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pictographics
📅 Updated:2026-03-03
🕒 Created:2008-09-11
🆔 ID:164
Description
The communication of ideas, or emotions primarily through symbols, or images. Pictographs are used as an alternative to dialogue, or inner monologue, and serve as a more visual way to show what a character wants, feels, or is thinking about.
Pictographs are usually contained within a speech bubble, or thought bubble, but the term may apply to various situations in which interpretive symbolism is used as a narrative mechanism.
Very common, abstract, or basic symbols are generally excluded from this tag if they appear outside of a text container.
For general visual information used as interpretive, or communicative symbolism that is not being directly communicated from a character, use pictogram instead. The pictogram category includes most static usages (signs, labels, notifications, instruction manuals, etc).
For images that are part of a text messaging system generally fall under emoji instead.
Categories
Common symbolism
- check_mark
- cherry_popping
- egg (Impregnation symbol)
- Facial expressions through dialogue / inner monologue
- food
- Fullness meters / indicators - meter
- gender_symbol
- heart_symbol
- iconography
- cross-popping vein (also known as "anger vein")
- blush_symbol
- frustration_cloud
- sweatdrop_(iconography)
- knotting_symbol
- lock_symbol
- musical_note
- no_symbol
See also
- Wikipedia article on pictogram
- emanata
- grawlixes
- iconography
- speech_bubble
- symbol
- lewd_symbolism - commonly used pictographics for sex and other lewd acts
- text
