A long time ago, when computers were actually used to crunch numbers and keep track of data, and weren’t considered entertainment, people still found ways to amuse themselves. Hence, ASCII art, which was often used as a signature for email.

ASCII, for those of you who don’t, refers to the limited character set that computers were capable of displaying back then. By using these basic characters, people could create images like these.

I had almost forgotten about those days, until I found out about the ASCII generator. Enter in some random text, pick a font and size, and click “do it!”

 _  _        ____  ____  _      _____   _      _____ _  ____  ____ 
/ \/ \  /|  / ___\/  _ \/ \__/|/  __/  / \  /|/  __// \/  __\/  _ \
| || |\ ||  |    \| / \|| |\/|||  \    | |  |||  \  | ||  \/|| | \|
| || | \||  \___ || \_/|| |  |||  /_   | |/\|||  /_ | ||    /| |_/|
\_/\_/  \|  \____/\____/\_/  \|\____\  \_/  \|\____\\_/\_/\_\\____/

 ____  ____  ____ _____ _      ____  ____  _____ ____  _     
/  __\/  _ \/ ___X__ __X \__/|/  _ \/  _ \/  __//  __\/ \  /|
|  \/|| / \||    \ / \ | |\/||| / \|| | \||  \  |  \/|| |\ ||
|  __/| \_/|\___ | | | | |  ||| \_/|| |_/||  /_ |    /| | \||
\_/   \____/\____/ \_/ \_/  \|\____/\____/\____\\_/\_\\_/  \|

 _      ____ ___  _
/ \  /|/  _ \\  \//
| |  ||| / \| \  / 
| |/\||| |-|| / /  
\_/  \|\_/ \|/_/   

Like it? Here’s another…

# #    #     ####   ####  #    # ######    #    # ###### # #####  #####  
# ##   #    #      #    # ##  ## #         #    # #      # #    # #    # 
# # #  #     ####  #    # # ## # #####     #    # #####  # #    # #    # 
# #  # #         # #    # #    # #         # ## # #      # #####  #    # 
# #   ##    #    # #    # #    # #         ##  ## #      # #   #  #    # 
# #    #     ####   ####  #    # ######    #    # ###### # #    # #####  

#####   ####   ####  ##### #    #  ####  #####  ###### #####  #    # 
#    # #    # #        #   ##  ## #    # #    # #      #    # ##   # 
#    # #    #  ####    #   # ## # #    # #    # #####  #    # # #  # 
#####  #    #      #   #   #    # #    # #    # #      #####  #  # # 
#      #    # #    #   #   #    # #    # #    # #      #   #  #   ## 
#       ####   ####    #   #    #  ####  #####  ###### #    # #    # 

#    #   ##   #   # 
#    #  #  #   # #  
#    # #    #   #   
# ## # ######   #   
##  ## #    #   #   
#    # #    #   #

And another…

 _                                                 _         _ 
(_)                                               (_)       | |
 _ _ __    ___  ___  _ __ ___   ___  __      _____ _ _ __ __| |
| | '_ \  / __|/ _ \| '_ ` _ \ / _ \ \ \ /\ / / _ \ | '__/ _` |
| | | | | \__ \ (_) | | | | | |  __/  \ V  V /  __/ | | | (_| |
|_|_| |_| |___/\___/|_| |_| |_|\___|   \_/\_/ \___|_|_|  \__,_|

                 _                       _                 
                | |                     | |                
 _ __   ___  ___| |_ _ __ ___   ___   __| | ___ _ __ _ __  
| '_ \ / _ \/ __| __| '_ ` _ \ / _ \ / _` |/ _ \ '__| '_ \ 
| |_) | (_) \__ \ |_| | | | | | (_) | (_| |  __/ |  | | | |
| .__/ \___/|___/\__|_| |_| |_|\___/ \__,_|\___|_|  |_| |_|
| |                                                        
|_|                                                        

__      ____ _ _   _ 
\ \ /\ / / _` | | | |
 \ V  V / (_| | |_| |
  \_/\_/ \__,_|\__, |
                __/ |
               |___/ 

As it turns out, this isn’t restricted to the computer age. Here’ s a page from some unknown magazine in 1948 that shows how to do this on a typewriter:

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