{"id":288,"date":"2017-12-07T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T16:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.typing.com\/?p=288"},"modified":"2022-08-29T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:24:36","slug":"fun-ascii-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.typing.com\/fun-ascii-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Typing Fun With ASCII Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Painting, sculpting, acting, and singing are all considered arts.<\/p>\n

One thing that’s not usually thought of as an art? Typing.<\/p>\n

While the primary purpose of typing is definitely communication, there are ways that people manage to apply their creativity to the keyboard.<\/p>\n

One such way is through ASCII Art. This art form involves using the characters on the keyboard to create graphic designs.<\/p>\n

ASCII Art ranges from the simple to the incredibly complex.<\/p>\n

While basic designs such as this fish \u00a0><\/strong><((((‘>\u00a0 are created on only one line of text, others will span dozens of lines and can be very intricate.<\/p>\n

The Evolution of ASCII Art<\/h1>\n

ASCII Art originated in the 1960s as an alternative to graphic images.<\/p>\n

Using only the symbols that exist on a traditional keyboard or even a typewriter, creative typists would design visually-appealing logos and banners for documents.<\/p>\n

Awhile back, when emojis were still in their infancy, my Co-Founder Austin created a smartphone app called TextPics that allowed users to incorporate ASCII Art in their text messages.<\/p>\n

The app took off and actually helped\u00a0fund the creation of Typing.com.<\/p>\n

ASCII Art also has great potential for use in the typing classroom. It challenges students to use symbols and punctuation marks that don\u2019t always get regular use.<\/p>\n

Check out the tips and resources below for how you can use ASCII Art in your typing classroom.<\/p>\n

Creating ASCII Art with Students<\/h1>\n

ASCII Art can be a great way to get students practicing with using advanced symbols and punctuation marks on the keyboard.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of ingenious resources available that teachers can use for free.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Pick your ASCII art<\/h2>\n

A quick search on Google will bring up many different sites with ASCII art. To get you started, here are some\u00a0ASCII art images that kids are bound to love:<\/p>\n