The ASCII format is used for visual artwork made with text. The ASCII standard is as old as 1963, but text based art has been around since the late 19th century with the typewriter as a medium. Today, ASCII is frequently used as a catch-all term for all text based artwork on computers.

The ASCII format was historically also used for programming and creative writing battles, but due to a few unsavory incidents the format is now '[b]strictly'[/b] for ASCII art (though supplementary writing may be included).

____________
|_.______.__||
| _||------|._||
| _||____|__||
|_. ______._||
|_||-------|_||
|_||-------|_||
|_||-------|_||
::::::::::::::::::::
 ____________
| __________||
| ||   
| ||_________
|________ __||
------------|__||
________|__||
|__________||
::::::::::::::::::::
 ___________
| _______|_|
| ||  
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||__________
|__________|_|
:::::::::::::::::::::
 _____________
|____    ____|_|
-------| ||  
-------| ||
-------| ||
-------| ||
-____|  ||_____
|__________|_|
::::::::::::::::::::::
 _____________
|____    ____|_|
-------| ||  
-------| ||
-------| ||
-------| ||
-____|  ||_____
|__________|_|
::::::::::::::::::::::