Hello hello, i was messing around with both the free version and steam version of this mod on DF, and i was able to put up a little bit of graphic on the mod, mainly i used Kruggsmash's tileset about his series on "The Long Night", the result is something like this:
Example[i.imgur.com] (this is a vanilla world i have, i tested it even on a mod created world and it works)

There are still some letters and some ASCII things, but at least now it's easier to understand a little what's going on and avoid your eyes to bleed.
Here i have a little and short guide to do so:

1) Download the .png tileset you like, i'll use as example Kruggsmash's tileset[i.imgur.com] because he made it for this mod a long time ago for his videos

2) paste the image in steamapps>common>Dwarf Fortress>data>art

3) make a backup of the txt file "init_default" (Dwarf Fortress>data>init) and proceed to modify the file as it follows:
where you see the parameters
[FONT:curses_640x300.png]
[FULLFONT:curses_640x300.png]
[BASIC_FONT:curses_640x300.png]
change the names with the name of the .png image you posted in the /art folder (in my case i'm using kruggsmash's tileset, so the result will be this:
[FONT:kduwU3O.png]
[FULLFONT:kduwU3O.png]
[BASIC_FONT:kduwU3O.png]
Once done save and close the file.

It's extremely important that you change all the three parameters, otherwise the view and fonts will be messed up.
Once done, play the game and select the ASCII graphic option. The screen will automatically set itself at 1280x800 (due to the tileset) and you can notice that when you enable the graphic back on, you can see the screen like this[i.imgur.com]. Don't worry, in case you want to play with Vanilla graphics again, you just have to change back the "init_default" parameters back to the original ones ([FONT:curses_640x300.png][FULLFONT:curses_640x300.png][BASIC_FONT:curses_640x300.png]) or put back the backed up file (quicker method lol)

The only "problem" is that during the game, you can't see anymore the dwarves happiness levels or even the food quantity on the screen (due to the tileset), but you can still see who is happy or not through the citizen list menu, on the extreme right (the view is a lil messed up, but still understandable).

I suggest to change the colors as Squamousness said, since the vanilla ASCII colors are a bit meh.
Atm so far i've tested only with this tileset, but feel free to test with other tilesets too or come up with some on your own!