16colors is a browsable archive of ANSI and ASCII art packs from the BBS and art-scene era. Pick a year or a group, open a pack and view the art, all made from text characters and a small palette. It is a brilliant look at a forgotten medium.
The archive is organized by year and by group, so you can follow a scene across time or dive into one crew's work. The art can be huge, colorful and strangely detailed, and it was made by hand, character by character, in an era when this was a serious craft.
It works on phones, but the art is wide, so a larger screen suits it better. Treat it as a rabbit hole. If you like what you find, Pouet and TEXTFILES.COM in our list are good companions, covering other corners of the same pre-web culture. Some packs may contain mature themes, since they come from an art scene with little moderation.
Tips for getting the most out of it
- Browse by year to follow how the style changed.
- Try a larger screen for wide pieces.
- Open a pack and just scroll.
Questions about 16colors
What is 16colors?
16colors is an online archive of ANSI and ASCII art packs from the BBS and art-scene era, which you can browse by year or group. You can find it at 16colo.rs, and odd-sites.com lists it as a long rabbit-hole visit. It works on phones as well as computers.
What is ANSI art?
ANSI art is artwork made from text characters and a limited palette of colors, popular on bulletin board systems. Artists placed each character by hand to make logos, scenes and lettering. We check the link daily, so you can see whether it is still alive.
Sites like 16colors
ASCII Art Archive
Thousands of ASCII drawings, sorted by subject.
- 5 minutes
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 16 days ago
CSS Zen Garden
One HTML page, hundreds of wildly different designs.
- 5 minutes
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 16 days ago
Neocities Browse
Browse the hand-made personal sites of the modern indie web.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 16 days ago
Windows 93
A deranged fake operating system with surreal apps.
- Rabbit hole
- Desktop
- Flashing images
- Loud audio
- Alive · checked 16 days ago