Ascii typewriter is a website that users can explore and customize each letter forms that consists of 30 different foregrounds and 30 different backgrounds of special characters.

I found Ascii art when I was researching the old computer graphics, and I was surprised that I totally forgot that I used to do the Ascii art several years ago, creating letterforms and emojis with special characters. However, I no longer use it as computer graphics developed. I had a nostalgic moment when I saw the ascii art again and inspired by this I re-explored the Ascii art concept and created a typeface for my thesis.

1.The typeface was created by using 30 different foregrounds and 30 different backgrounds of special characters in 26 letter forms.

2. I used this concept to explore in Korean, alphabets and geometric shapes. After this experimentation, I decided to explore 26 letterforms of the alphabet.

3. Experimented the background of letterforms displaying all the 30 special characters in different leading with 12pt, 6pt and 1pt.

4. Then I tested ousing 30 different foreground and has same background for 26 letterforms with different leadings.

5.This is example of using one combination, of foreground and background in a sentence that displays all the letterform.

6.These are the letterforms that I designed in indesign.

7.However, in order to make all the possible outcomes, I had to make 23400 letter forms, which is the calculations of 30 foreground, 30 background and 26 alphabet. After making a few hundred letterforms in indesign, I found a better way to generate all the letter forms programmatically through the website.

8.The website has 3 options that users can select. First the letter option will select from the list of 30 special characters to display in the shape of a letter. (write: the)

Second, the background will have same option of 30 special characters and it will display the background of the letter form. (write: quick)

Lastly the font selection will have 3 different font options. First the normal font has a loose leading of 12pt and medium has tighter leading which is 6pt and condensed has the tightest, 1pt. This options also can be randomized, selecting special characters randomly. you can choose random for background you can choose random for background and you can choose random for font as well.

Conclusion

Users can explore and customize each letter forms in the website: www.asciitypewriter.com