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From: emc@m-net.arbornet.org (Evan M Corcoran)
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
Subject: TALK - Here comes Flags!
Followup-To: alt.ascii-art
Date: 16 May 1994 12:24:54 GMT
Organization: Lifemanship Correspondence College of One-Upness and
 Gameslifemastery
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Message-ID: <emc-160594081435@nubs98.ccs.itd.umich.edu>
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I've started to do the flags of the world in ASCII, using a 
standard set of 'colors'.  The flags have been drawn in accordance
with their real life aspect ratios (the ratio between the width
and height).  They were done on a Mac in Monaco 9.  The aspect
ratio of Monaco 9 characters is just about 2:1, so to get a 
flag of 1:1 proportions you need to put two characters across
for every one line down.  I don't know how this looks on other 
machines; if the pics could stand improving, then by all means 
improve them.

The color correspondences, which are uniform among all flags,
are as follows:

black  =   = 8
blue   = . = O
red    = : = S
green  = X = X
orange = O = :
yellow = S = .
white  = 8 =

The first character is the character used for light-on-dark screens,
and the second character is the character used for dark-on-light
screens.  Again, if the character weights are wrong on your machine,
substitute new ones. 

For obvious reasons I have started with the easiest flags: France, 
Germany, Italy, etc.  More difficult flags, such as the United States
and the United Kingdom, will appear in the distant future.  As for
flags like Saudi Arabia's, all I can say is Don't hold your breath.

If you want to help out and do your own country's flag or perhaps
improve my rendition of a flag, then jump right in.

 -EMC