Sixteen Colors

Sixteen Colors is an online archive dedicated to preserving ANSI and ASCII artpacks from the BBS underground artscene, from the early 1990s to the present. The site documents a textmode artform originally created for display on computer consoles and popularized through dial-up Bulletin Board Systems. It gathers collections released by artists and groups, including work from influential early collectives such as ACiD and iCE, and makes the archive accessible for browsing and research.

Visitors can explore packs, electronic magazines, artists, groups, tags, and releases by year, or use search tools to filter by text, artist or filename prefixes, file extensions, and release dates. The site also supports the community with uploads for new or historical artpacks, public drawing servers for collaboration, a textmode art and image-sharing service, and a SAUCE editor for adding artwork metadata. Chat links, a forum, and tagging tools further connect artists and enthusiasts. Sixteen Colors describes its mission as collecting artpacks in the public interest and helping users discover this enduring creative scene.