Letters allow us to create captions in various areas (Summary, Custom Info, Items For Trade notes, Comments and Chat) and this makes them a very effective tool. It is up to us to use them well.

A natural step when starting to collect letters is to gather pretty ones to spell something specific (eg your account name) then other ones you admire to fill the rest of the alphabet. Maybe change a couple here and there as you see some striking one. Chaos and discord - words that have their place and can be an effect in themselves but not always the best way to deliver a message.

There is a large array of matching sets of emoticon letters and plenty to fill in gaps to create our own flexible fonts. It may not have the total consistency of Arial or Helvetica but we have the benefit of Colour in our toolbox which binds unmatching letters together.

The ambition is not the impossible task of storing every letter on Steam. This guide will:

• Have a section for each of the main colours of emoticon letters.
  
• List matching sets (at least 3 entries) in one table per colour.
  
• Gather extra ones for each colour in a secondary table.
  
• Show off-colour letters both in their sets and in the correct colour section.
  
• Give an overall statement of A-Z coverage for each colour.
  
• Link all the sets or letters to the Marketplace.
  
• Give some examples of styles for captions that I have found effective.

Some items will go into a colour if they seem close enough. Pinks will have to climb in with purples and there is a thin line between yellows and oranges. The world does not split easily into 6 colours & white.
If an emoticon has a blue background and white or black writing it will drop into blue. I am trying to solve a problem of what goes where but if you can make something work then I urge you to use it.

Shape: Do not worry about using an icon that has a square or circular background to it. We are not trying for perfection and perfect symmetry; flow in this can help or harm. We can use, for example, a circular background yellow amongst other yellows the same way we would use a different looking one or another colour to be a featured detail in a word. Later for all that. Where you will find most of the circle shapes is in the Rainbow section so that helps if you are running a real cross-section with odd letters. It almost turns the rainbow sets into one big happy font.

Flexible, whole alphabet, good contrast with Steam skin and other colours.

White alphabet: Complete.

Due to capacity limits, some colours had to be split into 2 sections each. I am not keen on it but I may as well go on to use some of this space to introduce the "proper colours". What I may end up doing is bringing the emoticon words back into this main guide and placing them under their host colours but I am unsure about that. For now, they are just split so I can get the basic guide out.

It should not be your starting aim to collect every colour nor to collect a whole alphabet in one colour.
Make something to fit but pick cheap sets that have a good range of colours and mess around first.

Looking at the colour wheel, it is pretty obvious what colours will blend most easily into others. For that reason, I have put the sets that follow in the standard Rainbow order rather than most abundant first.

I suggest that bland is best where possible. Not overall of course. A bland-ish font with highlights of detail is pretty good. Ok sure, if we can get it all like Lethis then brilliant but let's not kid ourselves. Given that we will need to blend not only sets and colours but shapes and styles, boring is good as long as it is not absolute. We will use flashy details where we can but impact only works when used appropriately.

Don't obsess over one set - an example is Endorlight. People go crazy for those letters and, while I will try to collect them, there is no real point. They are fine if all you want to do is write Legend on your profile but compare the set with Xenoraptor, a game you can still buy and make boosters for to get the letters and actually blends well.

Okay, boring may be good but that is enough for now. Let's get colourful.

DO NOT USE the plague set. Click link & preview one of the letters. It is awful on the Steam skin.

This is not ideal but the Red Singles section is over-capacity and I cannot input a note (should not have been able to insert last image but I brute-forced one in) - the KODP (red w) icon does not have the swords in the preview image we use - compared to the other choice for a W it is probably your best option apart from being 1% of the price. Any more red singles and I will have to split the singles table.

Some sets are ok with their own, some have to be used as there is no other option. This one at a pinch could pass for red or orange but it is just awful. Luckily we have all these letters in both red and orange. Not wasting section upload capacity on the images for it: Air Threat.

Red alphabet: Missing J, N, Q, Y but there are good options for 3 of those in Orange.

Orange blends well into reds and yellows.

Orange alphabet: Missing G, M, N, W, Z.

Good matching sets, bright and neutral colours.

There is a lot of Yellow. Like White it is a fairly neutral colour - good for 2 colour combinations.



Slight change - I had said before about FunCoin - it can in fact be made from the NMC set "Fur fun" but does not show on Steam Market. I will include its image but cannot link the item.

Yellow alphabet: Complete.

We need more full green sets but these have some good letters.

Green alphabet: Missing H, J, K, Q, U, Y.

Nice solid colour without making too strong a statement.

Blue alphabet: Just missing J, U, V.

The four little blue guys might not look like an automatic choice for the letter i but these are full size images. The Fmoji is blurry on preview and really is not very suitable.

Last and least-serviced of the spectrum. We are going to have to mix in some pinks to make this work. The good thing is that it can meld fairly well with reds and blues. The V will also work as U.

Purple alphabet: Missing F, M, Q, R, W, Y, Z.

I will mention this set but they seem unusable alongside other sets: Ultraworld Exodus.

A few other icons that might be useful or at least prettier as a casual detail. Some may be a colour that already has enough examples. Strong, definitive images go well if used sparingly:

Where possible, I have listed each letter under the odd entries for the colours but given that these sets do fit our basic idea, it is only right to show them in their proper states.


The more compatible letters (not just one set), the better a constructed font looks.

34 of the letters in this table have circular backgrounds on them, a factor that helps with continuity.

Before we move on, some advice - unless you want to use one word captions, you will need to create space between emoticon letters. There are a few ways:

• The universal black filler icon :bbox:
  
• Icons that have had their images withdrawn - eg :pepedetective: and :raredeplorable:
  
• Alt-255 makes a small space. (Hold Alt key and type 255 on numerical keypad.)

Zup frames can put a white border on your caption but it reduces the impact of light-toned letters inside. You could pick an image and just repeat that round the area. For a halloween one I tried 6 different pumpkin images round the words but it was best to repeat 1 simple clear image to avoid visual clutter.

That's limit for comments posts but it varies with character string lengths. Other areas differ in limits.

Okay, so you have had a chance to consider the letters I have proposed, grouped by colour. The combined effect of a group of icons of the same (or similar) colour can be much more than we gain from using a more interesting single icon.

This section is to look at what we can do with these potential tools.

It helps to evaluate in this order:

• what meaning you want to convey,
  
• which words are most suited,
  
• are the letters there to make those (or do we pick new words to fit the message?)
  
• finally, the style that we want to be dominant.

Some sample styles:

1) All icons in a caption the same colour might give the right effect, though it may help to use some chaos or discord - too perfect and the eye just reads instead of seeing. For anything other than Zup that is usually forced but it can be a factor when presented with options.

On a side note, that fits in comments box but the same caption with the red interlocking bricks used instead is too much. Character string limitations can affect our choices, as can our letter pool:

(Some random guy posting on my profile irritated me so I employed the true gentleman's weapon for expressing displeasure - emoticon letters.) I am not a fan of "leetspeak" but heck at this point I do not have a good yellow F (probably for the best, all things considered) so just make what you have work.

2) Combine a mixture of 2-3 colours, keeping style matched where possible, either in alternating words or letters or grouped in pairs. The effect is pretty much the same as if you had 1 colour and the flexibility is far greater, especially if you can make it work using White.


3) Aim at blended colours - warm (red, orange, yellow) or cool (blue, green) to underline the tone.


This works better than if I had used the R from Nation Red in 3 of the words. Also worth considering that not using the "S" from the Lethis set breaks up the run of the font and "THE" sinks back a little.

4) More juggling needed but you could try for a rainbow effect (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). Not easy but remember that language itself is much more flexible than our letter set.

5) Use all one colour except one letter (any position) in each word or just one word in the sentence - the effect can be quite striking, especially if that one letter is cool in a warm font or vice versa. White can be functional and effective.


6) Alliteration is pretty good here since you get to create a pattern by having the same letter at the start of each word or a recurring letter in a nice individual font. The rest just have to turn up.

And this man was no exception. Since the main repeating letter is in a fairly neutral font, the red letters jump out more from the sentence than I would hope. I will leave it this way to show - sometimes the best lesson is when something goes a little wrong but you can see a fix, like a green or blue M.

7) Staggering phrases across multiple lines. You could create various patterns like a crossword type effect of either the same letter or another word spelt downwards in one colour.

This is an extreme example but you could simply have one word vertically on the left crossing a horizontal one. One way this may work is to have Red letters in one direction, Yellow in the other and an Orange letter at the junction.

8) Discord. The crazy cut out from magazines effect. In this case you are probably better doing a total reverse of 1-3 above to maximise the jagged tone.

Note that just because something is from different sets, does not mean discord will happen. This is a combined effect using different sets that works due to shapes and the nature of the border.

Work with what you have and then refine it from there. Not going for perfection is better than we would think – a slightly ragged effect can be natural looking and exciting. A tough balance to judge till you accept that the eyes you have to please most are your own.

For some captions with long phrases you should break it up into manageable chunks and work out what are the hardest letters that you cannot avoid. From there, you might be able to establish a colour pattern that looks natural. An example would be the complicated caption at 7) but even in a normal sentence I have used this technique a few times.

In places I have used a frame like flags or pumpkins but have resisted concentrating on that part of it. I would like to stress though that a caption is a lot more powerful if it has the right sort of setting. Something thematic with what you are saying is a double whammy.

A small selection of feature detail words. Limiting this range due to capacity.

A few examples of number sets but odd numbers may suit your needs.

Three Digits is probably the optimal set of numbers - cheap, attractive, neutral, 0-9

Zup is a bit too bright and fairly ugly, white numbers, 0-9

Time in time is a nice cheap set that fits well with a rainbow setup, 0-9

The Crypts of Anak Shaba is a cheap yellow set, 1-5

Archery Practice is a cheap orange set, 1-5

Some stupid name has images for Steam level numbers 10-100

Punctuation If you are going to pick just one then use red or white. Red is a better choice as it stands out well, blend in too much and you lose the effect. There is, however, this set which on preview mode gives just one symbol per unit.

I hope I have shown that you do not have to abandon ideas because you do not have a complete matching set or even a matching colour. Usually you can just tweak a style or a word to fit.

These letters are art. We are trying to use them as a font.

To that end, if a little blue figure makes a better i than the best emoticon letter we can find, then I am fine with that. If a zero is the best letter o then sure, no problem. Why should a cross not serve as a t? It is your art and your font. Zup may be easy but who wants easy compared to stylish?

I have tried to present themes and sets, colours and styles, rather than a list. You may find more items that fit what you want to do. This will at least give you something to consider.

Some letter sets are shockingly expensive. For those I recommend wishlisting the game, buying it on sale and making a pack a day. Some games are no longer available on Market - I have linked them there so you can see full description and preview but you may have to trade for the cards or emoticons unless you can get a gift or key from someone for the base game. Or just pick another option.

Last bit of advice on using letters: The point about having a style, a font, a system - knowing when to flex it. What works outside the system. Who cares if you have yellow that blends well but only a K in red? Great, the K will look awesome. Armed and considering what we do, it will not appear like a random jumble of odd letters. So this is what I hope - not that we all find cheap matching sets and use a colour exclusively but that we each find something we can enjoy working with.

I do not view this guide as standing alone. The first in this series was for art resources but alongside it I started to use emoticon letters as I tried to make images and the notions grew about themes in those letters and use of colour. The rest of the profile evolved and the showcases became more considered in their layouts; we were not in Kansas any more. But all through this, I was having adventures of discovery in the marketplace and trade channels. So the 4 subjects of these guides were not only being learned at the same time, they were being applied at the same time. As such, I have to present them together. 3 may be of no use to you, who knows. Maybe you see the same necessary link between them. Personally, it seems irresponsible to me to put guides out about buying stuff and not share some observations about the killing fields where those items are.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1814025223
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1860014407
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1859295262
Last of all is the 5th in the series of 4. It started to form as the last few were in progress and built to the point it demanded to be made - something stupid, something fun.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869876954

If you feel comfortable linking your profile then just say and I can add it in this section. If you want to link direct to your comments section then click on the part that says view all (#) comments and copy link to that page. If this space stays empty then that is fine too but anyone who has made it this far is looking for ideas. It is not egotistical to share, nor any crime to take pride in what you do.

Like this: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/profiles/76561198142366455/allcomments

Share any good letters. If they fill blanks in weak colours then perfect. If you find a set I have missed, then brilliant. If time passes and I have failed to keep this list updated then make a new one with my blessing but try to group it by colour. A simple A-Z list is doing a disservice to the art of the emoticons.