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Text Art -Gallery Descriptions by ~jSepia:iconjSepia:

Categories Scraps


:faq411:
Text Art: Current description:
"Art created with the use of fixed-width fonts or special screen output drivers on the computer, and when if used in the right combinations can resemble a person, place, or thing."

Text Art: Alternative description:
"Art created using only text characters, arranged in such a way that it resembles a person, place or thing. Text Art must be typed character by character, in a fixed-width font.
· Text Art is not Visual Poetry. Poetry and Prose should be submitted into the appropriate section instead or Text Art. Same goes for miscellaneous digital art representing single words or sentences."

--

:faq409:
ASCII Art: Current description:
"Images created using alphanumerics and puncuation found on ASCII keyboards. This section should not be used to house emoticons created out of two or three letters such as the smilies. Any work can be submitted here as long as it is produced using the ASCII codes"

(I think the sentence starting with "any work can be submitted here" has been one of the most important reasons of why this gallery is flooded with miscategorizations and conversions)

ASCII Art: Alternative description:
"Images created using only the characters found in most keyboards, and eventually special characters from the extended (8-bit) ASCII character set. ASCII art is made with a plain text editor in a fixed-width font and is rarely colored.
· This section should not be used to house images converted to ASCII by using a special program or filter.
· Neither should you submit emoticons created out of two or three letters such as smilies."

--

:faq410:
ANSI Art: Current description:
"ANSI art consists of art created via the MS-DOS 3 driver known as ANSI.SYS which allows output of 8 different background as well as 16 different colors."

ANSI Art: Alternative description 1:
"ANSI art consists of art created using the ANSI character set, which allows the use of 8 different backgrounds as well as 16 different foreground colors. If you don't know what the above means, this is the wrong section to post your artwork."

ANSI Art: Alternative description 2:
"ANSI art consists of art created by typing with standard and/or extended characters (such as raster blocks and lines), in text editors like PabloDraw and ACiDDraw. ANSI art can use 8 different backgrounds as well as 16 different foreground colors."

--
©2005-2009 ~jSepia
:iconjsepia:

Author's Comments

The Text Art category in deviantART is seriously ill with miscategorizations. Someone who takes a look at this gallery cannot deduce what ASCII and ANSI really are just by looking, because most of the deviations there are not textmode art. People seem to think that ANY deviation containing text goes into that category. There are lots of new artists that decide to do "text art" and start submitting single words, sentences or song lyrics, with some graphic effects. Some others submit images made of random letters. Even worse, people who have a minimal idea of what ASCII is, submit conversions.

The truth is, at least 80% of the deviations in the Text Art gallery would find a more appropriate place somewhere in Digital Art> Miscellaneous, especially Visual Poetry and Miscellaneous. `diamondie also pointed out the need for a Typography gallery, to house those deviations made of text effects.

Some people don't read gallery descriptions. Some actually do, and don't understand it. What's this thing about special output drivers? fixed-width fonts? Oh, I don't know anything about computers, so I guess that's how it works. And poof, they click "submit" and we've got one more misplaced deviation stealing attention from true textmode art.

I tried to make better gallery descriptions, trying to make them as clear as possible. I will need the collaboration of both textmode artists (like ~Nootropic, ~skypager, ~wikman, ~ zerovision and so on) and non-related artists. Why? because I want these descriptions to be accesible and understood by everyone. I'm making it a scrap for now (I'm in a hurry), then it will be a journal, and finally it will become a note sent to the appropriate admin.

Let's save the Text Art gallery!

Comments


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:iconskypager:
~skypager May 13, 2005, 7:23:25 AM
This is about as right on as you can get. For further examples of ansi and ascii, there is a site dedicated to the history (which was once broader and in fact, the pre-cursor to the internet). [link] THere you will find art packs (how ansi/ascii is usually released) dating back to 1990. The site is still in progress but it is viewable by selecting the year and then the packs themselves. Take a look and realize how many people at one time knew or practiced this medium. Ever call a bbs and see the graphics there? Those were ansi/ascii.

If that still doesn't make you realize what ansi and ascii is, I have no idea how to save you. =P
:iconjsepia:
~jSepia May 13, 2005, 10:53:22 AM
Is this just a suggestion to me or to the descriptions? Well, it would be useful to inform people about the history and culture of A/A art. But including this in the description would make it far too long. I'm not sure if links to external websites would be accepted. Talking about artpacks doesn't change the way textmode art is submitted to DA. But I really hope they make a news article about textmode art, and I'll be sure to suggest SixteenColors to be included with other links (probably with some art groups like ACiD, Mimic, etc). There, some history and culture would be welcome. I agree that it's important to show people the importance of these artforms, how they are part of the history of Internet and how ANSI and ASCII are still alive and are being developed by talented people.

What will probably be included is examples of existing art in DA (^ halfliquid will do the same with the Pixel Art descriptions). It would be nice if you select one of your deviations to be shown as an example (try to choose the one that represents ASCII art the best). Thank you for your support :)
:iconskypager:
~skypager May 13, 2005, 1:49:47 PM
this was an add-on to what you had described. Not a suggestion ;)

as far as choosing a piece, it'd hafta represent ansi... I've never been really into ascii all that much, just occasional pics and really graff like logos are all that have caught my eye with ascii.
:iconjsepia:
~jSepia May 13, 2005, 2:22:46 PM
Ooops, yes I wanted to say ANSI, not ASCII ^^; That damned dislexia...
:iconskypager:
~skypager May 13, 2005, 5:20:12 PM
haha.. ya know, I have a feeling I suffer from some degree of it as well.
:iconjerm123321:
~Jerm123321 Jun 30, 2005, 1:13:34 PM
I don't know any way I can help with this other than saying that I fully agree that the descriptions need to be changed. One thing though, I partially disagree with "Text Art must be typed character by character, in a fixed-width font.". Not all text art is typed character by character, for example programs such as JavE have a paintbrush and fill tool. I feel that should be changed. Other than that, there are great descriptions here.

It isn't really related to descriptions, but it would probably help get rid of spam in the text art sections if a Typography section was made. Are there any projects on trying to get that done?

--
~Erol
~JerM
~Jeremy
:iconjsepia:
~jSepia Jun 30, 2005, 1:57:06 PM
Hummm... In my opinion, JavE's tools are quite a dillema. Everything depends on how they're used, and that's not easy to describe in a few lines.

I mean, you can perfectly draw ASCII in a professional way and still use tools such as "revert", "fill" or "flip". But there are some lazy people who will just mix Figlet, clipart, conversion and watermark to make a picture, without actually drawing any ASCII by themselves (I saw one of those pictures a couple of months ago, it was quite crappy).

Some people would think "just as a conversion can be considered a photomanipulation, an ASCII drawn with a brush tool can be considered airbrushing". Of course, the second one involves far more personal work, that's why I'm looking for a less strict sentence, worded in such a way that it includes works created by hand (including brushes and filling) and excludes automatic conversions. `diamondie compared ASCII with Pixel Art in her tutorial. Perhaps mentioning Pixel Art would give people a clearer idea of how Text Art should be created. :aww:

About the Typography gallery, `diamondie is more likely to know. She used to exchange notes with °dygel about this. In the Suggestions forum, there's also a thread suggesting a Calligraphy gallery, which is not exactly the same, but it would help. :)
:iconjerm123321:
~Jerm123321 Jul 1, 2005, 5:44:38 AM
Well, I feel that it's better to have the lazy people and the professional people submit their art than to shut out the people who use the tools properly, so a less strict sentence like you're looking for would be great.

Oh and the description isn't for ASCII, it's for Text Art :D

Hmm... A sentence to use... "Text art must include typing character by character (hand editing), and it must use a fixed-width font."? That's the best I can do.

--
~Erol
~JerM
~Jeremy
:iconsurrealist-geek:
!surrealist-geek Sep 12, 2005, 1:55:30 AM
You seem to be ruling out at least half of the ASCII characters by restricting it to keyboad characters. Is that intentional? Should 'graphics' characters be allowed?

--
$lolly defends $spyed's breaking of the rules, and then refuses to discuss it.

"leading and confrontational and has an agenda"
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