Editing Icon (computing) (section)

=== Emoticons ===

Another GUI icon is exemplified by the [[smiley]] face, a pictogram embedded in a [[text message]]. The smiley, and by extension other [[emoticon]]s, are used in computer text to convey information in a non-verbal binary shorthand, frequently involving the emotional context of the message. These icons were first developed for computers in the 1980s as a response to the limited storage and transmission bandwidth used in electronic messaging. Since then they have become both abundant and more sophisticated in their keyboard representations of varying emotions. They have developed from keyboard character combinations into real icons. They are widely used in all forms of electronic communications, always with the goal of adding context to the verbal content of the message. In adding an emotional overlay to the text, they have also enabled electronic messages to substitute for and frequently supplant voice-to-voice messaging.

These emoticons are very different from the icon hyperlinks described above. They do not serve as links, and are not part of any system function or computer software. Instead they are part of the communication language of users across systems. For these computer icons, customization and modifications are not only possible but in fact expected of the user.<ref>Scott McCloud (1994). "The Vocabulary of Comics", pg 195 ff. in Handa, ''Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World''. Bedford / St. Martins, Boston.</ref>