                                                       _
                                                   88 d88 b
                                              _d8 888 88P"\  b
                                                88888P"'   \
                                              adf88P'       \8
                                           d88P"'            \8
    ._.             .                      .P'                \8. ,
     |   ._  _  _  _|                      8\                  \88.aa.
    _|_  [ )(/,(/,(_]                      Y8\                  \8(
                                           :':\                  \8b8
              .___.      .      |             8a                  \8b
                |   _  _ | __   |           a888a                  \:.
                |  (_)(_)|_)    *          ' 8 88a                  \:
                                            .  88a                .a:
                         `                      888a             -a'8
                             _                 )888a       ..a'8'
                            (")                 :888a   .aP"88 8
                           /)_(\                . 8|8.a'88(  8
         _______________  /)   (\  ____________ 8 )ad88a`8_________________a:f___
                         d (`- ) x                Y88888
                        /_\| |_|                   `"""
                        L_J| L |
                           '=`='
      Tools: ->  Editors, Converters, Miscellaneous
Many people believe that ASCII drawings are created with some magic tools. Wrong! In fact, most better ASCII pictures were created with very simple text editors (like Notepad). If you are a beginner then you should not start using any tool but practise first in a text editor and look at other peoples advice. You can find some tutorials and other useful information on my Resources page. If you are instead looking for a special function that would come in handy from time to time, then you will probably find something useful here, Please do not ask me where to get these programs, how to install them or how they work. I don't know. Instead, use the search engine of your choice to search the net. I do not have or use these tools myself!
# Editors
- JavE - [Freeware, written in Java] Download -> www.jave.de In the text editor regime the situation has recently improved. The answer to all your needs is JavE by Markus Gebhard. It is a text editor that functions more like a graphical editor: you have a brush, a fill tool, can draw circles and lines. Remember the output is a very fine ASCII. In addition Markus has implemented almost any known algorithm, tool or helper that existed before in other programs (e.g. Figlet, GIF to ASCII conversion, Flip and Mirror, ASCII animation, etc.). It does run very stable on many different operating systems. There are minor problems because neither IBM's nor Sun's Java distributions are anywhere close to bug-free. But JavE is in fact the best (read: most useful and stable) Java program I know. It even has a swell recovery function in case it eventually does crash. Well, the list of features is endless - please look for yourself!
- TheDraw - [Freeware, DOS, ASCII and ANSI editor, very old but still available] A very nice DOS editor for ASCII and ANSI. I have used it very often in `the old days' because of the block copy with foreground/background functionalit
- Meph's ASCII Editor - [Freeware, Windows, stable Beta version, development stopped?] Download -> Meph's homepage A Windows text editor with some nice features. I never used it myself but have heard that it can be quite useful, e.g. for big and giant drawings.
- Email Effects - [Shareware, Windows and Macintosh] Another fancy editor designed to enhance your emails with ASCII pictures. Before there was JavE this was something special, now it is nothing compared to JavE.
# Image to Ascii Converters Please do not expect miracles from a converter program. They cannot produce `line' art, only grey scale. And for grey scale it is `the bigger the better': for wallpaper printing the results are fantastic, for a 10 by 10 character image to include in your next email the result is usually pathetic. Personally I don't use them much, so I cannot say much for or against the different programs below.
- GIFSCII - [Freeware, C source available, i.e runs on many systems, command line tool] A very well-known GIF to ASCII converter. It is the best but should be available for many systems.
- PicTexter - [Freeware, Windows] Download -> http://hometown.aol.com/PeaJammie/pictexter.htm Image to ASCII converter, optional: outpout in Arial.
- Ascii Generator - [Freeware, Windows] Download -> http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~wardog/ Reads a lot of image formats and offers the image preocessing needed for a good conversion.
- MosASCII - [Shareware, Windows] Download -> http://www.mosascii.com/index.shtml HTML output.
- Ascii art generator - Online -> http://www.jdneff.com/ascii2.php Pure Ascii or coulored HTML output.
# Miscellaneous
- ASCII to HTML converter - Online -> http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/ASCII-to-HTML Converts Ascii into HTML.
- ANSI tools - Download -> archives.thebbs.org/ra107c.htm A great number of tools for creating, converting and viewing ANSI art can be found on the here.
Home News Collection Gallery Animations Resources Artists Tools About Copyright