# Graphics from Letters **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746 "2003-04-10T10:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JoelPD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@JoelPD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelPD)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/1 "2003-04-10T10:40:51Z")
I am wondering how one can create graphics from text. And I don’t mean lame things like :), I’m talking about a (possibly animated) matrix of 100 x 100 or way more letters, numbers and little squiggly things, that, depending on how dark or light they are, i.e. ``` . vs M ``` representing what, in standard graphic format, would be a light or dark pixel, or group of pixels. Specifically, I’m wondering if anybody knows about any online applications, or tutorials, or even the name of the technique (assuming that it is established to the point that somebody has gone to the bother of naming it). Cheers. -JPD ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/2 "2003-04-10T11:58:48Z")
Welcome to the wierd and wonderful world of ASCII Art. Just do a google and you will be presented with far more information that you want. ASCII art has some SERIOUS devotees including a couple of guys who did the entire Star Wars movies in ASCII. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/3 "2003-04-10T12:10:38Z")
I’m not sure I understand. Do you mean like how, for example, the different colored dots on a [typical color blindness test](http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html) form numbers? Or how the grids of lit and unlit dots on [signs like this](http://www.electronicdisplays.com/prodcat/default.asp?cstop=2&pcid=2) form characters? Except that in your case the dots would be text characters? Or do you mean ASCII art, like [this](http://www.chris.com/ascii/)? ---
**Author:** ![JoelPD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@JoelPD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelPD)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/4 "2003-04-10T14:19:29Z")
Um, actually, none of the above, but thanks for asking. Maybe I can make myself a bit clearer. I am interested not in the traditional form of ascii art, i.e. o + ^ but rather something more like: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@---------@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@—@@@@@@@—@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@—@@@@@@@@@@@—@@@@@@@ @@@@@—@…@@@@@…@—@@@@@ @@@@–@@…@@…@@@…@@…@@–@@@@ @@@–@@@…@@…@@@…@@…@@@–@@@ @@@-@@@@@…@@@@@…@@@@@-@@@ @@@–@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@–@@@ @@@@–@@@…@@@@@@@…@@@–@@@@ @@@@@—@@…@@@@@@@…@@—@@@@@ @@@@@@@—@@…@@—@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@—@@@@@@@—@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@---------@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ It’s supposed to be a smiley face (you can see it better if you squint). This is only using three different characters, and I imagine would work much better if the source was photorealistic, not my crappy version of everybody’s favourite emoticon friend. So, as you can see, I am actually talking about the process of creating a greater image, with each individual “pixel” being represented by an ascii character. Why would anybody want to know how to do something as inane and potentially pointless as that? Three reasons: 1. It looks cool. 2. It would, I would imagine, frequently contain long strings of the same character (a black background would, depending on the enconder’s settings, I imagine, provide the viewer with an awful lot of .s a lot of the time). This would lead to quite a decent compression rate, which would make it a reasonably viable artform for the internet. 3. Um… It looks cool. You know, it’s kind of hip, kind of Matrix-y, and also kind of nerdy (if you consider those last two points to be mutually exclusive). So, now that I have made, hopefully, a little clearer what I am on about, if anybody knows whether this has been done (a video enconder, etc), could they please let me know, because I would love to start getting my home videos converted to dots, squiggles slashes and dashes. Cheers . @ / - ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/5 "2003-04-10T14:26:32Z")
There is a video encoder for Linux that does this. It play videos and converts them for output on a text screen in real-time. I’ll have to look it up again when I get home. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/6 "2003-04-10T15:11:32Z")
These things were real popular back in the days of line printers and fan fold paper. It still falls under the general label of “ASCII art” in most people’s definition of the term (actually, those produced on old line printers were probably EBCDIC art …). You’ll note that one of the ASCII art links above includes some of these “raster scanned using ASCII characters” things as well as the “line drawing with ASCII characters” technique, such as the classic “Mona Lisa” - scroll to the bottom of the page and look at it from about 10 feet away: [http://www.chris.com/ascii/art/html/monalisa.html](http://www.chris.com/ascii/art/html/monalisa.html) (from [http://www.chris.com/ascii](http://www.chris.com/ascii) ) That’s a web ring. Somebody on that ring probably provides pointers to various versions of scanning software. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphics-from-letters/167746/7 "2003-04-10T16:10:59Z")
Have a look here:[AAlib homepage](http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aalib/) They’ve got some software to convert standard graphic images to ASCII. They also have FLI viewers. Here is a Linux media player that can do playback in ASCII:[MPlayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design6/news.html)