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Example of long-form ANSI artwork

ANSI art is a computer art form that was previously widely used on bulletin board systems. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix[1] environments. ANSI art also contains special ANSI escape sequences that color text with the 16 foreground and 8 background colours offered by ANSI.SYS, an MS-DOS device driver loosely based upon the ANSI X3.64 standard for text terminals. Some ANSI artists take advantage of the cursor control sequences within ANSI X3.64 in order to create animations, commonly referred to as ANSImations. ANSI art and text files which incorporate ANSI codes carry the de facto .ANS file extension.

Overview

ANSI art is considerably more flexible than ASCII art, because the particular character set it uses contains symbols intended for drawing, such as a wide variety of box-drawing characters and block characters that dither the foreground and background color. It also adds accented characters and math symbols that often find creative use among ANSI artists.

The popularity of ANSI art encouraged the creation of a powerful shareware package called TheDraw coded by Ian E. Davis in 1986. Not only did it considerably simplify the process of making an ANSI art screen from scratch,[2] but it also included a variety of “fonts”, large letters constructed from box and block characters, and transition animations such as dissolve and clock. No new versions of TheDraw emerged after version 4.63 in 1993, but in later years a number of other ANSI editors appeared, some of which are still maintained today.

The popular game creation system (GCS) ZZT used ANSI graphics exclusively. A later GCS based on the same concept, MegaZeux, allowed users to modify the extended ASCII character set as well.

Trade Wars 2002, a multiplayer BBS game that remains popular decades after its release, used ANSI graphics to depict ships, planets, and important locations, and included cutscenes and a cinema with ANSI animations.[3] Many of these ANSI graphics were created by Drew Markham, who went on to form Xatrix Entertainment/Gray Matter Studios and develop Redneck Rampage and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, among other titles.

During the 1990s, an international ANSI art “scene” arose, a subculture of artists who formed competitive groups, similar to hackers (and sometimes overlapping these groups). These art groups periodically assembled their best pieces into downloadable “artpacks” for distribution on BBS systems. Packs were often delivered as ZIP archives containing individual ANSI art files, as well as supplemental text files giving the latest news and information about that particular art group. Some packs included special software for displaying the art or for playing accompanying music in MOD format.

The rise of the internet in the mid-1990s led to a migration of BBS users, and a decline in the number of systems,[4] reducing the audience for ANSI art. And, as Microsoft Windows began displacing DOS as the dominant PC operating system, it became harder to use legacy ANSI art software.

By the late 1990s, the underground ANSI art scene was “steadily crumbling,” and many ANSI art groups recognized they could not continue with “business as usual.”[5] There was a push to develop of Windows-compatible drawing tools like ACiDDraw and TundraDraw. But, by the early 2000s, many of the largest ANSI art groups like ACiD, ICE, CIA, Fire, and Dark had ceased releasing ANSI artpacks regularly, and some had pivoted to other forms of digital art.

In the 21st century, artists have continued to create and release new ANSI art, though the scene is significantly smaller than it once was. New groups emerged, such as Blocktronics; while some older groups like Mistigris, Fire, and Lazarus revived and began releasing occasional artpacks. ANSI art competitions are regularly held at various demoscene parties. And developers continue to produce new software for drawing ANSI art such as PabloDraw, Moebius, and DurDraw.

See also

References

  1. ^ “Ascii Codes – C++ Tutorials”.
  2. ^ Hepworth, John (February 1988). “TheDraw”. IBM Undeground. Your Computer. The Federal Publishing Co Pty Ltd. p. 143. ISSN 0725-3931. Putting a few words on screen, blinking, is a major task. … TheDraw makes it easy.
  3. ^ Martin, Gary (19 July 2019). “Gary Martin, creator of ‘TradeWars 2002’“. Break Into Chat (Interview). Interviewed by Renaud, Josh. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  4. ^ Renaud, Josh (6 June 2013). “Visualizing 314: The St. Louis scene in charts”. Break Into Chat. [T]he height of the St. Louis BBS scene was from July 1993 until June 1995, the peak month being June 1994. … But after June 1995, the scene began to collapse.
  5. ^ Lipkovits, Rowan (2025). “Cyberspace art scene of the area code 604: The end of an era”. York University Computer Museum. [I]t was clear to us that Mist couldn’t continue as though it were business as usual because the digital underground was steadily crumbling around us..

Bibliography