We chose to call the ascii imagery printed on the reciepts sprites as a reference to the the smaller bitmap images that are the building blocks of video game imagery. While contemporary computers can handle for more information and therefore much more complex graphics, early videogame designers worked to create rich graphics in very low resolution. Similarly, building imagery using only ascii characters to fit the capability of a dot-matrix reciept printer is an exercise in visual efficiency.
Our first sprites were designed by Molly and inspired by imagery from video games and tapestries, and later the students on our team added sprites inspired by their own interests. Molly built a google sheet that simulates the proportions of the receipt paper and the mono-spaced printing that would be on the receipts to aid in designing. These designs were then passed off to the coding team to adapt for printing.
