The Remote Imaging Protocol Scripting Language, more commonly known as the Remote Imaging Protocol or RIPscrip, is a scripting language created by Jeff Reeder, Jim Bergman, and Mark Hayton (founders of TeleGrafix Communications) to enhance bulletin board systems and other applications.
RIPscrip was introduced in 1993 and consisted of ASCII-text descriptions of vector-drawn graphics and images, along with facilities to create menus and clickable buttons. These were sent from the BBS instead of the more common ANSI color-coded text-mode screens, and were interpreted on the user's end by a RIP-enabled terminal program such as TeleGrafix's own RIPTerm which could draw them at a 640x350 EGA resolution. Several utilities, including RIPaint and Tombstone Artist could be used to create RIP screens. RIP, however, failed to catch on, and was soon forgotten as the online community made the wholesale migration from BBS systems to the Internet and World Wide Web with its improved (and more cross-platform) graphic capabilities.
TeleGrafix later introduced newer versions of the RIPscrip standard in an effort to enhance Web browsing and telnet communications, but failed at these attempts. Vector image standards which are present on the web today that draw some similarities include Macromedia Flash and SVG. The version of RIPscrip which was actually in use amongst BBSes during the early to mid 1990s was version 1.54.