Emacs Artist Mode (screencast) allows you to use the mouse to draw squares, lines, and other shapes in plain text, or even paint. I'm not an emacs user, but I thought this was pretty cool. Even better, you can use an open source Java tool called ditaa to transform ascii text into a full-color graphic. Needless to say, users of other IDEs want this.
posted by Deathalicious on Mar 1, 2011 - 39 comments

ASCIImeo, Videos in text.
posted by Substrata on Jan 18, 2010 - 27 comments

Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium - "Underneath their sober lab coats and flannel shirts, scientists hide images of their scientific passions. Here they are revealed to all." From the science journalist and writer responsible for The Loom and numerous other published works.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Apr 8, 2008 - 33 comments

JAVE is an tool that helps ease the pain of creating ASCII art. In the days before GIFs, ASCII art roamed the plains of the Internet; people created hundreds of text-based pictures. Some spectacular examples are out there, but the rise of the graphical web has put a crimp in this art form. Perhaps tools like JAVE and FIGlet can help stave off the end.
posted by snarkout on Jul 10, 2001 - 13 comments