Art always finds a way to express itself, and computing is one of its many channels. In the beginning, the tools a user could use to make drawings were very limited, and in earlier times, nonexistent. The only thing these users had was text, and by combining the shapes of characters with a large dose of imagination, the so-called "ASCII art" was born.
However, this was not exclusive to computers, far from it. Before our faithful electronic systems, we used classic typewriters, which required much more patience, imagination and skill to achieve a result that caught the eye. Here we have found an example from 1939, but we know there are drawings that go even further back in time.
The First Works of ASCII Art
Examples of ASCII art are everywhere. Something as simple as an emoticon is considered a variant of ASCII art, but there are also much broader and complex forms that shape impressive images.
Currently, ASCII art is widely used by everyone, but we have to go back to the late 1960s and early 1970s to find the first digital examples.
The History of the ASCII Code
The ASCII code was first published in 1963, but it wasn't widely known until 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson ordered that all computers acquired by the federal government have ASCII support.
Even so, there was a time when computers did not exist, and humanity depended on reliable, robust and almost indestructible typewriters.
Some of our younger readers may never have seen one in person, but we can say they are truly wonderful machines.
Through them, one could already glimpse the capacity of human inventiveness, since it was impressive that such a complex mechanical system could be placed in something no bigger than a conventional fifteen-inch monitor.
Using them required skill and some finger strength, otherwise the letters, numbers and symbols would not be marked on the sheet.
It is likely that the typewriter was one of the most uncomfortable elements for drawing that could exist, but even so, several artists emerged who created beautiful representations by pure keystrokes.
And yes, it is true: it is not accurate to call ASCII art something created before the code itself. But the principle was exactly the same; let's not believe we invented everything! We didn't even invent memes!
The oldest known example of ASCII art dates from 1898, in which a beautiful butterfly was drawn. Although it may seem unbelievable, the butterfly had many details in characters, as well as a beautiful frame made entirely of letters. The portrait of Otto von Bismarck, also from the same period, was made entirely with dots, dashes and tabs.
The Artyping Manual
However, better-documented demonstrations began to appear during the first third of the 20th century, such as the excellent image that led us to write this article, which was published in the June 1939 issue of Popular Science magazine and, above all, the complete manual called Artyping, written by Julius Nelson, also in 1939.
The manual, which you can download for free here, is a complete compendium of lessons, tricks and examples to achieve the best art with typewriters. We'll let you discover it on your own, because the adventure of discovery is individual, but not before offering you some of its best works.
Now it is much easier to create this kind of art, since we have programs and websites that can convert any image into a faithful representation of ASCII art, but the representation of George Washington and the examples from the Artyping manual teach us that before soft and obedient keyboards there were true masters who achieved fantastic images with only the stroke of a typewriter, and their imagination.
