ANSI Has Landed
by Kyzrati on 20130903 , under Release
A member of the ANSI group Blocktronics contacted me recently and asked whether REXPaint could export .ans files.
Short answer: No. Longer answer: Yes, just as soon as I look into the format and implement it because, you know, supporting more formats means an application useful for more people. And as it so happens ANSI escape codes are pretty easy to implement.
Regular ANSI as stored in .ans is limited to a 16-color palette, only 8 of which can be used as background colors. Different terminals display the ANSI colors somewhat differently, as you can see in this table:
REXPaint includes the standard VGA color palette by default, though you could convert it to any of the others (or add them separately as new palettes):
Overall, the REXPaint interface is certainly different from that of your average ANSI art program, but the different features may make it more suitable for certain painting styles.
REXPaint includes the data and instructions for configuring it for ANSI use (all that's required is some file copying), but there's also a pre-configured version available as a separate download, a better option if your primary intent is to draw ANSI art. Even if you download the pre-configured version, you should definitely check out Appendix C in the manual for notes on how ANSI editing works (and, of course, browse the rest for how to use REXPaint in general).
Although editing in ANSI mode loses the palette/color flexibility, you can still take advantage of all the other tools REXPaint has to offer, even layers.
R6 and R6-ANSI are now available for download.
For this release I also took the opportunity to add a few other features, most notably an expansion of image browser functionality to enable duplication, renaming, and deletion of images from within the browser itself.
Also added were some new terminal fonts (8x12, 8x14, 8x16, 10x16), but these are located in a separate directory for R6 so you'll have to move/add them manually if you want to use them. The pre-configured R6-ANSI uses terminal fonts by default, instead of the usual square fonts.
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Short answer: No. Longer answer: Yes, just as soon as I look into the format and implement it because, you know, supporting more formats means an application useful for more people. And as it so happens ANSI escape codes are pretty easy to implement.
Regular ANSI as stored in .ans is limited to a 16-color palette, only 8 of which can be used as background colors. Different terminals display the ANSI colors somewhat differently, as you can see in this table:
REXPaint includes the standard VGA color palette by default, though you could convert it to any of the others (or add them separately as new palettes):
 |
| Standard VGA palette as it appears in REXPaint |
REXPaint includes the data and instructions for configuring it for ANSI use (all that's required is some file copying), but there's also a pre-configured version available as a separate download, a better option if your primary intent is to draw ANSI art. Even if you download the pre-configured version, you should definitely check out Appendix C in the manual for notes on how ANSI editing works (and, of course, browse the rest for how to use REXPaint in general).
Although editing in ANSI mode loses the palette/color flexibility, you can still take advantage of all the other tools REXPaint has to offer, even layers.
R6 and R6-ANSI are now available for download.
For this release I also took the opportunity to add a few other features, most notably an expansion of image browser functionality to enable duplication, renaming, and deletion of images from within the browser itself.
Also added were some new terminal fonts (8x12, 8x14, 8x16, 10x16), but these are located in a separate directory for R6 so you'll have to move/add them manually if you want to use them. The pre-configured R6-ANSI uses terminal fonts by default, instead of the usual square fonts.