ANSI art
Encyclopedia
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes
. It is similar to ASCII art
, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437
, often referred to as extended ASCII
and used in MS-DOS
and Unix
environments. ANSI art also contains special ANSI escape sequence
s that color text with the 16 foreground and 8 background colours offered by ANSI.SYS
, an MS-DOS device driver
loosely based upon the ANSI
X3.64 standard for text terminals. Some ANSI artists take advantage of the cursor control sequences within ANSI X3.64 in order to create animations, commonly referred to as ANSImations. ANSI art and text files which incorporate ANSI codes carry the de facto .ANS file extension
.
ANSI art is considerably more flexible than ASCII art, because the particular character set it uses contains symbols intended for drawing, such as a wide variety of box-drawing characters and block characters that dither the foreground and background color. It also adds accented characters and math symbols that often find creative use among ANSI artists.
The popularity of ANSI art encouraged the creation of a powerful shareware package called TheDraw
coded by Ian E. Davis in 1986. Not only did it considerably simplify the process of making an ANSI art screen from scratch, but it also included a variety of "fonts", large letters constructed from box and block characters, and transition animations such as dissolve and clock. No new versions of TheDraw emerged after version 4.63 in 1993, but in later years a number of other ANSI editors appeared, some of which are still maintained today.
The decline of both BBSes and DOS users has made it difficult for many users to even view ANSI animations. As a consequence, this form of art is no longer practiced to the degree it once was.
The popular game creation system (GCS) ZZT
used ANSI graphics exclusively. A later GCS based on the same concept, MegaZeux
, allowed users to modify the extended ASCII character set as well.
Trade Wars 2002, a multiplayer BBS game that remains popular 20 years after its release in 1986, used ANSI graphics to depict ships, planets, and important locations, and included cutscenes and even a cinema with ANSI animations. Many of these ANSI graphics were created by Drew Markham, who went on to form Xatrix/Gray Matter Interactive
and develop Redneck Rampage
and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
, among other titles.
Dwarf Fortress
is another game, first released in 2002, leveraging ANSI graphics. Dwarf Fortress' default graphics is exclusively ANSI code page 437
characters.
In 1987 Amiga
program Skyline BBS was the first BBS management program featuring an extension to ANSI Art as a true form of script markup language
communication protocol. It was called Skypix
and was capable to give the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphic content, changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
. It is similar to ASCII art
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437
Code page 437
IBM PC or MS-DOS code page 437 is the character set of the original IBM PC. It is also known as CP 437, OEM 437, PC-8, MS-DOS Latin US or sometimes misleadingly referred to as the OEM font, High ASCII or Extended ASCII....
, often referred to as extended ASCII
Extended ASCII
The term extended ASCII describes eight-bit or larger character encodings that include the standard seven-bit ASCII characters as well as others...
and used in MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
and Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
environments. ANSI art also contains special ANSI escape sequence
ANSI escape code
ANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
s that color text with the 16 foreground and 8 background colours offered by ANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS operating system that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical Committee on Codes and Character Sets .-Usage:To use ANSI.SYS...
, an MS-DOS device driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
loosely based upon the ANSI
American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...
X3.64 standard for text terminals. Some ANSI artists take advantage of the cursor control sequences within ANSI X3.64 in order to create animations, commonly referred to as ANSImations. ANSI art and text files which incorporate ANSI codes carry the de facto .ANS file extension
Filename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
.
ANSI art is considerably more flexible than ASCII art, because the particular character set it uses contains symbols intended for drawing, such as a wide variety of box-drawing characters and block characters that dither the foreground and background color. It also adds accented characters and math symbols that often find creative use among ANSI artists.
The popularity of ANSI art encouraged the creation of a powerful shareware package called TheDraw
TheDraw
TheDraw is a text editor for MS DOS to create ANSI and animations as well as ASCII art. The editor is especially useful to create or modify files in ANSI format and text documents, which use the graphical characters of the IBM ASCII code pages, because they are not supported by Microsoft Windows...
coded by Ian E. Davis in 1986. Not only did it considerably simplify the process of making an ANSI art screen from scratch, but it also included a variety of "fonts", large letters constructed from box and block characters, and transition animations such as dissolve and clock. No new versions of TheDraw emerged after version 4.63 in 1993, but in later years a number of other ANSI editors appeared, some of which are still maintained today.
The decline of both BBSes and DOS users has made it difficult for many users to even view ANSI animations. As a consequence, this form of art is no longer practiced to the degree it once was.
The popular game creation system (GCS) ZZT
ZZT
ZZT is an ANSI character-based computer game, created in 1991 by Tim Sweeney of Epic Games , who later designed Unreal. It remains a popular DOS game creation system. ZZT itself is not an acronym for anything; its title was simply chosen so it would always appear at the very bottom of newsgroup...
used ANSI graphics exclusively. A later GCS based on the same concept, MegaZeux
MegaZeux
MegaZeux, or MZX, is a game creation system inspired by Tim Sweeney/Epic Megagames' classic shareware game ZZT. MegaZeux was created in late 1994 by Gregory Janson, who formed his own company, Software Visions...
, allowed users to modify the extended ASCII character set as well.
Trade Wars 2002, a multiplayer BBS game that remains popular 20 years after its release in 1986, used ANSI graphics to depict ships, planets, and important locations, and included cutscenes and even a cinema with ANSI animations. Many of these ANSI graphics were created by Drew Markham, who went on to form Xatrix/Gray Matter Interactive
Gray Matter Interactive
Gray Matter Interactive Studios, Inc. was a computer game developer, which was acquired by Activision in January 2002. Gray Matter was previously known as Xatrix Entertainment, Inc....
and develop Redneck Rampage
Redneck Rampage
Redneck Rampage is a 1997 first-person shooter game designed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by Interplay. The game features songs by Mojo Nixon, Reverend Horton Heat, Beat Farmers and other Psychobilly artists. As the name implies, Redneck Rampage has many hillbilly elements in it...
and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first person shooter video game published by Activision and originally released on November 19, 2001 for Microsoft Windows. It was made available on Steam on August 3, 2007. The single player game was developed by Gray Matter Interactive and Nerve Software...
, among other titles.
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress
Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, also called Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress, but most commonly known simply as Dwarf Fortress, is a freeware computer game by Bay 12 Games for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X set in a high fantasy universe that combines aspects of...
is another game, first released in 2002, leveraging ANSI graphics. Dwarf Fortress' default graphics is exclusively ANSI code page 437
Code page 437
IBM PC or MS-DOS code page 437 is the character set of the original IBM PC. It is also known as CP 437, OEM 437, PC-8, MS-DOS Latin US or sometimes misleadingly referred to as the OEM font, High ASCII or Extended ASCII....
characters.
In 1987 Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
program Skyline BBS was the first BBS management program featuring an extension to ANSI Art as a true form of script markup language
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
communication protocol. It was called Skypix
Skypix
Skypix is the name of a Script Markup Language aimed to add rich graphic content such as changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound to Bulletin Board System nodes. The system was born on Amiga Systems in 1987 and available on BBS program called Skyline BBS.Skypix was probably...
and was capable to give the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphic content, changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.
See also
- ANSI escape codeANSI escape codeANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
- List of text editors#ASCII and ANSI art
- TMDC
- TheDrawTheDrawTheDraw is a text editor for MS DOS to create ANSI and animations as well as ASCII art. The editor is especially useful to create or modify files in ANSI format and text documents, which use the graphical characters of the IBM ASCII code pages, because they are not supported by Microsoft Windows...
External links
- Sixteen Colors ANSI Art and ASCII Art Archive - A web viewable archive of current and past ANSI and ASCII packsArtpackAn artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as ZIP or RAR.While most artpacks today contain either ANSI and ASCII art or hirez VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music, poetry and editorials, 3D...
released by the computer art sceneComputer art sceneThe phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:... - Ansinerator - a PHP library for processing ANSI art and graphics for web design
- A detailed table of the character set in IBM code page 437
- Perfect DOS VGA 437 (direct download): A True Type font that recreates the font characters used on ANSI artwork displayed on a VGA screen pixel-by-pixel
- ANSI Express is a freeware ANSI file viewer for Windows, which supports baud-rate emulation, ideal for playing back ANSImations.
- fTelnet Flash telnet client capable of rendering ANSI.
- FlashTerm Another Flash telnet client capable of rendering ANSI.
- http://aminet.net/package/docs/hyper/ansiguide112 - Ansi/Skypix Specs and Tutorials at Amiga AminetAminetAminet is the world's largest archive of Amiga-related software and files. Aminet was originally hosted by several universities' FTP sites, and is now available on CD-ROM and on the web.-History:...
official repository (in AmigaGuideAmigaguideAmigaGuide is a hypertext document file format designed for the Amiga, files are stored in ASCII so it is possible to read and edit a file without the need for special software.Since Workbench 2.1 an Amiga Guide system for O.S...
and text format).