ANSI Art

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'''ANSI Art''' is a variant on [[ASCII Art]] which uses [[ANSI escape code|ANSI escape sequences]] in addition to ASCII characters in order to do things like changing colors. It also uses characters from the [[MS-DOS encodings|IBM PC code page]] which aren't part of ASCII, allowing a wider range of characters including various graphical symbols and box-drawing characters. This sort of art was popular on bulletin board systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in other communities through the early 2000s. It is still being made in small quantities today.
  
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'''ANSI Art''' is a variant on [[ASCII Art]] which uses ANSI escape sequences in addition to ASCII characters in order to do things like changing colors. It also uses characters from the [[MS-DOS encodings|IBM PC code page]] which aren't part of ASCII, allowing a wider range of characters including various graphical symbols and box-drawing characters. This sort of art was popular on bulletin board systems in the 1980s.
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== Disambiguation ==
 +
The term "ANSI Art" sometimes refers to the file format (text with ANSI control sequences), and sometimes to the artwork itself. In the latter sense, "ANSI Art" graphics might be stored in a file format other than ANSI Art format, such as [[BIN (Binary Text)|BIN]] or [[iCEDraw]].
  
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== Links and references ==
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== Format details ==
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* [http://www.textfiles.com/programming/FORMATS/ansix364.txt ANSI control sequences]
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As far as we know, there is no formal specification of ANSI Art format. It has many variants and extensions, and there is usually no easy way to tell what variant you are dealing with.
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* [http://www.textfiles.com/programming/FORMATS/ansicodes.pro ANSI code list]
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* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art ANSI art (Wikipedia)]
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In general, it consists of plain text interspersed with [[ANSI escape code|ANSI escape sequences]]. There may be [[SAUCE]] data at the end of the file. The text is usually (at least for English language artwork) encoded in [[CP437]]. The characters in the PC BIOS font at code points 1 through 31 are allowed, with some exceptions that are treated as [[C0 controls]] instead: 9 (tab), 10 (LF), 13 (CR), 26 (end of data), 27 (ESC). In the DOS world the behavior implemented in ansi.sys became the de facto standard. This includes some oddities, such as that clear screen also moves the cursor to the upper left corner (most implementations leaves the cursor in place). This is probably also the reason that code points below 32 are considered valid, since they are typed that way in DOS with ansi.sys loaded.
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* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code ANSI escape code (Wikipedia)]
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* [http://ansilove.sourceforge.net/ Ansilove] -- open-source PHP-based tools to convert ANSI and similar formats to [[PNG]] images
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Older ANSI Art files sometimes begin with a "preamble" consisting of Email/Usenet headers, or other plain text metadata or comments. The preamble will be immediately erased by the ANSI codes, so it is invisible when the file is viewed in a normal way.
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* [http://sixteencolors.net/pack/blocktronics_16colors Sixteen Colors: ANSI art packs]
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* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/acidview6-win32/ ACiD View: ANSI art (and other format) viewer for Windows]
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== Specifications and references ==
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* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNs1GChGDk&feature=player_embedded Sixteen Colors: Video about ANSI art]
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For information about the escape codes used in ANSI Art files, see [[ANSI escape code#Specifications]]. Only documents with information specific to ANSI Art are listed here.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpUb3mUExA Blocktronics ACiD Trip (2013) (video of really huge ANSI art)]
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl9yejh92tc BBS: The Documentary Part 5 - Artscene (video)]
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* [https://github.com/bbsninja/piece/blob/master/docs/format/ansi.txt piece: docs/format/ansi.txt]
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* [http://nyancat.dakko.us/ Nyan Cat in telnet-accessible ANSI animation]
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* [http://picoe.ca/2014/03/07/24-bit-ansi/ 24-bit Ansi]
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* [http://snisurset.net/code/abydos/ansi.html abydos information about ANSI graphics]
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== Software ==
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* [https://www.ansilove.org/ Ansilove]: Open-source tools to convert ANSI art and similar formats to [[PNG]] images
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* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/acidview6-win32/ ACiD View]: ANSI art (and other format) viewer for Windows
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* [[FFmpeg]]
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* [http://picoe.ca/products/pablodraw/ PabloDraw]
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* [http://www.andyh.org/moebius/ Moebius]
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* [https://github.com/tehmaze/piece piece]
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* [[Wikipedia:TheDraw|TheDraw (Wikipedia)]]
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== Sample files ==
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* https://16colo.rs/
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* [https://github.com/sixteencolors/sixteencolors-archive Sixteen Colors Archive at GitHub]
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* [http://artscene.textfiles.com/ansi/ TEXTFILES: The ANSI Art Collection]
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* http://cd.textfiles.com/darkdomain/artpacks/
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* [http://bbs.ninja/ BBS Ninja]
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* [https://artpacks.org/ Artpacks.org]
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* {{DexvertSamples|image/ans}}
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* {{HTTPS|:|/|/|archive.org/download/pain_cave_bbs_compilation/pain_cave_bbs.zip/pain_cave_bbs%2FBbsback%2F8%2FCNDRAW1.ZIP|CNDRAW1.ZIP}} → PAINCAVE.ANS
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* {{HTTPS|:|/|/|archive.org/download/pain_cave_bbs_compilation/pain_cave_bbs.zip|The Pain Cave BBS File Section}}, contains some *.ANS files
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== See also ==
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* [[ANSI escape code]]
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* [[ANSIMation]]
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* [[AN2]]
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* [[ArtWorx Data Format]]
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* [[BIN (Binary Text)]]
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* [[ComAnsi]]
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* [[iCEDraw]]
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* [[SAUCE]]
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* [[sMAUG ANSI Executable]]
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* [[TheDraw font]]
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* [[TheDraw Save File]]
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* [[XBIN]]
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== Links ==
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* [[Wikipedia:ANSI art|ANSI art (Wikipedia)]]
 +
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNs1GChGDk Sixteen Colors: Video about ANSI art]
 +
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpUb3mUExA Blocktronics ACiD Trip (2013)] (video of really huge ANSI art)
 +
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl9yejh92tc BBS: The Documentary Part 5 - Artscene] (video)
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* [http://breakintochat.com/blog/2013/09/20/birthday-screens-using-gif-ansi-converters/ Birthday screens using GIF -> ANSI converters]
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[[Category:Bulletin board systems]]
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[[Category:File formats with too many extensions]]

Latest revision as of 14:05, 22 August 2024

File Format
Name ANSI Art
Ontology
Extension(s) .ans, others

ANSI Art is a variant on ASCII Art which uses ANSI escape sequences in addition to ASCII characters in order to do things like changing colors. It also uses characters from the IBM PC code page which aren't part of ASCII, allowing a wider range of characters including various graphical symbols and box-drawing characters. This sort of art was popular on bulletin board systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in other communities through the early 2000s. It is still being made in small quantities today.

Contents

[edit] Disambiguation

The term "ANSI Art" sometimes refers to the file format (text with ANSI control sequences), and sometimes to the artwork itself. In the latter sense, "ANSI Art" graphics might be stored in a file format other than ANSI Art format, such as BIN or iCEDraw.

[edit] Format details

As far as we know, there is no formal specification of ANSI Art format. It has many variants and extensions, and there is usually no easy way to tell what variant you are dealing with.

In general, it consists of plain text interspersed with ANSI escape sequences. There may be SAUCE data at the end of the file. The text is usually (at least for English language artwork) encoded in CP437. The characters in the PC BIOS font at code points 1 through 31 are allowed, with some exceptions that are treated as C0 controls instead: 9 (tab), 10 (LF), 13 (CR), 26 (end of data), 27 (ESC). In the DOS world the behavior implemented in ansi.sys became the de facto standard. This includes some oddities, such as that clear screen also moves the cursor to the upper left corner (most implementations leaves the cursor in place). This is probably also the reason that code points below 32 are considered valid, since they are typed that way in DOS with ansi.sys loaded.

Older ANSI Art files sometimes begin with a "preamble" consisting of Email/Usenet headers, or other plain text metadata or comments. The preamble will be immediately erased by the ANSI codes, so it is invisible when the file is viewed in a normal way.

[edit] Specifications and references

For information about the escape codes used in ANSI Art files, see ANSI escape code#Specifications. Only documents with information specific to ANSI Art are listed here.

[edit] Software

[edit] Sample files

[edit] See also

[edit] Links

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