ASCII Art for the Beginner

ASCII art is that amazing computer drawing where keyboard letters become a picture. Done well, it never fails to impress friends with your geekiness.

I was inspired by my friend, Zakgirl, to try it. I’m inherently lazy so wanted an ‘easy way’ to accomplish this tedious art.  I went on a hunt for that method–and found it! Here’s a pumpkin I did for Halloween in about fifteen minutes:

Are you suitably impressed? Here’s how I did it:

1. Add a watermark of a picture you like, preferably a single image
2. Type over it with appropriate letters (if you’re more patient than I, you can pick a variety of letters. That would provide more depth)
3. Delete the watermark

Looks good, huh?

This is an excellent method of exciting elementary school kids grades 3-6 about keyboarding (much as I do with shortkeys). Without showing them the picture, provide the directions for creating it. It’d look something like:

1. Type a green X ten times
2. Type a green X eleven time

…and so on. Have  them center the typing at the end.

Here’s a website that will turn a photo into ASCII art. This is one of my students. Click the picture to visit the website:

Here’s another ASCII Art generator.

I also found a website that’ll turn your text into ASCII art. Can you read this:

Here are examples from ASCII art pros. You’re going to see a big difference from my simplistic ones:

Anyone out there have a Thanksgiving image to share?