ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters. The term is also loosely used to refer to text-based visual art in general. ASCII art can be created with any text editor, and is often used with free-form languages. Most examples of ASCII art require a fixed-width font such as Courier for presentation.
Dag Hammarskjöld, printout from teleprinter 1961–1962
Calligram of the constellation "Sirius" from a 9th-century astronomical manuscript
Image: Redwingblackbird 1
A typeface is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size, weight, slope, width, and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
A Specimen, a broadsheet with examples of typefaces and fonts available. Printed by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopædia.
London Underground's Johnston typeface, printed on a large sign
Specimens of printed floral borders from an 1897 type foundry specimen book.
