About ASCII art and Jgs font (2023)
12 hours ago
- #Digital History
- #ASCII Art
- #Typography
- ASCII art blurs boundaries between image/text and graphic interface/text mode.
- It refers to pictures made from 128 ASCII characters, but broadly includes any typographic art.
- Joan G. Stark, a prolific 1990s ASCII artist, defined ASCII as 'non-graphical graphics'.
- Different systems have distinct ASCII styles (e.g., PETSCII, ANSI, Shift-JIS) with unique scenes and histories.
- ASCII art played social roles, like granting BBS access in exchange for art, and was key in early internet memes.
- With Unicode's rise, some artists prefer 'Textmode art' to extend beyond specific encoding systems.
- Similar subversion appears in printing history, where typographic elements created images when resources were scarce.
- Typewriter drawing persists despite obsolescence, showing continuity in mechanized text art.
- ASCII art revival highlights formal/cultural uniqueness of old tech, resisting pure nostalgia.
- Fonts like Jgs Font, inspired by Stark and Amiga fonts, emphasize connectivity and graphical glyphs for ASCII art.