creating a picture file from text

i have a problem.... i have to make i txt file made out like this

*****************************
************************************
*****7777777777........22222..6666677777...2222******

(Gradually getting larger but staying in the overall shape of a circle and being a 120kb txt file)
into a smaller picture. with the different characters being represented by different coloured full stops.
i am told that the rich text box control should help me do this, but i have no idea on the code that goes behing the RTB, i am relativly new to all this and so a little intimidated by it all.
if you can help me then great! but even if you cant but you can sujest places for me to find out more info on the net that might this will be greatly apppreciated aswell.
thank you all so much for taking the time to read this, if you need more info please amail me and i will happily reply to any questions you have.

you could put a loop through the characters something like
<pre><font color=blue>For</font color=blue> x = o <font color=blue>To</font color=blue> Len(rtfBox.Text) - 1
rtfBox.SelStart = x
rtfBox.SelLength = 1
<font color=blue>Select Case</font color=blue> rtfBox.SelText
<font color=blue>Case</font color=blue> "7"
rtfBox.SelColor = vbRed
rtfBox.SelText = "."
<font color=blue>Case</font color=blue> "*"
rtfBox.SelColor = vbBlue
rtfBox.SelText = "."
<font color=blue>End Select</font color=blue>
<font color=blue>Next</font color=blue> x</pre>