ANSI art was the internet’s original glow-up before the web even had pictures. Born in the mid-80s and blowing up on BBS (bulletin board systems), it used the ANSI escape codes from the 1960 ANSI X3.64 standard to render colorful, blocky graphics—basically turning text into pixel art. Artists used 16 colors and extended ASCII characters to create logos, game intros, and full-on digital murals that loaded line by line on a 2400-baud modem. By the early ’90s, ANSI art hit its peak with groups like ACiD and iCE pushing weekly art packs, while programs like TheDraw made creating it easier. Even as GUIs killed off BBS culture in the late ’90s, ANSI art became the DNA of early internet creative culture, and now it’s a time capsule of how we made the most out of what little we had.