Emoticon Dictionary

Emoticons are text symbols to express moods and feelings in a message. On 19 September 1982 Scott Elliott Fahlman has created the :-) smile and :-( sad emoticon, for a computer science board. He explained to read the characters sideways, :-) should be for joke markers, :-( to mark things that are not jokes.

Today, in most web forums and instant messenger text emoticons converted into a graphical replacement. These pictures are also called emoticons or emotes.

The emoticon dictionary will give some examples, their meanings and show a graphical replacement with a gomote.

Emoticon or Emote

An emoticon, also commonly known as an emote, is a small pixel based image used to help express a feeling, mood or action. The characters involved are often round in shape and can come in a variety of colours. The average size for an emote is 15×15 pixels, however this can vary.

Smiley

A smiley is similar to an emoticon, however there are some slight differences. Smilies are generally slightly larger in size than emoticons and are most commonly yellow in colour. Another common feature is individual fingers, which are not often used within emoticons.

Basic emoticons western style

Read the basic emoticons from left to right. Recognize the emoticons better, when you move your head toward your left shoulder. You can also show emoticons with a nose, simply add a hypen or a small circle. For example a smiling emoticon :-) or :o).

There are a lot more combinations of text emoticons. The western style emoticons are written in 1 byte letters. You can use different symbols or letters, to create new text emoticons.

Asia style

There are also geographical differences, in Asia emoticons displayed in a different way. Here count more the eyes, which represent the expressions. The emoticons looks different, as western emoticons. You don’t have to take the head at the side, to recognize them. Asia emoticons are known as KAO’s. KAO is a japanese term for face. The asia style emoticons are written in 2bytes letters. So you’ve more characters to use. This is the reason why you can have multiple text emoticons for one expression.

Abbreviations

The Internet have his own slang, you found many shorthand words, like afk – away from keyboard. These shorthand words can be replaced, too with emoticons.

Colons

In many communities, you can also add graphical emoticons, by using colons around the word. That would look like this :smile:. So you can add as many emoticons as you wish and don’t need a special combination of symbols to show the emoticon.

Arabic style

Read the arabic emoticons like asia emoticons horizontally. The emoticons are written with some arabic letters

Graphical replacements

Today in most message boards and messengers text emoticons are converted in graphical replacements. You type a simple text emoticon like :) and it will appear a graphical replacement like . Many messengers, boards, and blogs have there own set of emoticons, to replace text emoticons.

Emoticonist

People that creates emoticons is known as an emoticonist.

Smiley Maker

People that creates smilies as opposed to emoticons, is known as a smiley maker.

Pixel art

Most graphical emoticons are made with pixel art. Here is every emoticon done pixel by pixel. There are different basic layouts in different sizes, but the most used and best fitted base is the 15×15 pixel body. If you use the 15×15 pixel body, you don’t destroy the flow of reading to much.

Shading

The shading is the basic layout of an emoticon. The way you shade a emoticon, have a visual impression on the emoticon. For example I show you this smile emoticon: . You’ll see that every shading, have another effect on the look of the emoticon. In this animation you find twenty different shadings. I used them over the years on different emoticons.

Static

A emoticon should be easily recognizable. The best of what you can do is to capture the expression you want to show, in one single frame. For sure this is one of the hardest parts to show with one single frame in such a small canvas all the details. But if you reached the goal you’ve a amazing piece of art.

Animation

The animation will give an emoticon live. In an animation there many single frames in a row, everyone with a delay, to get a liquid animation. The animation allows you to tell little stories with emoticons or just capture the expression, in a perfect way.
Never forget that the emoticon should be still easy recognizable, so don’t confuse the people, with to large animations, where they did not know, what the emoticon expressed at the moment.

Frame

A frame is a single image that is used to show the emoticon in one position. When multiple different frames are put together in succession, it causes the emoticon to move.

Delay

The Delay is in use by animated emoticons. This is the time between every single Frame you can vary it and you get another result for the animation.