ASCII

ASCII stands for 'American Standard Code for Information Interchange'. (sound very complicated, I know.) But what does it mean? Well computers can only understand numbers.... therefore ASCII code is a set of integers (full numbers)  used to represent different letters and symbols in the human language (e.g. 'a' or '+' ) or even an action for the computer to do. ASCII was made a long time ago, and now these characters can be used to make different images, instead of their original purpose. 

ASCII Images

Example:

Click here to see the example.

As you can see, we can make images / letters using the basic computer symbols. An ASCII image is made in a 'raw' format. Raw formatting means text without the use of tabs, bold, underscoring, etc, etc. This makes it easily importable, so you may insert it into any text editor and be able to do so without problems. Basically, no matter what computer, it may understand it.  (In olden days, the only thing you could do on computers was printing and saving raw text files!). Notepad creates ASCII text, or on MS WORD you can save it as 'plain text'

How to make an ASCII Image

I did my name all on my own, using the old Notepad. (and only after a few attempts). Simple ASCII is quite strait forward. First of all, you need to get a simple text editor. And start typing!  Though, start simple and gradually work your way up. And  try to get a clear picture in your mind. Write from left to right, and soon after you may be able to create more than just letters! Maybe whole pictures too. Feel free to ask me for help, though please note, I am just a novice at creating ASCII images.

Or, the easier way is to go to google and type in 'ASCII Generator', there are plenty out there that will make the code for you! Though, I personally like http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ for text ASCII.