In web forums, instant messengers and games , text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called “Emoticons.” Similarly, in some versions of Microsoft Word, the Auto Correct feature replaces basic smileys for instance :-) and :-( which has a single smiley-like character. Originally, these image emoticons were fairly simple and easy replaced only the most straightforward and common character sequences, but as time passes they became so complex that the more specialized emoticons will often be input utilizing a menu or popup windows, sometimes listing numerous items. Emoticons have also expanded beyond simple cartoon facial expressions to a variety of still or moving images. A few of these graphical emoticons don’t actually represent faces or emotions; for example , an “emoticon” showing a guitar is likely to be used to represent music. Further, some instant messaging software is designed to play a sound upon receiving certain emoticons.

Many applications use text codes, which become replaced with a graphical emoticon. As an example ,:dance: or (dance) might be replaced which has a graphical dancing emoticon. The initial web forum software package to perform this transformation was Proxicom Forum, developed in 1996.

An August 2004 issue on the Risks Digest (comp.risks on USENET) stated problems with such features that are not under the sender’s control:

It’s hard to find out beforehand what character-strings are going to be parsed into which kind of unintended image. A colleague was discussing his 401(k) plan along with his boss, who is actually female, via instant messaging. He discovered, to his horror, that this boss’s instant-messaging client was rendering the “(k)” being a big couple of red smoochy lips.

Many sites use GIF or PNG graphic files, due to their transparency and small file size capabilities. Files could be created by using a raster graphics editor. Many emoticon artists design their emoticons pixel by pixel. Some emoticons are manufactured in vector format, for instance SVG, and automatically processed by using a graphics library. This gives SVG files to be automatically rendered as being a GIF or PNG file, which can be compatible with most browsers, which SVG is not .