation. Contact me directly or leave a comment here at my blog. Thanks, I appreciate that.

Enjoy the site! Cheers!
Carsten aja Roy/SAC

Custom ASCII Art Prints

While I was at DefCon in Las Vegas did I check out a vendor who did custom t-shirts. This stuff is often very cheaply done and the t-shirts don't last very long. Three times washing it and the print would fade out. What caught my interest was the fact that they actually did very professional and high quality print and that for a reasonable price.

I always wanted to have some nice ASCII or ANSI printed on a shirt so I showed them a few ASCIIs and asked them, if they could do it. I am not an expert in this kind of stuff, but it turned out that block ASCII was actually very hard for them to do, because they convert the image to vector graphics first and use that pattern when they do the actual print. They said that the creation of that vector pattern will take forever, because it has to break down all the individual lines. And there are a lot of lines in Block ASCII hehe.

I agreed for the higher price tag, if I can get in return the vector file, which will allow me to do additional copies fairly easy without spending a lot of money. They agreed and said that it will take a while and that it will be impossible to do it right there at the conference and be done the same day. No problem, the conference was still on for another two days so I agreed to give them time until the last day of the show.

The Results
... were pretty amazing. I had them make me two t-shirts, one with a SAC ASCII logo by Hetero and another one with my own Dytec ASCII logo. Here are two photos showing me wearing the t-shirts. The Dytec logo color is a gray, like the original font color in MS DOS. The SAC logo is in bright and shiny white.

Below each photo is a link to the original ASCII art piece on my website for comparison.


See original ASCII


See original ASCII
Pretty cool eh? I was thinking about creating some more t-shirts and may be sell them off my site, but I don't know if there is any interest in that kind of stuff. If you are interested, leave a comment here at my blog to let me know. If enough people are interested, I will consider it. If you can't wait and would like to get the same t-shirts, which I am wearing in those pictures, read the next paragraph.

A Little Gift
I was thinking about it and said to myself "what the heck!". Here are the vectorized versions of the two ASCIIs, which were used for the prints and were the most time consuming and expensive part of the whole process. I zipped them up and the file is about 2 MB in size. The file format is ".ai" whatever that might be, but the shop I used for the prints is able to use them and print additional t-shirts very easily and cheap, because they can load it right into their printing machine without any pre-processing.

ASCII-VectorImages-Print.zip

You can thank me for it by linking to RoySAC.com, making a donation (see any of my arts detail pages) or buying some of my mouse pads or something like that. I nice thank you and a drink (if we ever get a chance to meet in person) will also do I guess hehe.

Where Can You Get Something Like This?
The shop that did the t-shirts also does other types of custom prints. I was asked a few times where you could get ANSI art as a poster or large picture to hang it on to your wall. Here is the answer to that question: custom print. It is not cheap, but it also does not cost an arm and a leg. You also have to worry about a frame. You might want to ask them if they would take care of the framing for you. Keep in mind that a framed picture is harder to ship and would increase the cost for that.

I can recommend the print shop that did the t-shirts for me, it is called LBGFX Solutions. You can visit their website at LGBFX.com. They are located in National City in California. You can also contact the owner directly via email. His name is Liz Dela Cruz and his email is lizdcruz at gmail dot com. Tell them that I recommended him. He will not remember my name, just tell him "the guy with the ASCII prints at DefCon 15" and he will remember :).

Another print shop I know who does this kind of print and also understands what you are talking about if you ask for an "ANSI" to get printed are the guys from ShadowVex for whom I created the custom DefCon ANSI. They are located in Oregon and their website is more or less under construction and promotes their DJ'ing and not their custom printing. They organized the sound and music for one of the official DefCon parties btw. and they do sell t-shirts and a lot of other custom printed merchandizing for DefCon at the conference for over 10 years now. I talked with them about the need of a website and maybe some ecommerce features while I was in Vegas. It is on their to-do list. In the meantime is the best way to contact them via email. The name of the guy is Kevin Whitesmith and his email is Kevin at shadowvex dot com. Say "Hi" from me, if you decide to email him.

Cheaper Alternatives
For simpler prints do you not have to get fancy. I used deviantART for some stuff, like my ASCII and ANSI mouse pads and postcards. I blogged about them last November in greater detail.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Buy ANSI Print	Buy ASCII Print

Another alternative for this kind of stuff would also be CafePress. They also do t-shirts, but be careful and keep in mind that the quality of those t-shirts is probably not getting even close to the quality print done by a professional custom print shop.

Good luck and happy printing :). Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

New ASCII and ANSI Art Galleries

When I added the SAC section to my site and new galleries with ASCII, ANSI and pixel art that were not created by me, did I say to myself "why not add other great art to the site as well".

Neo Tokyo ANSI by Somms/ACiD

I was also inspired by Sixteencolors.net who did an amazing job of making ANSI art available to look at on the web.

Razor 1911 ANSI by Zebig/Razor 1911

I don't want to create a file archive where you can find a lot of art, but have to download it first and use special software to be able to look at it. Jason Scott over at Textfiles.com is doing a great job doing that.


The new galleries are only the beginning. More will come over time.

Okay check out the new ASCII Art Gallery and the new ANSI Art Gallery.

ASCII Skull - taken from the
Night Rising World ASCII by Olli/Black Maiden

Famous Che Guevara head shot.
Taken from the MIM NFO ASCII by m0/Chemical Reactions

New Gallery Feature
You will notice in detail page of the ASCII art pieces new buttons in the top left: "Snapshot Image", "Text Version" and "Original (DL)".

Razor 1911 NFO file logo by JED/ACiD

"Snapshot Image" is the default display mode. The ASCIIs (and ANSIs) are converted with a tool called PHP AnsiLove to a PNG image. This happens in real time based on the original ASCII or ANSI file. The result is very close to the looks of the text art in MS DOS.

"Text Version" is what it says, the real text version of the ASCII. I wrote a converter to convert ASCIIs to Unicode. The font used is "Lucida Console" for the display on the web.

I am not sure if looks right on all systems and browsers, which is the reason that I did not make it the default display option.

I want to write a converter for ANSI as well, which converts the ANSI.sys "escape codes" to HTML. It is not done yet, thus no buttons are available in the details of the ANSIs yet.

Avatar FTP Site Advert by Darrix

"Original (DL)" was there all the time. It is also available at the bottom of the page for ANSIs. It is the option to download the original .ASC or .ANS file to your local hard drive.

I hope you will like those new additions to the site. Feel free to leave any comments and suggestions here at my blog.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Welcome to the ASCII Art Videos

I added a new page to my site, which is dedicated to show videos that are about or related to text art and the subject that surrounds it, including the BBS scene, the demoscene and of course SAC, Superior Art Creations.

Visit the new ASCII Art Videos Section at RoySAC.com/videos/.

The section launched with 10 videos.

The first one is "The Art of Textmode" - Text Art History, a presentation at the Assembly 2004 Demo party in Helsinki, Finland by Christian Wirth aka RaD Man. I referred to that video earlier already in a blog post of mine from February and decided to put it somewhere on the site where it can be found more easily.

The second one is a short video by Creature of Hell/SAC - The Movie from 2001, showing off some of his pixel art skills.

The main part of the section is made up by the six videos, which represent the complete content of Jason Scott's 3 DVD long documentary titled "BBS - The Documentary". No, it's not an illegal copy of the DVD's. Jason put them up himself on Google Video, because he released the documentary under the creative commons licensing model to make its content easier accessible. Jason does of course appreciate support for his cause(s), which are surrounding the subject of BBS and actually were the triggers for him to create the documentary in the first place. You can support him via buying the real DVDs, pressed, not burned, with nice wrapping and paper box for example. You can get it via his website here or from Amazon.com, if you prefer them for any reasons.



Then I also put up two good examples of ASCIImation, which means animated ASCII or ASCII animation. The examples show two songs by more or less famous musicians who used ASCIImation for their music videos.

More videos will be added over time, especially videos of the old SACtros and cracktros the group did for others and which can not be started and watched on modern PCs without emulation of the old MS DOS operating system.

Btw. I extended the SAC section of RoySAC.com a little bit as well. I added more content and also found two music-disks that were released by SAC members when I was not part of the group anymore. I found them by accident and put them up on my site of course. :)

Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Major Site Expansion and New SAC Section with Art Packs Page

I spent quite some time to update content at my RoySAC.com Website. I wrote a whole ASCII art primer article to give you an idea what I am talking about in general. It is for people who do know little or nothing about ASCII/ANSI art, the artscene and the warez scene it operated in.

The biggest addition is the new SAC section, which is dedicated solely to everything related to Superior Art Creations, the art group, which I founded in 1994.

You can find there SAC VGA logos created by SAC members for the group, as well as ANSI logos and ASCII logos, which were created for internal purposes of the group.

The largest addition overall was the new SAC art packs releases page. It shows all 34 SAC art packs, which were released betweeen December 1994 and December 2005, the packs File_ID.diz, download links to the pack files, links to the SAC.NFO files for detailed information about each pack and a brief description for every release.

The descriptions are more detailed than I had originally planned. Because of that, does the page act as SAC history page for now, until a better SAC history page is being created one day. There are some "holes" in it, but I hope to get the missing information and will then update the page accordingly.

I updated pretty much every page of the site, including the home page, the Roy/SAC art page, the shop, the downloads section, the links page and the gallery pages (ASCII Art, ANSI Art, Best Of and VGA Art). The Website navigation was overhauled and has now a much slicker look than before. Here is a partial screen shot of how the navigation of the site looks today.



I hope you will enjoy the "renovated" and massive expanded RoySAC.com site. Let me know what you think about it, negative feedback is as welcome as possitive.

Thank you and Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Nude Girls in ASCII - Even More Naked Truth

I realized 2 days after my post about the 30 years of naked ASCII art that the gallery was not working with Firefox and Safari.

No wonder that it died at Digg before it even started. I would be glad, if you could revive it by digging it, if you happen to have a Digg account. Thanks. Much appreciated.

I fixed the Gallery and tested it with Firefox 2.0 and Safari for Windows. It works fine now. While I was at it, did I extend the gallery from 20 to 30 pieces of art.

I also did significantly improve the interface. I am now showing little thumbnails for the picture selection and also added a little "fading" effect if you hover over a picture, which works for IE and Firefox (not for Safari, sorry).

       d@$iWWb:
     '8$$$$#$$$k
     '8$$$$ `$$M&
     X$$$$K  `$$XX
     $$$$$UUo$@$$$.
    9$$$$$$$$$9$$$$>
   W$$$$$$$$P `#$$?B
  '$$$$$"#$h. d$$$X?$c
   $$$$R      /"$$$X$$
   ?$$$R~    :/ $$R"""\.
    $$$$:  .xHH9$E      !
   '$"9$$N    d$$F       !
   '  M$$$'Ne@$$$!'      '
   E  XR#$>'R P9?  k>     :
   E   '! *f  .f'  :      9k               -~`      `"-.
   `  :    `    >   >     ~$:          .~                `!.
   'L :     ~` ~    !     '$8       .~                        ~\.
    ?         ~   ! .      $$$.    :                             `~:
    `!        '   %X2      R$$W% .~                                  `\
     !:  MM>  FL     :     M5$$ ~   !                                   `.
     !$W.   xF  #buo@$     '^$F   :$$>       .--^`"-.  `.
     !M$$$$*         'k    '     d$*##..-~`           `: "4:x.       `"#5    \.
     '!$$$$$c   !. !xx!     .!  `$$@F`                  >~
     '\!?$$$$$X.     `M   9 !     ~
     '!!!> ~ `!!~!!.  f     ~ ~

A simple click on the current image also closes it and pushes the image selection up and into the center of the screen. So you don't have to scroll all the way to the end of the picture anymore. I also reduced the size of the standard website navigation to the minimum.

A lot of enhancements and extensions. A lot more reasons to check out my ASCII Nudes Collection.



This is a screen shot of the new image selection. Neat eh?
Enjoy!


Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

ASCII Nudes Collection - 30 Years of Naked ASCII Art

I was going through some of my ASCIIs in my vast archive and found a number of "interesting" pieces. Who said that ASCII text art is boring?

Guess what, its actually pretty exciting at times. You have probably not seen some of the great pieces of nude ASCII art yet. Luckily for you did I spend the time to collect the best pieces of Nude ASCII art available from around the world and over 30 years.

I created a special page for it on my site. The collection consists of 20 pieces of the finest nude ASCII text art showing naked girls. Some of the pieces are surprisingly realistic.

I am proud to be able to present them to you here and now. You can choose between the display with white background and black font (default) to emulate the look under Windows (like with Notepad) or black background with white font (invert), which emulates the original DOS to some degree (Note: MS DOS did not have a white font as default. It was a light gray, but who is checking? hehe)

Special "Boss Key" Feature
Remember the old days where some programs had a "Boss Key" feature that switched from whatever you were doing to something totaly innocent if you clicked it?

It came in handy when your parents or your parents "other" child entered the room to check what you are doing. Guess what, the "Boss Key" is back :).

You will notice the "Boss Key" to the top right when you open the gallery page. It will stay with you, even if you scroll to look at the ASCIIs. Click it and the page will turn from Rated:R to Rated:G in an instant. The Button will change to "Home", just click it again when everything is safe again and continue where you left off :).

Where is the link? Okay, here it is.

ASCII Nudes Collection - 30 Years of "Naked" ASCII art

One Example

And to show you that I am not kidding, I will show you one of the 20 pieces to demonstrate what I am referring to. Remember, there are 19 more, where that one came from hehe. Voila, "Miss MORGANA". :)

               
           .:IIIIHIHHIHHHII::I:.
         .IIIIHIHHHHHHIHIIIIMHHI:, 
       :IIIIHIHHHHHHMMHHIHHIIHHIII:. 
     .:IHIHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHIHHIHHHIH:I:, 
    ,.:HIHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHIHHII:. 
   ,.:IHHHHHHHHHHMMMMHHHHHHHIIHHHIHIII, 
  .:IIHHHHHHHHMMMMMHHHHMMMHHMHHHIIIHIIII: 
  .IIHHHMMMMMMMHHMMMHHHMMMHHMHII:HHHII:I. 
  :HIHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHHII:HHMMHII:II 
 :HHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHIIHIHHMMHHHHII::I: 
:IIHHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMHMMHIHMMMMHHHI:"::IIHII: 
:IHHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMHHI:II::I:"' .   '"IHH. 
::HHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMHMHHI:II::.'  .       'VMA. 
IHHHHHMHNMMMMMMMMHMHHI:II:. . .          "MMH. 
HHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMHMHI:I::.' .  . .      .,MMM:. 
HHHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMHMHI:II:. ..  .    ..LI:"IMMI.
HMHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHI:II.'.        :HT;.,, VHI: 
HHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMHMHHHI:HMHII:,.   ':,MHP"HPIHII. 
IHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMHMHHHII::IT:.I:.  'HMMH ,:" VII: 
:HHHHHHHMHMMMMMHMHHHHIIMMMPVHI::. .P"TIT"'  IH:I 
HHIHHHHHHMHMMMMHMHHHHH:VMMM:.HI:H:. :. . . . II:I. 
:HHHHHMHMMMMMHMHHHHIIHMMHHI:.:HI:. . .. .  :III; 
IHHHHMHMMMMMMMHHHHHI:IT:TI:..:HI:.. ..:. . :IHII 
 IHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMHHI:I::.:. ..:II::.. :I..  :HIIH. 
 'HHHMHMMMMMHMHHHH:II:.. ...:II:II./'::.' IHHIH; 
  HHMHMMMMMMMHMHHHH:I:I::....::VIHI;, ' . . IHHIHA 
  MHHMMMMMMMMMHMHHH:II:::...::II:::.;,,,:   AHHIHH; 
  ;HHMHMMMMMMMMHMHH-:II::..:::I::"",,:"''  .HHHIHHI. 
  'HHHMHMMMMMMMMHMHHA:II:.:H.::-"'""' ,'. .AMHHIHHH; 
   :HHMHMMMMMMMMMMHMHA:II::.::::-;,,:: .. :AMHI:IHHI 
   'HHMHMMMMMMMMMMHMHHA:III:::II:II::. . .AMMHI:IHHH. 
    :HHHMHMMMMMMMMMHMHHA:IIIHII:.:::. . .AMMMHI:IHHH:. 
    'HHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHI:":VIII::...:AMMMMHHI:IHHHI
     ;IHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHII:. '"" 'AMMMMMMMHI:IIHHH:I. 
     :IMHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHII:.  .:IHMMMMMMHHHIHIHHHI::. 
     ;HHHMHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHI:..IHHMHMMHHHHHIHHHMHH;I:".' 
     ;HHHHHMHMMMMMNMMMMMMMHMHHHI::.HHHHMMHHHHHIHIHHHHHI:' 
     :HHHHHHHHMHMMMMMMMMMHHHMHHHI:IHHMHMMHHHHHMHIHHHHIHI; 
     ;HHHHHHHHMMHMMMMMHMHHMMHIHMI:IIHHHMHHHHMHMHIHIHHHHI:. 
     IHHHHHHHHHHMHMMMMMHMHHMMHHMMII:IHHMMHMHHHHMMHMHMHHHH; 
     ;HH:":IHHHHMHMMMMMHMHIHMHIIMMHI:IMHMMMI:HHHHHMMHHHHI:I. 
    ;HV" . .:IIHHHMMMMMMMHHHMMHIIHMHHI:HHHMHI:IHHIHHIHHMHI:II;. 
   ;IV"   . .''":VMMMMMMHMHHHMMHI:HHHHI:HHHIHI:IHHHHHIHHHIHII;, 
   .II"   .. .  ':VHHHMHMMMMMHMHHI:HMMHI:IHHHI::IHHHI:HIHHHI:I:. 
  .II . . .  . .  ':HHHHMHMMMHMMMHIHIMMMHI:HHHMI:IHHHIHI:HHHHII:I. 
 .;V' . .. .  .    'IHMMMHHMHHHMMMHIHIHHHHI:IHHHI:IHHHHHIHHHHHIIHII:. 
.:I" .. . .    .   :IHMMMHHHMHHIHHHI:HHIHHHIHIHHHAIHHHHHHI:HHHIHII:. 
'..:  .  .       .  :IMMMHMHHIMHIIHHI:IHHI:IHHIHHHHIHIHHHHIHIHHHHIHI:. 
.: .. . . .      ..:IHMMMHMHMHMHHHHMHIHHI:.IVIIHHHIHHHHHHHHI:HIHHIHII:. 
.: .   . .        . :IHMMMHMIHIH:IIHHHIHH:.I:IIHHHIHHHHHHHHIHI:IHHHI:;.
:: .:. .  .   .   ..:IHHMMMHMIHIH:IIHHHMHH::..:HHHHI:HHHHHHI:I:IIIHII; 
:. ... . .  .     ..::HHHMMHMHHII:HIIHHMMHH:..:HHHMHHIHHHI:: . :IHII:I 
..  ..  .   .      ..:IHHHMMMMHIII:HIHMMMHHI:. HHMHMMHHII:'  '.:IHII:" 
':....   . .      . ..:IHHHMMMMHMHI:HIHMMMHA...VHMMHHHMI:'  .' :IH::" 
 :. ..  ....    .    ..IHHHHMMMMHHII:I:IHMMHA. .VHMHHHI:' ''    '':, 
 ::...  . .... .   . ..::IHHHMMMMIHII::I:IHMMHHMHIHIHI''   .  .     , 
 ::.... . .....  ..  ...::IIIHHHMMIHI::IHHHIIIHHHIIHI".  ..   .      , 
 ::.:.......... .. . ....:::HHIIHHHHHHHIIHMMMHI:' 'VI::..  . .        , 
 ::.:............. .. . ...AHIHIIIIIHHHI::""'      'VII:.. ..    .      
 ::.:.:.......... .. .  ...HHHIIIIIIHHHI::. .       'VII::. . .       , 
 ':::.:.:..... .. . . . ..:MHHIHIIIII:I::. .         'VII:::. ..      . 
  :::::.:..:.... . . . ...AHHHHIHIIII:::. .           'VII:::. . .   :. 
  :::::::.:..... .. . ....MHHHHHIHIII::.:.. .          'VII::.  .   :: 
  :::::::::.:.... .. ....:MHHHHIHII:I::::...  .         'VI::. .   ::I) 
  '::::::::::.:... .. ...:MHHHHIHIIII::::..  .           'VI:.    ...:V 
   .:::::::::::.:.... . .AMMHHIHIII:I::::...  .  .        I::.   ...:-" 
   :.::I::::::::.:. .  ..MMMHHIHIIII:I:::... .  .        .::.  ,..-"
   :..:II:I:::::.:.. . ..MMMHHIHIIIIIII:I::.... .  .    ..::""' 
  .::.:III:I::::::.:.. ..MMMMIVHIHIIIII:I::::.... .   .....:, 
.:.::..:III:I:::::.:... .MMHMAIVHHIHIIIII:I::::.. .  ..::..:, 
. .:::.::III:I::::.:... .VMMHMAIVHHHIHIIII:I::::..  ..:...::: 
. :::I.:::III:I:::.::.. .:MMHHMAIVHHIHIIIII:I::::....:::.:::: 
 .::IIH.:::III:I::::.:.. .MMHMHMAIVHHHIHIIIIII:I:::.:::::::I) 
.::IIHH.II:::II:I::::.:...MMMHMHMAIVHHHHHIHII:I:::..::::::HV 
::IIIHIH.III::I:I::::.:. .MHHMHHHIAIIVHHHHIHIII:...::::.:-" 
:IIHIHHA.VIHII:I:::::::...HHHHHHIHI::":VHHHII:I:::...:-' 
IIHIHHHHI.HHIHII:I:::::...HHHIHII:' .  .'"VIIIII::-' 
IHIHHHHH-:HHIHIIII:I::.:..HIHI::. ..  ...:" 
HIHHHHIHHH:HHHIHIIII:I::.:HII:'. .   ..:" 
HHHHHHMHHHIHHHHHHIHIII::.IHI:.  .    ..:-., 
HHHHHHHMHHIHHHHHHHIHII:..II:'  .    .:"    ''"-. 
HHHHHHHMHHIHHHHHHIHII::..I;'. .   ..:"          '"-. 
HHHHHHHMHIHHHHHHHHIHI::,.I;' . .   .;"              "- . 
MMHMHHHHHH-IHHHHHHIHII::.::;.   :.:;.... .             '"-.
MMMHMHHHHHHIHHHHHHIHII::..:.,  .N.:I::.... .               '"-. 
MMMMHMHHHHHIHHHHHHIHIII:..:.;. :.:AI:::..... .  .             .'-. 
MMMMMHMHHHIHHHHHHHHHIHII:..:.;:.:AIII::::....... .               .':, 
MMMMHMHHHHIHHHHHHHHHHIH:I:.:.,::AHIHIII:I::::::::...... .    .  ...::, 
MMMHMHHHHHIHVHHHHHHHHHIII::.:.:AHHIHIHIIIII:I:::::::.:....... .. ...::. 
MHMHHHIHIIII:HHHHHHHIHII:I:. :AHHHHHHHHHHHIHIIHIIIIIII:I::.:..... ..::. 
HHHHIHIIII:I:HHHHHHHHIHII:: .IHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIHIII:I::::::::::::. 
HHIHIIIII:I::VHHHHHHHIHII::. :MHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHIIHIIIIIIIIIIIV 
HHIHIIII:I::::MHHHHHHHIII::.. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHHHHIIHIIIHIIIV' 
HHHIHII:I::I::MHHHHHHIHIII:: .HHIHHHHHIHHHHHHHHIHHIHHHIHHHHIHHIHIHHV' 
HHHHIHII:I::::HHHHHHHIHII:I:. MHHHIHHHHHHHIHHHHHHIHHHHHHHIHHHHHHHHV' 
MMHHHIHIII:I::HHHHHHHHIHIII: .:MMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHV:' 
II:IHMHHI::::AIHHHHHHHHHIII::. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHMHHHHHHHV:' 
III:IHMHIAMMMIHHHHHHHHHIHII....MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM--"""'' 
IIIII:I:IIHMMMMMHHHHHHHHHHHII:::"""""""""""""'' 
IIIII:I:II:.T,  'VHHHHHHHHIHI::: 
IIIHIII:I:::.:,  :HHHHHHHHHHIHII
IIIIII:I::::::.,  VHHHHHHHHHHIHI 
IIHII:I::::.:..., 'MMMHMHHHHHIHI. 
IIII:I:::::.:....:.VMMMHMHHHHHIH. 
IIIIII:I::::::.:..:.MMMMMHMHHHHH: 
IHIIIIII:II::::.:.:.VMMMMMHMHHHHA. 
IIIHIIIHIII:I::::.:..VMMMMMHMHHHHA 
IIIIIHIIIIIII:I:::.:..VMMMMHMMHHHH.         Miss MORGANA
IIHIIIIIIHIIIII:I:::..IMMMMMMMHMHHI 
HIIIIIHIIIIIIIII:I:.:..VMMMMMHMHHI:. 
HIHIIIIHIIIIIHIHI:I::..IMMMMHMHIHI:. 
HHIHIIIIIIHIIIIHIHIII:.:MMMMMHMHHI:: 
HHHIHHHHHHIIIIIIHHHHIHI:MMMMMHMHHII: 
HHHHIHIIIHIIIIHIHHHHHHHI..HHHIHIIHI:. 
HHHHHHIHIIIIIIIIIHIHH..IHHHHIHI:III:, 
HMHHHHHIHIIIIIIIIIHIHMHHIIHIIHI:II:::, 
MMHHHHHHHHIHIIIIIIIHMIHIIHHIIIHI:I::.., 
MHMHMHHHHHHHHHIHIIH.;I:IIIHHIIHHI:::::.,
MMMMMHMHHHHHHHHIHIH;I:IHIHII:HI:HII::.::. 
MMMMMMMMHMHHHHHHHIH;I:IHMHI.:HIIHI:II:IHA 
HMMMMMMMMMHMHHHHHHVI::IMHIHHHMH:IH::I:IHH. 
HHHMMMMMMMMMMHMHH;I:HHIMHHHHMHHIHHI.:AMHI:
HHHHMMMHHHHMMMMM;I:IIHHIIHAIIIHI:HI:HA:IHI
HIHHHHMMMHHHMMM:II:IMHHIIMIHIIIHIHHIHMMH.I

Enjoy!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Text Art Google Group

I created today a Google Group titled "ASCII and ANSI Text Art", but it is open to anything and anybody who and which is related to Text Art.

For that reason is the short name and URL to the group "textart" instead of "asciiart" or "ansiart".

ASCII and ANSI text art Visit this group

Subscribe to ASCII and ANSI text art Email: Visit this group

Those templates were provided by Google hehe.

I created already a little resources page and also started a discussion about something that has always been a controversy. I will not tell you what that is, go check out the group and find out for yourself.

A number of XML feeds are also available for anybody who can not live without.

	Atom 1.0 15 New messages 50 New messages 15 New topics 50 New topics		RSS 2.0 15 New messages 50 New messages 15 New topics 50 New topics

Lets see how it goes. Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Image to Text Converter and Fun with Matt Cutts

I came across a nice free tool that converts images to ASCII. It is called Photo2Text.com and produces very decent results. I have looked at a bunch of such converters since the early nineties and the results can vary a lot, depending on the quality of the algorithm that has to decide which text character is the best to get it as close to the original as it possibly can.

I was never a fan on image to text converters. Mostly because those converters were and are often used by guys who are cheats and try to "sell" converted images as their own creation, as in made from scratch and by hand. Real pieces of ASCII art are being created without the use of any special tools other than editors that allow to assign text characters to specific keys on the keyboard and let you easier move around to change individual characters ("insert" off and the ability to move with the cursor to the right without the need to create "spaces" manually first). A number of different tools are available for download at my site.

Anyhow, I take the converters as what they are, a nice tool to have fun with, nothing serious. Nothing is wrong with good old fashioned fun. The only person who is serious about it, is the coder who spent his time figuring out how to produce the best possible result.

To demonstrate the quality of the Photo2Text.com converter, did I use an image of the Google engineer Matt Cutts, who has a blog where he talks to webmasters about SEO and search engine spam (and his pet, a cat). I had my arguments with him a bunch of times, so it just right for me to use him as guinea pig and demonstration object hehe.

You can see the GIF image of him, which I used to the right. I optimized it a bit to increase the contrast for better result. I also made sure that there is not too much going on, like stuff in the background, which would overload the picture and harder to get an ASCII back where you can identify anything.

The tool lets you choose from eight different character sets to be used for the converted image.

Set 1:  @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.
Set 2:  @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.__
Set 3:  #WMBRXVYIti+=;:,.
Set 4:  #Xx+=-;,.
Set 5:  @%#*+=-:.
Set 6:  #¥®Ø$ø0o°+=-,.
Set 7:  01
Set 8:  █▓▒░

An interesting and rare feature is the "slider" to adjust the image's "brightness". It is more than just a gimick and you should play around with it, because it can improve results significantly if you increase or decrease it, depending on the original image.

Also nice, the option to save the final ASCII to your computer. Okay, lets have a look at the results for the Matt Cutts image.

First Version using Character Set: @#MBHA&Gh93X25Sisr;:,.

I used the default "brightness", which is a bit darker. For that reason is the face also filled with characters.

                                ..,ri52G@@HXX2i;::;:                                    
                            rAr;@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#i,                               
                       ,iH@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Mr                            
                    .r@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s.                        
                 .i#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;                      
               ,h@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r                    
             .s@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r                  
            .2@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2                
            X@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@,              
          :#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@S             
        :#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@X            
       3@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r           
      s@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H           
      &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;          
      H@@@@@HG#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@A          
      A@@@@G2i9@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.         
      ,@@@Gi552#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@;         
       s@Bri22SG@@@M#@@@#@@@@@@@#@##@@@@@@##MM##@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s         
       s@5iXX2S5h#@@@@@@#@@@@@@@####@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3         
       i@S39X55ss5G#@###@@GH@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H         
       r@299X2Siiir;r;;;sii;,:iXA@@@@@@@@@@#952A@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@M         
       ;#299XX2225issrrr;::;;,   ;h2;rrs2Xisrr2A##@@@@M@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2         
       ,Ah3XXXX52225isiSiiiiSisr:,,,,:::::rsiSih##M@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r         
       .3AXXXXX25522iiSiSissrsSs;::;;rsrrsii22i3@@#@@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@G          
        5G522XX2iSX5i55iis;;;;rr;;rsss55sSXSiS22H@@#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@s          
       :hX2SsiSisi52Sii5rr;;;r;;rrSi55555Siiii52&#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@H,          
      .GMA3Siisiiii5Siisrr;;;rrrrrsi52552SSSSS522B@@M#@@@###@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@#,          
     ;@@@#XSS5iisriisr;ssrsrrsssrrri2252X5555SSSrX@@###@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@h           
 ;r;X@@@@@@M#BG5iirsirrs2iSSsisr;:rsiS55225SSiiSssS&@@@##@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@r           
.@@#; ,A@@@@@@@H9&32&h3XX2S5SSXh3irssi52XX5S25522SiSG@@@@@@#@@@@@@M2ssSXA@@M,           
  H;   ;#@@@A#@@@#95G@@@@@@@@#@@##AAAhh2SXX22iSSSX3X&@@@@@@@@@A2Sr:;sisS5h@5            
  s;.  ,hH@#hXA@@@#&9G9&B@@@@@@@@@@@#M##AX3hX3hHHM#M#@@@@@@@@9:.:sSSi52Ss2Bs            
   s:  iA3G&B#@@@3S5A#5ri2SA@@@@@M##@@#@@@@#HAGX222S5B@@@@#@@5;i2; :r2G5s2@A            
   ;2,,3AGG&AG9@ASs;sH@@&2X&###A322H@h3AAXr;;;;rsiSSi2M##@#@M33BArsXSSG3rh@B            
    ,ihAHAh&h223XisisS23922hBBAh32i23r;s;;;;;::rS52X22H@@@@@AhHMGr;XXiGXs@@             
     ;#AXX2X29GXisSirri22ssS2XXX2S53irrsiisrr;rS2523X2XBHA##hiX3; :iSi2i#@;             
     rA2522553X5i5X2isrri22555XhhX5SrsissiissiS222XXXX22X9AHhsS2:;S5S2rA@i              
     SM22252XAh22X33X25irrsiSiiiisr;;rrrrriiS25XXXX3hXXhGAHB&2hAXA3S2rX@r               
     5B225S2GX2i55XG&A&9SiiSisrrrrssssrrsiiS22X33XXXXX9h&AMMA3i;;SA3s9@3                
     2M2X5S2XS;;iS5XXXhhX22XXisiiiiiiiiSSSS52222XX22XXX3AAH#H9i;;riiH@h                 
     SBXX2Xh35SXX225SiXAG22X25Siiii55522Sii5S52223XX93X9G&B#Xr2352iX@2                  
     r#BA&M@@#HAA&M#AAH&2sS2Siiiiii222222Sii5SS529G9399&hHM#3;;S39#@A                   
     .3#M#@@@@@M@@@@@HXiiiisiissrii5255552SS2X293hh2XGA&ABMB@#&A#@@h                    
      :@#H###@MM@###HAAXX25SSSisriis5555SS522X3hh&hhGGAAABMM@@HB@#:                     
      :##&HAG9#@@Ah9GAA&&G&hG&3XSiiiiS5225523X9h93XXG&AAAB###BGA@h                      
      ,A@#MHAX522is2&AB#BGHHGAG22sssS5S522233999X393GA&BMHH##H&H@M                      
       rBHH#@@@#MA9939ABBMMBAAA9XSssi5SSS523X3h99GG&AAAHBHB#MBHH@@                      
       ,@B9hA&HM@@@@#&&AHHH##&A#AiiSiii525239hh99&AAAHHHHMMMBBB#@@                      
       :@@MA9Xi2AHG3XX3G&5rSG&G&92isiS522Xh9339hG&AABHAAHMMMHHM#@@                      
       ,@@@M##AAA&&&&HAhisiii3HA9X52222XXX9&hhG3&HAHAAHABBHBHAM#@@                      
        r@@#M@@@@@@#BA33XXGh9&B@#9hG923h933399&AAAABHAHHBBMHBBB#@@                      
         r@@AGH####BA3X52ABMBAM@#AA9GGhG93XXhh9AAGAHAA#MBMMAB##@@@                      
          H@#HG9G32X3X5SS9BABMB###GhhGh223X3hhGG&AHAHHBBBHAAM##@@#                      
          ;#@@A9&AA&h39hhhBBAHHHM#Ah333XX9X99AAAAAAHHHAHHAHHM##@@#                      
           B@@#A&B#H9XAHBGABHAAH#B&3XXhGhh99&AAAAAHBHAAA&&HHM#BB@&                      
           ,#@@@BB#HhAA#@BHBM@@@@@AXhGh&AAA&AHAAABHAHAA&&ABHBMMh2G:                     
             X@@@@@@@###@@@@@@@@@#&XGGGG&HHAAAAAAAA&AGGGG&AAHBAXsSs.                    
               sB@@@@@@@@@@@@#B&X2XG&&AGGHHABB&AAA&&G3GAG3ABA&XS5s;                     
                 :BH#@@#BAGX2SSX3XG&AAGAA&AAAAG&&&9hGXX99G&BMAXSs;.                     
                  .5S2GM##MAhAHAAAHHHAAHA&AA&GAAhh9X3993XG9&BG2i;.                      
                  .9Xr;ri&#@@@@BB#MMHA&&AAGG&AAh39hXX3X333GAG2r;.                       
                  :hh3ir;;ri&#@@@#BAHAGAAAA&hhh9XX222XX9h9Ahs,.                         
                  ;XXA35srr;rrS9ABMHBAG&&h332S2X25X22XX9h&9S,                           
                  ,si239X5ir;rsii5239X2X2SSS55iSSSS2X39GG3X;.                           
                     :i2XX5irrrsiisiSiiiiiii55555Si23992sr:,                            
                      :sri55isrrssiiiiSSiS522222i53225ir:                               
                       .;r;rSSisrrsiiiiSSS5255225S2Sssr;.                               
                         ,;;rsiSsrrrsssssssiisiSSsrsis,                                 
                           .,:;sssssrssrsssssrssssir,.

Now a different version using the

Block ASCII Character Set: █▓▒░

I also increased the "brightness" so that the face does not require as much characters. It makes it look much cleaner IMO.

                                   ░░                                              
                                ▒████████████████████▓                                  
                          ▒███████████████████████████████                              
                      ░██████████████████████████████████████░                          
                    ████████████████████████████████████████████░                       
                 █████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                     
               ▓████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                   
              ▓███████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓                 
             ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▒               
            ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████              
          ███████████████████████████████████████████████▓█████████████████             
        ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████            
       █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▓███████            
       ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████           
       █████▒░▓██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████           
       ████▒  ░█████████████████████████▓█████████████████████████▓██████████▓          
       ▓██░    ▓██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████          
        █▒  ░  ▒███▓▓███▓███████▓▓▓▓██████▓▓▓▓▓▓██████████████████████████████          
        █  ░░   ░▓██████▓▓█████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓███████████████▓▓████████████████▓██████          
        █ ░░░     ▒▓█▓▓▓██░▒▓█████████████████████████████████████████████████░         
        ▓ ░░░░                 ░▒█████████▓▓░  ▒▓█████████████████████████████░         
        ▒ ░░░░░                   ░      ░     ▒▓▓█▓██▓███████████████████████          
        ░░░░░░░                                ░▓▓▓███▓▓██████████████████████          
         ▒░░░░░░  ░                            ░▓█▓███▓██████████████████████░          
         ░ ░ ░░   ░                       ░     ▒██▓█████████████████████████           
                                               ░▒▓██████████████████████████▒           
        ▒▒░                                      ▓██▓▓▓██▓▓▓████████████████▒           
      ▒██▓░                            ░░        ░██▓▓▓▓████████████████████            
     ▒█████▓▓▒░                         ░          ▒███▓▓██████████████████▓            
 ░█░   ░███████▒░▒░ ░░░        ░        ░░     ░░   ▒▓█████▓██████▓    ░▒██▒            
        ▓███▒▓▓██▓░ ░▓███████▓▓█▓▓▒▒▒░░░ ░░      ░░░▒█████████▒          ░▓             
        ░▒█▓░░▒███▓▒░░░▒▓██████████▓▓▓▓▓▒░░░░░░▒▒▓▓▓▓████████░            ▒             
        ▒░░▒▓▓███░  ▒▓     ▒█████▓▓▓██▓████▓▒▒░░     ▓████▓██         ▒   ▓             
        ▒░░▒▒░░▓▒    ▒██▒ ░▒▓▓▓▒░ ░▒█░░▒▒░            ▓▓▓█▓█▓░░▒▒     ▒░ ░█░            
       ▒▒▒░▒░ ░░░     ░░░  ░▒▓▒░░   ░              ░  ▒█████▒░▒▓░     ▒░ █▓             
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                  ▒▒▓██▓▓▒▒░░  ░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░▒░░░░▒▒▒▓▒░                         
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The 3rd version of the ASCII uses the Character Set: #WMBRXVYIti+=;:,.
I continued to use the higher brightness to make the look of the ASCII more clean and sharp.

I also inverted the colors to have white characters on black background, which is closer to the look and feel of MS DOS. MS DOS used a gray font on black background, but I did not try to make it authentic. I was more going after the looks of it.

                               +###################WI                                  
                          ;B#############################B                              
                       #####################################R                           
                    ############################################                        
                 X################################################V                     
               t####################################################I                   
              Y###################W######################M############V                 
             ####################################WW###########WW########:               
            ######################################################W#######              
          ############################W##################BWWMW#######M#####             
        #############################WW########W#########WW#################            
       ######W########################W#############################MW######            
       ######W#############################W################################M           
       ####Wt;X#####################W##################W##########W##########           
       ###W;  ,#####################W##WBM############WW##########B##########t          
       X##;    X###WW#############M#####################W###W################B          
        #I     ;W#MVR##WR######MRBRRMWW##WBRVVXBMWWW####WM############W######B          
        #       :X##M###XB####BBRRRRBBM#######WMWWMMMBBWM####WM#######MBM#####          
        # .:      ;VBRXR#M;tR#################W#######WW#WW#####W######W######          
        V ,:                    ;B########BX:  +B#MM##W#######################.         
        + ,:.                     .            iRRMBMMV#########W#############          
         .. .                                  :BVVWWWXB#####################M          
         ;                                     .B#BM##B##MW###WMW########WM##           
         ,                                      t#WXW###########W#########M##           
                                                =RMMWW#W###W############MW##=           
        ++.                                      Y#MYRBW#BRRM###########WW##+           
      +##V                                        W#RRXBW###WWMW############            
     =####WIVt,                                    =BW#RR####WW######MW####X            
  #    ,#######+ :  .                               ;B#####BM#####Y     +M#+            
        YM##+RBMWV. ,R######WVXBYI::;,,           ..=M#######Mi          :R             
         iWX:.+W##X;,:,;I#########WRYYRR+ .,  ,itYXVB#####M##,            i             
        ;.;=YRM#W,  =R     +####BYXRMBX###WV+=,      Y####R#M         :   V             
        =;;=i;:Bi    t##=  =VRXi.  IM: ==             VBBWBMY. i;     :. ,#             
       :++:=;  .       .,  :IIi:.   .                 t#####+,iI      :  WX             
      ;:   . :;                    .               ..  ItiRR;           X#              
      .      ,.                ::                  ..   .:+t:          =#               
      =     .+:                                    ,:  :;iII= ., .     #                
      ;     ;.     :;=;                           .   ::=iYVi.    :   #                 
      =               :,                              .,+iIXi.      +#                  
      ;    :.          +:                        ,..:. ,;+YB        #                   
      =i==Y##V+=+=YRi+t;                         ,;:.::=:tYX     .X#,                   
       IIR####WYM#W#Wt.                        ,.:: .=+=iIVIRY:;Y##                     
       VVtXXXMVVMXVRti+                       .::=;:=;i+iIVYMRiIMV                      
       iV=ti;:X#Mi:,;ii;;:;.,,                ,::, .;=++iIXVRY;iM                       
        XXVt+.      =+IRI:ii:;,            ..,,,.,:,;i=IVtIXXt=t#;                      
        +itRMWWRYi:,.,+IIYYI+++.           . .:,:;;=+i+IIIYXVItI#i                      
        Yt,:i=tV####V==iIttRV=iV;          .,::::=i+iIItIVVYYIIV#+                      
        R#Yi:.  it;. ..;+   ;=;;.         :,.,::;=+iIIt+tVVYtIVR#=                      
        i##YVX++i====t+:     .t+,         ,=;:;,+tiItiI+IIIItiYR#i                      
         Y#RYM#WBWWXI+,.  ;:,=YBV.,,  .,,,.,,,=+i+iIt+ttIYYtYIIR#V                      
          R#+;IXXRRY+,   iIYI+V#R+=,;;:;:.. ;:,i+=+t+iXYIVViIVXW#i                      
          ,WVt=:;. .,    ,IiIYIRXX;::;;  . ,::;==itittIYItiiVXRW#;                      
           t#Bi:+i++:.::::YIiIttVXi;,., .,.::+++++itttittitIVVVM#;                      
           .##Vi=IXt:.+tY;+Iti+tRI=...:;;:::=++++iIItiii+=tIYVYIX