ASCII Art on MAC

[i.shaun]

on Windows, there were small programs you can find to Convert an Image file into ASCII Art.

Does anyone know a program that does this on OS X 10.4+?


I've mostly got all my windows dependencies taken care of. Maybe there's some useful info here for anyone:

Microsoft Word - OpenOffice.org
Ares - Forget it, use Torrents -- Transmission.app
ADS DVD Express DX2 -- EyeTV Hybrid ($$)
Screen Capture -- Copernicus.app
More Photobooth Effects -- funnyphotgrapher.app
ASCII Art/image converter-- Still Looking............................
Pivot stick figure animator -- Not for Mac, but works with Darwine
Format USB stick for use with
other devices that don't read MAC -- Windows Required.
MSN/Yahoo/AIM -- Adium.app
connect to Brother HL-1230-- Parallels Desktop/Win2KPro($$)
Macro program-- Keyboard maestro ($)
ACDsee -- xee.app. Scrolls through images in a folder . AND plays animated .GIFS
Photoshop 7 Works on darwine, sort of. Unable to find free replacement (I cant seem to get used to Gimp)(probably gonna cost $$)
MS-PAINT paintbrush.app

all I can currently think of

Things that still Bother me about MAC

#1.when sorting files into folders, I try to move to a given folder and It acts as if I double clicked it. A new window opens with the same contents as the previous window.

As I try to recover, and move files to the folder in the new window, it does this again. and again. and finally I get them in there and have 5 windows open for nothing.

#2. mediaLink doesn't work for me. No clue why. Keeps telling me .plist file is not Proper UTF-8 format.

#3. I'm sure something will come up.



>Shaun

 

[sreedy]

#1.when sorting files into folders, I try to move to a given folder and It acts as if I double clicked it. A new window opens with the same contents as the previous window.

This happens if you hover over the folder too long, it thinks you want to open. Drop the contents in their quicker ;-)

Actually I think you can turn this feature off, I'm not in front of my Mac at the moment so I'm not certain..... is it "spring loaded folders"?

 

[Eraserhead]

This happens if you hover over the folder too long, it thinks you want to open. Drop the contents in their quicker ;-)

Actually I think you can turn this feature off, I'm not in front of my Mac at the moment so I'm not certain..... is it "spring loaded folders"?

You can switch it off or change the delay in Finder>Finder Menu>Preferences.

For an ASCII art program check out the following:

• http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31924
• http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10009

 

[peternlewis]

Format USB stick for use with
other devices that don't read MAC -- Windows Required.

/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility will format in MS-DOS (FAT) format - just make sure you select the device and not an existing volume.

BTW, it is Mac, not MAC (the later is an acronym for Media Access Control, the 6 byte unique ID found on ethernet cards). For reference, it is also Mac OS X (note the spaces). Unless you want to advertise yourself as a recent switcher.

Macro program-- Keyboard maestro ($)

Thanks, glad you like it.

Photoshop 7 Works on darwine, sort of. Unable to find free replacement (I cant seem to get used to Gimp)(probably gonna cost $$)

There are three recent Photoshop replacements - Iris (http://nolobe.com/iris/), Acorn and Pixelmator. My recommendation, unless you are in a rush, is to get Iris while it is almost half price ($39) before its final release in June (according to the web site). There is also Photoshop Elements if your needs aren't too demanding.

Others have already answered you for #1, and I am afraid I can't help with #2 (or #3 yet!).

Peter.

 

[i.shaun]

Thanks guys

I'm cautious about sharware, as it seems to want money (i'll pay only if its worth it)

I'll check them out though

As fr the FAT thing, no, I tried that and the satelite receiver didn't recognize it. But immediately recognized it after my Laptop (XP) Formatted it as FAT32


The spring loaded thing seems to be it, I just disabled it.


And finally, I don't feel like paying for the photoshop stuff, All I really did was generate lens flares and use random effects, making abstract animated .GIFs


and thanks for letting me know the difference between Mac and MAC. I never knew what MAC Addresses meant, but I knew it wasn't Apple related. I just didn't give any thought when I typed MAC on here.

But does anyone know about converting a .Plist file to proper UTF-8 format?

 

[peternlewis]

I'm cautious about sharware, as it seems to want money (i'll pay only if its worth it)

Keep in mind that if the program is free, it is just about guaranteed not to be continued to be developed (there are a few high profile exceptions like Linux, MySQL, Apache), but for small programs by individual authors, the author has to eat so eventually he has to work on things that let him buy food.

But I say that as a shareware author (I have been making my living selling shareware continuously since 1994).

As fr the FAT thing, no, I tried that and the satelite receiver didn't recognize it. But immediately recognized it after my Laptop (XP) Formatted it as FAT32

Interesting. I believe, but cant confirm, that if you format as MS DOS in Disk Utility, it will format as FAT16 if the disk size is less than 2GB and FAT32 otherwise.

Alternatively, if you are brave (foolhardy) you can format in FAT32 using the command line tool newfs_msdos. This is described at

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

But does anyone know about converting a .Plist file to proper UTF-8 format?

You can convert to/from binary format using the command line tool plutil.

plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

Peter.

 

[i.shaun]

Keep in mind that if the program is free, it is just about guaranteed not to be continued to be developed (there are a few high profile exceptions like Linux, MySQL, Apache), but for small programs by individual authors, the author has to eat so eventually he has to work on things that let him buy food.

But I say that as a shareware author (I have been making my living selling shareware continuously since 1994).



Interesting. I believe, but cant confirm, that if you format as MS DOS in Disk Utility, it will format as FAT16 if the disk size is less than 2GB and FAT32 otherwise.

Alternatively, if you are brave (foolhardy) you can format in FAT32 using the command line tool newfs_msdos. This is described at

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812



You can convert to/from binary format using the command line tool plutil.

plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

Peter.

How would I go about that? May seem sily to ask, but I really never used Terminal before

<path to folder>plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

plutil -convert xml1 <path to file.plist>

I tried those two examples, and nothing seems to have happened. The former just told me it was a directory, the latter said nothing.

 

[peternlewis]

How would I go about that? May seem sily to ask, but I really never used Terminal before

<path to folder>plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

plutil -convert xml1 <path to file.plist>

I tried those two examples, and nothing seems to have happened. The former just told me it was a directory, the latter said nothing.

Launch the Terminal.

Type

plutil convert xml1

then drag the file into the Terminal to fill in the path and name.

Then press return.

The plist will be changed in-place to the XML version.

Basically, a .plist file can be either XML or Binary format. The system can read either format, and when a program writes it can specify which format.

So plutili can just convert the file. Then you can open it in a text editor.

Or you can use the Property List Editor to edit the plist, but that is only installed as part of the Developer package (ie, Xcode).

Peter.

 

[i.shaun]

Launch the Terminal.

Type

plutil convert xml1

then drag the file into the Terminal to fill in the path and name.

Then press return.

The plist will be changed in-place to the XML version.

Basically, a .plist file can be either XML or Binary format. The system can read either format, and when a program writes it can specify which format.

So plutili can just convert the file. Then you can open it in a text editor.

Or you can use the Property List Editor to edit the plist, but that is only installed as part of the Developer package (ie, Xcode).

Peter.

Okay Why Me... everyone else who installed Media Link got it to work more or less satisfactory

I get console errors saying plist file is not proper UTF-8, parse failed

I just tried to convert it, and Terminal tells me:
convert: file does not exist or is not readable or is not a regular file
xml1/Library/PreferencePanes/MediaLink.prefPane/Contents/Info.plist: file does not exist or is not readable or is not a regular file


I guess I will always have trouble in life
>Shaun

 

[Vlade]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but if anyone is still searching/looking for an ASCII art program check out mine at http://nuclearnova.com/applications/asciiart/ , available as shareware and through the Mac app store