Kaomoji Guides

Which guide should you read first?

New to text faces? Start with what kaomoji are. It explains how Japanese text art grew out of early internet forums, why the faces are read upright instead of sideways, and how they differ from Western emoticons like :) and from picture emoji.

If a face confuses you, the guide to reading kaomoji breaks a face into parts: the brackets are the outline of the head, the eyes carry most of the mood, and arms or small symbols add the action. Once you can spot those pieces, a face such as (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ reads as clearly as a sentence.

When you want to type faces yourself instead of copying them, the guide to typing kaomoji covers text replacement on iPhone and Android, the Japanese keyboard trick, and keyboard shortcuts on Windows and Mac, so your favorite face is only a few keystrokes away.

Ready to go further? Learn to make your own kaomoji from parts, keep faces intact with the Discord guide, check the etiquette guide before using faces at work, and pick a compact face with the guide to kaomoji for bios. For ready-to-send holiday messages, visit the kaomoji blog.

Put the guides into practice

Every guide links to faces you can copy right away. Good places to try what you learned are the cute kaomoji, happy kaomoji, and sad kaomoji collections, which show how small changes to the eyes and mouth shift the mood. Animal faces such as cat kaomoji show how ears and whiskers are built from punctuation, and the table flip and shrug pages show how arms turn a face into an action.

Want something nobody else has? Use the kaomoji generator to mix your own eyes, mouth, and arms, or browse the full kaomoji copy and paste library. Questions or a guide you would like to see? Get in touch through the contact page.