Different Kinds of Text Faces

Text faces allow people to know the mood of your message.

Text faces, often referred to as "emoticons," are a quick and easy way to express emotions via text. Text-messaging on a cell phone, or in a messenger program, is a convenient way to talk to someone who isn't nearby, but text lacks the benefit of being able to see a person's facial expressions. This can lead to confusion or misinterpretation. A simple text face can set the mood of your messages and prevent accidentally insulting or offending the person you are chatting with.

Happy Faces

Create a happy face by using a parenthesis and a colon or semicolon. For example, ":)" is a basic smiley face and ";)" is a winking smiley face. A "D" can be used instead of a parenthesis to demonstrate laughter or a wide-mouthed smile, creating the ":D" emoticon. Alternatively, the parenthesis can be replaced with a "P" for a mischievous happy face, creating the ":P" emoticon. You can also substitute other characters for the colon or semicolon that represents the smiley face's eyes. For example, "8)" depicts a wide-eyed happy face, "B)" depicts a happy face wearing sunglasses and "=)" depicts an extremely happy face. A nose can also be added to a happy face using a dash, creating smiley faces such as ":-)," ";-)," "=-)" and ":-D."

Sad Faces

Create sad faces using the same method as you use to create happy faces, but with an inverted parenthesis or "D." For example, a basic sad face is ":(." An extremely sad face is "D:." Note that when using the "D:" face, the positions of the eyes and mouth are reversed. Text faces, whether happy or sad, can be written in either direction: ":(" and "):" are both sad faces. You can also create a tearfully sad face by using the "'" key. For example, ":'(" is a sad face with a tear falling. Frustrated or confused faces can also be created. ":/" is commonly used to express frustration, while ":s" is often used to express confusion. Noses can be added if desired, as well, creating emoticons such as ":-(" and ":-s."

Animal Faces

Text faces are not limited to human faces. Create animal faces by using different combinations of characters. For example, "=^.^=" represents a cat face, ":o3" represents a dog face and "<:3)~" represents a mouse face and body. Many characters used to create animal faces are characters found above the number keys at the top of the keyboard. To use these characters, hold down the "Shift" key while pressing the number key that coincides with the character you wish to create. For example, if creating a mouse, press "Shift" and ","; "Shift and ";," "3," "Shift" and ")"; and "Shift" and "`" for a result of "<:3)~."

Other Faces

Text faces do not necessarily have to be happy or sad; there are a wide range of other expressions that can be represented through text faces. For example, use "o.O" to represent shock or surprise, "@.@" to represent skepticism or eye rolling, ":o" to represent amazement or horror and "~.~" to represent sleepy or sleeping. Text faces can be portrayed vertically or horizontally. ":)" is an example of a vertical text face, while "~.~" is an example of a horizontal text face. Just about any combination of characters can be used to create a text face, so long as there are eyes, a nose, a mouth or some combination of the three. "P.P" and "D.D" can both represent looking to the right; "J.J" and "Z.Z" can both represent looking to the left. The choice is yours.

References

• Webopedia: Smiley Faces and Emoticons
• Sharpened.net: Common Text Emoticons
• Activerain: Text Messaging 101--Over 60 Different Smiley Faces