:ASCII art: n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character set (mainly `|', `-', `/', `\', and `+'). Also known as `character graphics' or `ASCII graphics'; see also {boxology}. Here is a serious example:
o——)||(—+—|<——+ +————-o + D O
L )||( | | | C U
A I )||( +—>|-+ | +-\/\/-+—o - T
C N )||( | | | | P
E )||( +—>|-+—)—-+—)|—+-o U
)||( | | | GND T
o——)||(—+—|<——+—————+
A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier circuit feeding a capacitor input filter circuit
Figure 1.
And here are some very silly examples:
|\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___
| | \ o.O| ACK! / \ |` '| / \
| | =()= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \
| (o)(o) U / \
C ) (__) \/\/\/\ _____ /\/\/\/
| ,___| (oo) \/ \/
| / \/———-\ U (__)
/____\ || | \ /—-V `v'- oo )
/ \ ||—-W|| * * |—| || |`. |_/\
Figure 2.
There is an important subgenre of humorous ASCII art that takes advantage of the names of the various characters to tell a pun-based joke.
+————————————————————————————+ | ^^^^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | +————————————————————————————+ " A Bee in the Carrot Patch "
Figure 3.