7 Simple Steps to Create ASCII Art

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A simple guide for using small text to create ASCII art on your computer
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ASCII art uses special characters and numbers to generate image-like text. Here is how to create your own.

Things You Should Know

  • Open a text-editing program like Notepad or TextEdit.
  • Use characters that take up more space to make areas darker, like "M" or "W".
  • Alternatively, use characters that take up less space to make areas lighter, like "I" or "T".
  • Save the file to share it with others.

Steps

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    Notepad).
  2. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b6\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-2-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-2-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b6\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-2-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-2-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    In Notepad, the only font that you can use is fixed width. This means that you can use spaces; in fonts without fixed width, spaces will be smaller, which can mess up text formatting.
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  3. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/98\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-3-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-3-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/98\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-3-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-3-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    Start with something easy, such as a flower.
  4. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/6\/6d\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-4-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-4-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/6\/6d\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-4-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-4-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
  5. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/91\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-5-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-5-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/91\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-5-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-5-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
  6. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/91\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-6-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-6-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/91\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-6-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-6-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    You will be forced to only use large angles. [1]
  7. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/a\/aa\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-7-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-7-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/a\/aa\/Create-ASCII-Art-Step-7-Version-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Create-ASCII-Art-Step-7-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
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      Warnings

      • Because you cannot make anything smaller than your characters, the size of each character will determine how small your piece of art can be. Because of this, you will not be able to make small figures with ASCII art.
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      • Do not be too hard on yourself. ASCII art is a hard thing to master, and it will take time.
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      References

      1. ↑ http://www.network-science.de/ascii

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