home › Internet › History of VKontakte emoticons. Emoticons for VK - codes for hidden emoticons, how to insert emoticons into the status and on the VKontakte wall. What is the Unicode and Emoji standard? Emoticon codes with gestures and body parts

History of VKontakte emoticons. Emoticons for VK - codes for hidden emoticons, how to insert emoticons into the status and on the VKontakte wall. What is the Unicode and Emoji standard? Emoticon codes with gestures and body parts

Greetings, friends. Today's post will be not only useful, but also fun - we'll talk about emoticons for the social network VKontakte. Funny faces and funny pictures have already become an integral part of any communication on the Internet, and everyone wants to diversify their texts with new and original ones.

The legs of all emojis grow out of text symbols, when it was first invented to indicate emotions using symbols. For me, the first emoticon was the smile symbol, presented in the form of a closing bracket “)”; the expanded version of the smile symbol additionally has a colon “:)” - this spelling is familiar to everyone, almost everyone online services automatically transform this code into a cheerful smiling face, but it turns out that this is not according to the Feng Shui GOST Unicode standard.

Unicode is a standard where all letters, numbers, icons and other printable elements are represented as a unique digital code. This code is understood by any device and displays any symbol correctly. With Unicode, you can include any icon in your text, even if it's not on your keyboard. For example, if you want to write the hieroglyph “乔”, enter its code “𠁒” and you’re done.

The widespread use of emoticons has led to many of their codes being included in Unicode, along with other symbols and signs.

Of course, social networks have become active consumers of emoticons on an industrial scale, VKontakte is no exception. For the convenience of users, so that people do not have to remember and manually write codes to display certain pictures, Contact uses a tooltip - a special drop-down list where you can visually select the desired emoticon and insert it into a message or post on the wall. But this list does not contain all the emoticon codes supported by VK, only the most popular ones (otherwise the list would be too cumbersome).

The rest of the emoticons are, as it were, hidden, but they can be easily used if you know the designation code in Unicode. In addition to dialogues and walls, hidden emoticon codes can also be used in statuses; we will discuss how to make statuses in VK using emoticons below.

I would like to cover the topic of emoji in as much detail as possible, but if this description tires you and you yourself know how to insert everything and you just need to get the necessary codes, go straight to. And for the curious, we will delve a little deeper into history and other interesting points.

What emoticons work in VK and what is special about Emoji

I briefly mentioned the main reason for the appearance of emoticons at the beginning of the post - the need to convey emotions that are difficult or take a long time to describe in words. As soon as the Internet ceased to be a purely business tool and moved into the category of entertainment, the need to express smiles, sadness and much more began to go off scale. It is very difficult to convey what makes communication lively and humane (facial expressions, gestures) through text; not every writer copes with this task perfectly, let alone ordinary people flirting through ICQ.

For example, I can’t imagine how you can convey to your interlocutor by text that I’m winking at him or sticking out my tongue - it will look stupid and won’t produce the desired effect, but a round yellow face with a closed eye or sticking out tongue is just what the doctor ordered.

The peak of the spread of emoticons coincided with the peak of the development of various communication tools - first it was ICQ and Skype, then millions of users of Contact, Odnoklassniki and Facebook were drawn into their networks, now every smartphone owner hangs out on Viber or WhatsApp every day.

Emoticons were not always the usual pictures for us now, but now VK automatically converts the code “:)” into a cheerful face, initially the entire designation was through symbols, the sender of the message wrote a set of squiggles, the recipient received them in the same form, understanding to the best of their knowledge, what is meant. At the initial stage, there were few emoticons; almost all of them were intuitive or easy to remember. If you look closely, all the main emoticons look like a face turned to one side.

Smile - ":)"
Laughter – “:D”
Sadness - ":("
Wink – “;)”
Indifference – “:-|”
Cry – “:"(“
Puzzled – “:-\”
Amazement – “:-o”
Surprise – “=-o”
Language – “:P”
Kiss – “:-*”
Constriction – “:-[“
Profanity, swearing – “:-X”
Anger – “:-||”
Nausea - ":-!"

You probably noticed that the described codes are displayed on VKontakte not as symbols, but as beautiful pictures. This is because the social network is programmed that the combination of symbols corresponds to the desired emoticon, and in each network the image itself will be slightly different in appearance. The reason for the differences is that such emoticons are not standardized characters from Unicode and there is no standard for their display. On the one hand, this allows each service to create creative images with any level of beauty, on the other hand, devices and services that do not support the unofficial encoding of emoticons into pictures will not turn them into pictures at all.

But with Unicode characters the situation is different; emoticons written in this code will be supported everywhere and always. Knowing the emoji codes in the Unicode standard, you can insert absolutely any of the almost 1000 emoticons anywhere in VK, be it in a status or on a wall.

Example:

The Laughter emoticon is informally designated as “:D”; this input format will not be converted into an image everywhere. The standardized Unicode code for this emoji is “😄” and will appear as a 😄 icon on all devices.

But Unicode characters have one peculiarity - they are all simple and black and white. And to make them beautiful and colorful, emoji were invented. Each emoji icon corresponds to a different Unicode character. Essentially these are the same Unicode characters, only displayed differently on devices that support emoji. If there is no emoji support, then emoticons will still be shown, only with simple icons. I probably confused you, it’s better to give an example:

Emoji are emoticons written according to the Unicode standard, but displayed with brighter and more colorful pictures from a special library, if this library is connected to the site or service.

The VKontakte Emoji library is included, so all the emoticons on the social network are colorful and beautiful.

How to put an emoticon in VK status?

The above educational program about emoticons and emojis was carried out for a reason, after it it should become clear to you why writing it in the form of a colon with a bracket does not lead to the appearance of a smile emoticon, but remains in the form of a code - this is not the standard.

Is this a familiar picture?

For the desired emoticon to appear, you need to write not “:)”, but “😄”.

Now step by step.

Step 1. Open the status editor

In order to put an emoticon in the VK status, go to your page (the top item of the panel on the left is “My Page”) and under the name, click the “change status” link:

Step 2. Copy the desired emoticon

An edit field will appear in which you can write any text and add any emoticon. Recently, VKontakte status has introduced support for a tooltip with a standard set of emoticons - if among them there is what you need, select it; if not, and the desired emoticon belongs to the hidden category, then there are two ways:

Step 3. Insert an emoticon into the status text

Both inserting the emoticon code and its Unicode character will work. Just note that the smiley code must begin with an ampersand and a hash and end with a semicolon, otherwise VK will not convert it into an image.

Correct: “😄”
Incorrect: “128516”

Step 4. Save

How to insert hidden emoticons into messages, discussions and on the VK wall

to America this issue I won't open it. Anyone who has used Contact at least once knows that when you place the mouse cursor in the field for writing text on a wall or in the field for discussing a post, an icon appears on the right that reveals a huge list of emoticons - you can choose any one from it.

For personal messages, this list is even longer, as it includes several bookmarks - individual emoticons for VK (some of them are paid, but for reasonable money, although I don’t see the point in paying, especially since you can get any emoticon you need from the Unicode table ).

But, all these lists do not include all emoji characters supported by Unicode. In total, VK shows about 500 different emoticons, the rest (almost the same number) are left out as hidden ones. That is, they are not that hidden, just social network considers these emoticons to be unimportant and not popular, and therefore does not display them in the gallery, and their operation is supported in the same way as in the status line. And the algorithm for inserting hidden emoticons is similar:

All you need to use hidden emoticons is to have their standard codes on hand. Below I will provide a table of codes, so add a link to this article to your bookmarks so that in the future you don’t have to search for codes for the desired pictures for a long time.

Table of emoticon codes for VK

When inserting emoticon codes on VKontakte, it is mandatory to use opening and closing characters - the emoticon begins with () and ends with (;). In other places you can find codes in their pure form, without these symbols, the codes themselves are correct, but they will not work in VK if you do not add the indicated symbols.

Some emoticons look like squares when inserted, but don’t be alarmed, after saving and updating the page, VK will convert them into beautiful pictures.

For comfort when searching for the desired picture, all emoticons are grouped into semantic sections, to immediately go to the desired section, click on the name of the required category from the list:

Codes of yellow emoticons with emotions

😊 😊 - Smile with laughing eyes
☺ ☺ - Stupid smile
😉 😉 - Winking face
😋 😋 - Playful smile with tongue out
😀 😀 - Face with a grin
😄 😄 - Happy smile
😌 😌 - Light, pleasant smile
😅 😅 - Joy in a cold sweat
😃 😃 - Admiration, joy
😂 😂 - Tears of joy
😆 😆 - Mocking
😝 😝 - Teasing and laughing a lot
😜 😜 - Teasing
😛 😛 - Sticks out tongue
😇 😇 - Saint, emoji with a halo
😒 😒 - Joyless face
😐 😐 - Neutral face
😕 😕 - Confused face
😏 😏 - Smirk
😑 😑 - Expressive face
😍 😍 - In love, hearts in the eyes
😘 😘 - Air kiss
😚 😚 - Kiss
😗 😗 - Kissing face
😙 😙 - Kissing face with smiling eyes
😳 😳 - Surprised face
😁 😁 - Smiling face with smiling eyes
😬 😬 - Guilty, unpleasant
😓 😓 - Sadness in a cold sweat
😔 😔 - Thoughtful face
😞 😞 - Disappointment
😥 😥 - Disappointed, but takes it in stride
😩 😩 - Tired face
😫 😫 - Very tired
😣 😣 - Perseverance
😖 😖 - Confused face
😢 😢 - Tears rolled down
😭 😭 - Sobbing face
😪 😪 - Sleepy
😴 😴 - Sleeping face
😷 😷 - Sick, medical mask on face
😎 😎 - Cool, smiley face with black glasses
😰 😰 - Cold sweat
😨 😨 - Scared face
😱 😱 - Screams in fear
😦 😦 - Gloomy face
😠 😠 - Evil face
😡 😡 - Very angry, to the point of redness
😤 😤 - Waiting for triumph, victory, success
😵 😵 - Dizziness
😲 😲 - Surprise
😟 😟 - Concerned face
😧 😧 - Suffering face
😮 😮 - Perplexed face
😯 😯 - Complete bewilderment
😶 😶 - Mouth shut
😈 😈 - Good little devil
👿 👿 - Evil little devil
😺 😺 - Smiling cat
😸 😸 - Happy cat
😿 😿 - The cat is crying
😾 😾 - The cat is angry
😹 😹 - Cat with tears of joy
😻 😻 - The cat is in love
😽 😽 - Cat kiss
😼 😼 - The cat grins
🙀 🙀 - Scared cat

Emoticons depicting people

🎅 🎅 - Santa Claus
👶 👶 - Small child
👧 👧 - Girl
👦 👦 - Boy
👨 👨 - Man
👩 👩 - Woman
👴 👴 - Old Man
👵 👵 - Old lady
👮 👮 - Policeman in a cap
👷 👷 - Builder
👱 👱 - Man with blond hair
👰 👰 - Bride with a bouquet
👲 👲 - Man in a skullcap
👳 👳 - Man in a turban
👸 👸 - Princess
💂 💂 - Guardsman
💁 💁 - Information desk employee
💆 💆 - Head massage
💇 💇 - Hairdresser
🙅 🙅 - Not a good sign
🙆 🙆 - Good sign
🙋 🙋 - Happy man raised one hand
🙎 🙎 - Man with a chubby face
🙍 🙍 - Man with a gloomy face
🙇 🙇 - Bows
👼 👼 - Child angel
💏 💏 - Kiss
💑 💑 - A couple of lovers
👫 👫 - Couple holding hands
👪 👪 - Family
👬 👬 - Two men holding hands
👭 👭 - Two women holding hands
👯 👯 - Women with bunny ears
💃 💃 - Dancing woman
🚶 🚶 - Walking man
🏃 🏃 - Running man
👤 👤 - Bust silhouette
👥 👥 - Bust silhouettes

Emoticon codes with gestures and body parts

👂 👂 – Ear
👃 👃 – Nose
👀 👀 - Eyes
👅 👅 - Language
👄 👄 - Mouth
👍 👍 - Like, thumbs up
👎 👎 - Dislike, thumbs down
👌 👌 - Ok, okay
👊 👊 – Fist
✊ ✊ - Sign of support
✌ ✌ - Victory sign
👐 👐 - Open hands
👋 👋 - Waving hand
✋ ✋ - Welcome sign
👆 👆 - Index finger up
👇 👇 - Index finger down
👉 👉 - Index finger to the right
👈 👈 - Index finger to the left
🙌 🙌 - Raised his hands above himself
🙏 🙏 - Put your palms together
☝ ☝ - Pointer finger up
👏 👏 - Hand clapping
💪 💪 - Demonstration of biceps, strength
💋 💋 - Red lips

Heart emoticons

💛 💛 - Yellow heart
💙 💙 - Blue Heart
💜 💜 - Purple Heart
💚 💚 - Green heart
❤ ❤ - Red Heart
🖤 🖤 – Black heart emoticon for VK
💔 💔 - Broken heart
💗 💗 - Growing heart
💓 💓 - Beating Heart
💕 💕 - Two hearts
💖 💖 - Sparkling heart
💞 💞 - Rotating hearts
💘 💘 - Heart pierced by an arrow
💌 💌 - Love letter
💟 💟 - White heart on a dark background
💝 💝 - Heart with bow-ribbon

Holiday emoticons

🎁 🎁 - Gift box
🎀 🎀 - Red ribbon bow
🎈 🎈 - Balloon
🎉 🎉 - Party with confetti
🎊 🎊 - Confetti Ball
🎭 🎭 - Happy and sad mask
🎃 🎃 - Jack-O-Lantern (pumpkin)

Playing card suits

♠ ♠ - Spades (card suit)
- Hearts
♣ ♣ - Clubs
♦ ♦ - Diamonds

Emoticons of numbers on a blue background

0⃣ 0⃣ - Zero
1⃣ 1⃣ - One
2⃣ 2⃣ - Two
3⃣ 3⃣ - Three
4⃣ 4⃣ - Four
5⃣ 5⃣ - Five
6⃣ 6⃣ - Six
7⃣ 7⃣ - Seven
8⃣ 8⃣ - Eight
9⃣ 9⃣ - Nine
🔟 🔟 - Ten

Smileys with clothes and shoes

👑 👑 - Crown
🎩 🎩 - Cylinder hat
🎓 🎓 - Graduation cap
👒 👒 - Women's hat
🎽 🎽 - Shirt with belt
👔 👔 - Tie
👕 👕 - T-shirt
👗 👗 - Summer dress
👚 👚 - Women's clothing
👖 👖 - Jeans
👙 👙 - Open swimsuit
👘 👘 - Kimono
👟 👟 - Sneakers
👞 👞 - Men's shoes
👠 👠 - Women's high heel shoes
👡 👡 - Women's sandals
👢 👢 - Women's boots
👣 👣 - Human traces
👛 👛 - Wallet
👜 👜 - Handbag
👝 👝 - Bag
💼 💼 - Briefcase
🎒 🎒 - School bag
👓 👓 - Glasses

Stationery

✂ ✂ - Scissors
📌 📌 - Pushpin
📍 📍 - Round pushpin
📎 📎 - Paper clip
✏ ✏ - Pencil
✒ ✒ - Feather
📏 📏 - Ruler
📐 📐 - Square ruler
📕 📕 - Red Book
📘 📘 - Blue book
📗 📗 - Green Book
📙 📙 - Orange Book
📖 📖 - Open book
📚 📚 - Stack of books
📔 📔 - Yellow Notebook
📓 📓 - Gray notebook
📒 📒 - Notepad
📝 📝 - Note
📁 📁 - Folder
📂 📂 - Open folder
📆 📆 - Tear-off calendar
📅 📅 - Calendar
📋 📋 - Tablet

Smiley codes “zodiac signs”

♈ ♈ - Aries
♉ ♉ - Taurus
♊ ♊ - Gemini
♋ ♋ - Cancer
♌ ♌ - Leo
♍ ♍ - Virgo
♎ ♎ - Libra
♏ ♏ - Scorpio
♐ ♐ - Sagittarius
♑ ♑ - Capricorn
♒ ♒ - Aquarius
♓ ♓ - Pisces

🎹 🎹 - Music Keyboard
🎸 🎸 - Guitar
🎻 🎻 - Violin
🎺 🎺 - Trumpet
🎷 🎷 - Saxophone
📯 📯 - Postal horn
🎼 🎼 - Note row
🎵 🎵 - Note
🎶 🎶 - Several musical notes

City and natural landscapes

⛲ ⛲ - Fountain
🌅 🌅 - Sunrise over the ocean
🌄 🌄 - Sunrise over the mountains
🌃 🌃 - Night city with a starry sky
🌆 🌆 - Cityscape at dusk
🌇 🌇 - Sunset over the city
🌁 🌁 - Bridge in the fog
🌉 🌉 - Bridge at night with stars and moon
🌊 🌊 - Sea wave
🌈 🌈 - Rainbow
🌋 🌋 - Vulcan
🌌 🌌 - Milky Way
🌠 🌠 - Shooting Star
🎆 🎆 - Sparkler fireworks
🎇 🎇 - Fireworks
🎢 🎢 - Roller coaster
🎡 🎡 - Ferris wheel
🎠 🎠 - Carousel horse
🗻 🗻 - Mount Fuji
🗽 🗽 - Statue of Liberty
🗾 🗾 - Silhouette of the Japanese Islands
🗼 🗼 - Tokyo Tower
🎑 🎑 - Moonlight Ceremony
🎏 🎏 - Carp streamer
🎐 🎐 - Wind chime

Weather emoticons for VKontakte

☀ ☀ - Sunny
☁ ☁ - Cloudy
⛅ ⛅ - Partly cloudy
☔ ☔ - Rain
❄ ❄ - Snowflake emoticon
⛄ ⛄ - Snowman

Earth, sun and moon phases

🌎 🌎 - Earth globe overlooking America
🌍 🌍 - Earth globe overlooking Africa
🌏 🌏 - Earth globe overlooking Asia-Australia
🌐 🌐 - Globe with meridians
🌞 🌞 - Sun with a face
🌝 🌝 - Full moon with face
🌚 🌚 - New Moon with a face
🌑 🌑 - New Moon
🌒 🌒 - Waxing moon
🌓 🌓 - Moon in the first quarter
🌔 🌔 - Waxing moon
🌕 🌕 - Full moon
🌖 🌖 - Waning moon
🌗 🌗 - Last quarter of the moon
🌘 🌘 - Waning moon
🌙 🌙 - Crescent
🌛 🌛 - First quarter moon with face
🌜 🌜 - Last quarter moon with face

Fauna (fish, birds, animals, insects)

🐋 🐋 - Keith
🐙 🐙 - Octopus
🐚 🐚 - Spiral shell
🐟 🐟 - Fish
🎣 🎣 - Fish on a hook
🐠 🐠 - Tropical fish
🐡 🐡 - Pufferfish
🐢 🐢 - Turtle
🐬 🐬 - Dolphin
🐳 🐳 - Whale releasing a fountain
🐸 🐸 - Frog face
🐊 🐊 - Crocodile
🐲 🐲 - Dragon head
🐉 🐉 - Dragon
🐔 🐔 - Chicken head
🐓 🐓 - Chicken
🐤 🐤 - Chicken head
🐥 🐥 - Chicken
🐣 🐣 - Hatched chicken
🐦 🐦 - Bird's head
🐧 🐧 - Penguin head
🐂 🐂 - Bull
🐄 🐄 - Cow
🐃 🐃 - Ram
🐮 🐮 - Cow head
🐆 🐆 - Leopard
🐇 🐇 - Rabbit
🐰 🐰 - Rabbit head
🐈 🐈 - Cat
🐎 🐎 - Horse
🐏 🐏 - Ram
🐐 🐐 - Goat
🐑 🐑 - Sheep
🐕 🐕 - Dog
🐖 🐖 - Pig
🐱 🐱 - Cat's head
🐷 🐷 - Pig head
🐽 🐽 - Piglet
🐶 🐶 - Dog head
🐴 🐴 - Horse head
🐀 🐀 - Rat
🐭 🐭 - Mouse head
🐁 🐁 - Mouse
🐅 🐅 - Tiger
🐍 🐍 - Snake
🐒 🐒 - Monkey
🐗 🐗 - Boar's head
🐘 🐘 - Elephant
🐨 🐨 - Koala
🐪 🐪 - Camel
🐫 🐫 - Bactrian camel
🐯 🐯 - Tiger head
🐵 🐵 - Monkey head
🙈 🙈 - The monkey closed his eyes, “I don’t see”
🙊 🙊 - The monkey closed his mouth, “I’m not saying”
🙉 🙉 - The monkey covered his ears “I can’t hear”
🐹 🐹 - Hamster head
🐻 🐻 - Bear head
🐼 🐼 - Panda head
🐺 🐺 - Fox head
🐾 🐾 - Paw prints
🐩 🐩 - Dog
🐝 🐝 - Honey bee
🐜 🐜 - Ant
🐞 🐞 - Ladybug
🐛 🐛 - Caterpillar
🐌 🐌 - Snail

Emoticons for VK with images of flowers

💐 💐 - Bouquet of flowers
🌸 🌸 - Cherry blossom
🌷 🌷 - Tulip
🌹 🌹 - Rose flower
🌻 🌻 - Sunflower
🌼 🌼 - Chamomile Flower
💮 💮 - White flower
🌺 🌺 - Hibiscus flower

Plant emoticons for VKontakte

🍀 🍀 - Four-leaf clover
🍁 🍁 - Maple leaf
🍃 🍃 - Leaf fluttering in the wind
🍂 🍂 - Fallen leaves
🌿 🌿 - Greens
🌾 🌾 - Spikelets of rice
🌵 🌵 - Cactus
🌱 🌱 - Sapling
🌴 🌴 - Palm tree
🌳 🌳 - Deciduous tree
🎍 🎍 - Pine decorations
🌲 🌲 - Pine
🎄 🎄 - Christmas tree
🎋 🎋 - Tanabata Tree
🍄 🍄 - Mushroom

Never before in the history of mankind and art has there been a single creation that, having spread so widely, brought so much happiness, joy and pleasure. There was nothing that was done so simply, but became clear to everyone
Harvey Ball

The modern Internet is not only a repository of information, it is also a means of communication. Millions of people flock to the Global Network in search of friends, like-minded people, partners and interlocutors. Here, as in real life, passions rage. To express them, seemingly impossible in virtuality, there is a simple and ingenious means, whose name is smiley *.

If you have already managed to get at least a little familiar with the Internet, then, of course, you have noticed that many people accompany their words with brackets and colons, like :-) or simply :) and you already know what they mean. So these are the very emoticons that we are talking about now we're talking about. Almost all network users use emoticons. Put a colon, a dash and a parenthesis, and the interlocutor knows that you are smilingJ

An emoticon depicts emotions using alphabet symbols, numbers and punctuation marks; it can not only smile, it can be sad, strict, stern, cunning, ingratiating, teasing. And yet, the very first emoticon is precisely a schematic image of a smile - hence its name (from the English. smile - smile).

The inventor of emoticons long ago needed to erect a monument, even if not man-made, but at least virtual. But society cannot come to a consensus about who this hero is, although attempts to understand this issue have already been made several times.

Perhaps the idea developed gradually, passing from person to person, and everyone involved in its subsequent mass dissemination contributed to history.

So, let's look at several versions of the appearance of the emoticon:

Version one

The yellow smiling face was painted by American artist Harvey Ball.

In the early 1960s, the process of merging large insurance companies began in America. The process was painful and began to affect the so-called corporate morale of employees. In other words, employees' uncertainty about the future made them more irritable, confused and sad.

Representatives from State Mutual Life Assurance Cos. of America decided to boost the “morale” of their employees, that is, “make” employees smile every time they meet with clients, answer the phone or work with documents.

As Ball later admitted, the entire development took him no more than 10 minutes. He was paid $45 for the job, which was all the profit Ball ever made for the emoji: he didn't even want to trademark it, didn't copyright it, and, according to his son, Charles Ball, , never regretted it.

The first emoticon was attached to a pin, that is, it was made in the form of an icon and given to employees and clients of the company.

The emoticon icons were a success. State Mutual Life Assurance Cos. clients and agents loved them so much. of America, that the company soon ordered 10 thousand of these badges.

But the emoticon became known to the whole world only in the 1970s, when two brothers from Spain came up with the slogan “Have a Happy Day” for the emoticon.

A smile with such a motto immediately became a hit, and soon the smiley appeared on emblems, postcards, T-shirts and baseball caps - in a word, on everything that could be quickly sold.

In 1971, a French entrepreneur named Franklin Loufrani registered the smiling face as a trademark in more than 80 countries. Loufrani claimed that he invented the symbol in 1968 in Paris.

Loufrani founded the Smiley Licensing corporation and in a few years made a decent fortune around the world, bypassing the United States.

Ball did not sue Loufrani, but there were other “figures” who claimed that they were the ones who invented the emoji. Eventually, tired of it all, Ball registered his version of a smile, which included his initials.

Ball liked to make bombastic statements about his invention: “Never before in the history of mankind and art has there been a single work that, having spread so widely, brought so much happiness, joy and pleasure. There was nothing that was done so simply, but became clear to everyone.”

Already an elderly man, Harvey Ball finally defined his mission on Earth - he saw himself as an International Ambassador of Happiness and even came up with a holiday - October 1 - International Smile Day. He believed that it should be a day “dedicated to good humor and good deeds,” and should be held under the slogan “Do good. Help one smile."

Ball was obviously a happy man. His children claim that he never felt anger or hatred towards those who illegally distribute the millions of images he created.

Founded by Harvey Ball, the World Smile Corporation is headed by his son Charles, who closely monitors who and how the brand is used: “Our mission is to create, sell and license products under the Harvey Ball Signature Smiley brand.” Harvey Ball's signature guarantees the authenticity of the product. But what really matters is that all after-tax profits generated by World Smile Corporation go to charitable causes. “We help children all over the world. No other emoji corporation does this."

Version two

The smiley has come a long way before it was recognized by the computer community. And it all started in the same 60s of the last century. There is an opinion that the electronic version of the smiling face developed independently and in parallel, regardless of the invention of Harvey Ball. The first electronic emoticons hardwired into computers were seen in the late 60s and early 70s on specialized platforms called PLATO. Unlike modern symbolic combinations, you did not have to turn your head to the side to view them. PLATO emoticons were a clever overlay of symbols on top of each other. They were typed by pressing the Shift+Space key, which caused the cursor to move one step to the left. In this case, the entered symbol did not shift or replace the existing icon, but was superimposed on top of it. The result resembled the angular smiling face of the Harvey Ball model. For the sake of entertainment, these faces were printed by programmers on punched tapes and punched cards, and were also used to create simple computer games, but their purpose was not yet to express positive emotions during virtual communication. Subsequently, PLATO emoticons, which were never widely used, served as an impetus for the inclusion of several emotional icons with schematic faces in the pseudographics character set for PC.

Well, Microsoft Corporation took responsibility for exposing the true inventor of the ASCII emoticon (that is, an emoticon composed of letters, numbers and punctuation marks included in the ASCII character set). It was there, in September 1982, that Scott E. Fahlman came up with the idea of using the colon, dash, and closed parenthesis combination to denote positive emotions in emails.

As Fahlman explained: “Yes, I am the inventor of the horizontal “smile face” (sometimes called an “emoticon”), which is commonly used in e-mail, chats and forum messages. Or at least I am one of the inventors." Truly, modesty is the sister of talent.

Version three

In 1969, the famous writer Vladimir Nabokov in one of his interviews he mentioned that it is worth creating a special punctuation mark for graphic display emotions:

“It often occurs to me that I need to come up with some kind of typographic sign to indicate a smile - some kind of squiggle or a parenthesis that has fallen backwards, with which I could accompany the answer to your question.”

Version four

Many people think that the emoticon came from the popular children's rhyme “Dot, dot, comma, a crooked face came out.” Some believe that such faces appeared long before the advent of computers and mobile phones. As if they were used as a type of secret writing in Ancient China back in the 17th century BC. But, frankly, a modern person, looking at those emoticons and knowing our modern virtual ones, will not find any similarity in them. However, experts in this field argue that there are still some similarities.

Often, users of the VKontakte site find the standard set of emoticons and stickers not enough, which makes it necessary to find some solutions to this problem. In this article, we will talk about how you can dilute the basic set of emoji by creating new emoticons from several other emoticons.

Essentially, decide this task you can without any problems and special instructions, having access to basic set emoji However, one cannot but agree that this approach requires quite a lot of time to compose a truly high-quality emoticon.

Due to this feature, we suggest you use the special vEmoji service, which allows you to quickly and without much hassle create entire drawings from VK emoji.

Please note that we have already touched on the capabilities of this service in articles on our website. It is recommended that you read them to find answers to questions about the service that may arise while using vEmoji.

Note that even with high quality services provided by the service, it is recommended to use emoticons from emoji only when necessary. This is due to the fact that such pictures may not be displayed correctly for different users.

Open home page vEmoji site, regardless of your preferred web browser.

Using the main menu, switch to the tab "Constructor".

Using a special panel with categories, select the emoticons you need.

On the right side of the screen, set the box sizes to match the number of emoji you are going to fit into one horizontal and vertical line.

In the general list of emoticons on the left side of the page, click on the emoticon that will act as your brush.

Fill the main field with the cells with emoticons so that they form the pattern you need.

You can fill the empty cells that act as a background with any other type of emoji by selecting an emoji and setting it in the field "Background".

For quick removal background, if necessary, use the link "Cancel".

Below the main field with the smiley drawn, you can use three additional links that provide corresponding options.

Eraser – allows you to clear cells with previously added emoji;
Link – gives you a unique URL to the created smiley;
Clear – deletes the entire created drawing.

The last field presented contains the code for the created emoji drawing. To copy it, click on the button "Copy" located in the area of the specified column.