Ten Keyboard Techniques To Create Cool Symbols
All of us use the keyboard to create symbols daily. Look at the thumbnail. That’s a simple symbol created with just four keys.
Symbols existed even before the alphabets. Over the years they have been part of folklore, myths and legends. Some have stayed on as indelible marks. Some, like the swastika, are better forgotten. Symbols have remained potent. If you doubt their visual power, then look no further than logos. People shell out millions for a three-pointed star on a sleek hood or a prancing horse. Puzzled? The first one is the Mercedes logo and the latter is Ferrari’s.
In this post we will take a look at some symbols or images that we can reproduce using just the keyboard. The superset of creating images using letters/symbols on the keyboard goes by the name of ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art. You need two things to draw ASCII art anywhere online…a keyboard and lots of patience.
How Do We Create Cool Symbols Using The Keys On Our Keyboard?
Text art/ ASCII art can be drawn using any text editor, online or offline. The simplest is Notepad on Windows or TextEdit for Mac. More advanced word processors have features which are more adept at selection and alignment functions like Overtype and Insert.
Can text art be learned and are there any special techniques to create cool figures?
The answer to the first is yes, it’s fairly easy to learn. There are some basics of course that need to be kept in mind. The rest as they say is practice.
Some basic techniques for keyboard symbols are :
- Use a fixed width (Courier, Monaco, and Fixedsys) font, to draw your symbols because every type of computer has them. Also called as a monospaced font, they are fonts whose letters each occupy the same amount of space and thus they are also easier to align with one another.
- Experts speak about noticing the difference between serif (with a short line at the end of the character) and sans serif (without the line at the end) fonts for text art. The display may differ from one computer to the next depending on the default type of font. One advice usually is to use the vertical bar (|) instead of the capital I (I) to draw vertical lines with the sans serif font.
- Draw in the Overtype mode on your word processor. This makes it easier to put in another character without re-aligning the neighboring ones.
- Use the Space key instead of the Tab key.
- Draw a rough sketch of the figure on paper and then put in place keyboard symbols and letters that bests approximate the angles and curves of your figure. For instance, o or @ for eyes, “ for hair etc. The most common symbols used in ASCII art are: / \ | – _ ( )
- Start small with simple symbols or figures. Example – a rose or a face.
- Begin from a simple area of the figure which has a shape that’s easy to type in.
- Go for close approximation rather than pinpoint accuracy…after all, accuracy is more suited for line art.
- Correct your mistakes early because leaving them for later will mar the precision and placement of symbols.
- Free your imagination!
5 Websites for ASCII Art Lovers
The ideas for the ASCII figures mentioned in this post have been collected from the web. Here, I would like to particularly mention a few sites where you can go and see the visual impact created using just keyboard symbols and a text editor. Looking at them will give you an idea of the techniques involved.
Chris.com’s ASCII Art Collection
A treasure trove of ASCII art collected by Christopher Johnson from the corners of the net. Check out the categories on the left frame. The Halloween, Batman and the space ship Enterprise come from this complete collection. If you want to see what’s possible then this is the resource for you.
The site also has quite a few detailed tutorials on how to start off with ASCII art. Read all of them for a complete education on how to draw with letters and keyboard symbols.
ASCII Picture Collections
A roll call of text artists arranged alphabetically. I have taken the image of the house from the works of Yvonne Adams.
The ASCII Art Dictionary
A resource created by Andreas Freise listing all his creations. He has also sorted his gallery according to the sizes of the figures – Big, Small, and Micro.
ASCII World
A lot of ASCII art arranged in categories. You can also send them to recipients through a direct email from the site.
Asciimation
I included this for the love of Star Wars. Checkout the ASCII Star Wars Movie. Just shows you that ASCII art can be really cool.
The thing about this art form is that you don’t need special skills or special tools. An eye for detail may help though. What’s more important is a will…to make mistakes, rub it away and start over again. So, open your text program, bring up your favorite image and start tapping away.
Also check out Simon’s article on 3 apps to view ASCII art. Do you have your favorite ASCII image or your favorite ASCII website? Let us know.
Ten Keyboard Techniques To Create Cool Symbols | Source and Code System…
I’m watching “Invincible” in my room. Waiting for the kids to finish up with club I have everyone packed and ready to head home!…
… [Trackback]…
Howdy! Great content! I am just a ordinary visitor to your site (far like addict ) of this website nevertheless I had a problem. I am only far from being absolutely sure if it is the right site to question, but there are no spam comments. I get comment…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]right here are a handful of references to internet sites which we link to seeing that we think there’re truly worth visiting[...]…
A gaming website recommends your website…
[...]What are the mоst uѕeful websites аnd blogs specialized іn reading аnd literature?[...]…
Cheap Yankee Candles…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
online sales…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Another Website Recommends Your Page…
[...]check below, are а fеw totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they're mоst trustworthy sources that manу of us use[...]…
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Digg…
While checking out DIGG yesterday I noticed this…
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
TV Lamps…
The Truth behind Television Replacement Lamps….
Buy Yankee Candles at Half Off…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Super Cheap Yankee Candles…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Related.. Trackback…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Superb website Links To Your Site…
[...]Thanks to the great post, I've got linked to your site here.[...]…
Need SEM advise ? Get some tips from us !…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think it will be helpful to you[...]…
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Great Job…
keep bringing more please I love this post…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]following are a few urls to web-sites which I connect to seeing that we believe they’re truly worth browsing[...]…
Good Tinnitus Treatment…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]following are some urls to web-sites we connect to seeing as we think they’re really worth visiting[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]the following are several links to places we link to seeing as we believe they’re well worth checking out[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]these are several links to online websites that we link to as we think these are seriously worth checking out[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]what follows are a few hyper-links to websites online which I link to as we feel they really are well worth visiting[...]…
A gaming website Recommends Your Site…
[...]here are ѕome links to sites that wе link to beсаuѕе we presume they're worth visiting[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]below are a handful of links to web sites we connect to for the fact we think they will be well worth visiting[...]…
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Directions…
Here are some actions I should move forward on….
buy damansara house…
[...]you will find information that’s relevant to you if you want to buy damansara house[...]…
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Garmin1490t.com…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
shared webhosting…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Angry Birds Online…
[...]the following are a few urls to places that we link to seeing as we think they really are seriously worth checking out[...]…
Great stuff…
I’ve been beforehand observing your weblog for the month or so and have found lots of trustworthy data. I am starting off to operate my extremely very own website even so It appears to be like like its very normal and I would like to focus more detail…
basketball drills…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Wikia…
Wika linked to this website…
Ipad Stylus…
[...]underneath are some web links to internet sites which I link to since we feel they will be worthy of visiting[...]…