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How to Add Emoticon Art to Your Steam Showcases

By gawrone

This guide contains information about adding large emoticon arts to your profile and preventing them from disrupting.

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gawrone
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Languages: English

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Updated

19 May, 2017 @ 10:07pm

13 Dec, 2017 @ 4:00am

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Guide Index

Overview

Basic Information

How to Save Your Emoticon Art Code and Why You Have to Do It

How to Add Emoticon Art To "Custom InfoBox"

How to Add Emoticon Art To "Items Up For Trade"

How to Add Double Emoticon Arts

Other Guides

Final Words

Comments

Basic Information

Emoticon arts (mosaics) can be placed in two particular showcases only*. It can be either "Custom Info Box", "Items Up For Trade", or both of them. Both showcases have the same limitations, but also - noticeable differences.

The character limit in profile showcase is formally 8000. In practice 8000 (or a number close to that) never works for some reasons, and puting emoticon art code of that lenght will result in some of the last characters deleted. The safe number of signs is around 7950.

The result of too many characters:

The horizontal emoticon count limit is 33. If you have rows of emoticons that are longer, every extra emoticon will be transfered to the next row resulting with glitched mosaic. You can have less than 33, but I suggest the exact amount becasue narrower emoticon arts leave an empty space on the right that does not look good**.

The result of 35 emoticon wide mosaic:

The vertical emoticon count limit (with the 33 emoticon wide art), is also 33, and any more will add the scrolling bar on the right, and disrupt your mosaic in the same manner as above. The vertical limit is also combined with the character limit. The emoticon art will be that long, how much character limit will allow. That depends on the name lenght of emoticons used in the mosaic. Lots of long name emoticons will result in short mosaic, while lots of emoticons with short names will result in longer mosaic.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀*Pro tip 1: If you are creative and really need or want to have more emoticon arts on ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀profile, there is an "out of the box" way to achieve it. You can place any emoticon art to ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀your "Custom Info Box" and make a screenshot. After that divide the picture in the right ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀manner to fit Artwork or Screenshot showcase. With some experimentation and image ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀editing skills you can probably also use Workshop or even Favorite Guide or Group ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀showcases. Sky is the limit on Steam.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀**Pro tip 2: You can use text centering techiques to place smaller emoticon art in the ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀middle making it look much better, than with empty space on the right. Of course you can ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀also use that empty space on the right in an artistic way, if you have a good concept, that ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀will make it look justified and not like an error. Combining this attitude with text centering ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀you can come up with leaving empty space on the left or make them unequal, if that will ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀make it look good or weird in a good way.

How to Save Your Emoticon Art Code and Why You Have to Do It

There are two most common ways of acquiring the code for your emoticon art. First is making the art yourself in Mosaticon[steam.tools], clicking "Export", and copying the code from the following browser tab, that will pop up. Second is receiving a link to this PasteBin[paste.mattie.net], from someone else, and by copying the code from below the emoticon art preview.

The code must be stored for the future in other place than Steam. The best and easiest way is to do it in Notepad. 1) Paste the code into notepad. 2) Click "Save as...". 3) Change the coding from ANSI to Unicode. 4) Type recognisable name for the file, choose accesable location and click "Save". 5) To feel even more secure that you will never lost your mosaic, try storing the .txt file on extensive drive or online - for example by sending it to yourself by e-mail.

Why to do it? Becasue everytime you will change something on your profile (even if that's only a name or a background), part of your mosaic will dissapear. The nature of this bug is unknown to me, and the only solution I know is to paste your emoticon code everytime you edit your profile, as the last thing you do before saving changes.

Not saving your emoticon art code, will irreversibly result in its partially erasing by Steam bug.

My emoticon showcases without repasting them before saving changes in profile:

How to Add Emoticon Art To "Custom InfoBox"

This showcase will contain only your mosaic and your own title, or no title at all.

To add emoticon art here start editing your profile and go to "Custom InfoBox" schowcase.

Choose one type of title for the showcase.

Type 1 - standartd title. Simply type what you want in to the title box.

Type 2 - invisible sign. Copy the empty space between those brackets [⠀]. Paste into title box.

Type 3 - standard space. Simply hit normal space in the title box***.

Now, without closing or saving, open your previously stored emoticon art code (.txt file), copy the code and paste it to your "Custom InfoBox", and then save changes in your profile.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀***Pro tip 3. Type 3 is a bit tricky. It will result in a glitch, similar to too many emotes in a ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀row, with a scrolling bar. This occurs only if you place the mouse cursor over the ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀showcase, and it dissapears when you refresh the page. The glitch is visible only to you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀No other Steam user, that visits your profile, can trigger that, and all of them will always ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀see your emoticon art normally. Use 3th type of title only if you can tolerate that.

Type 3 showcase with cursor over it:

Same showcase with cursor moved aside:

Same showcase back to normal, after refreshing the page:

How to Add Emoticon Art To "Items Up For Trade"

This showcase will contain not only your mosaic, but also an unchangable title of the showcase, 6 items you can choose to fit your mosaic or remove them, and some personal market statistics. This showcase could be preffered instead of "Custom InfoBox" for few reasons. Some users have very detailed infoboxes, and do not want to loose all that information for the sake of emoticon art.

To add emoticon art here start editing your profile and find "Items Up For Trade" showcase.

Choose one type of the showcase.

Type 1 - with items. 1) Simply choose from your inventory all the items you wish to be shown above your emoticon art. It can be same item or all different. It can be emoticons or any other items from your inventory. 2) Now, without closing or saving, open your previously stored emoticon art code (.txt file), copy the code and paste it to your "Items Up For Sale" showcase, and then save changes in your profile.

Type 2 - without items. 1) Choose one, not valuable item and place it in every slot (have to be the same copy, if you have many copies of that item). 2) Open your previously stored emoticon art code (.txt file), copy the code and paste it to your "Items Up For Sale" showcase, and then save changes in your profile. 3) Go to your Steam inventory, find that item and place a listing of it on the market. (you don't have to actually sell it, but only create a listing, and if you give it a high price, no one will buy it). 4) Confirm the listing in your mobile Steam app, and items will disappear (you can now delete the listing and items will not reappear).

How to Add Double Emoticon Arts

Double emoticon art is a one picture combined of two parts. This section does not apply if your two emoticon arts are completely seperate pictures. In that case you can place them enywhere, and in any combination you like.

Becasue of the differences in both showcases, mentioned on the beginning of both sections, you will get the best result by using "Items Up For Trade" as the upper part, and "Custom Info Box" as the lower part of the whole image.

Using different "Custom Info Box" title options (described in thrid section of this guide), will result in different types of "connection" of the two parts of the picture.

Left showcase have the "invisible sign" title, and the right have the "standard space" title****.

Remember to paste both codes egain, everytime you edit your profile.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀**** Pro tip 4: If you are making your own double emoticon art, you have to choose the ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀title type before trying to match second picture to the first one. The gap between both ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀pictures in "invisible sign" type is a distance close to 4 emoticons, while with the "standard ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀space" the distance equals two rows of emoticons. You need to have that in mind, ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀becasue the "eye" (but actually the brain), will rather fill the missing space continuously, ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀trying to imagine what would be there between both pictures, instead of jumping from one ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀to another and ignoring the space. In other words, don't make both pictures look good ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀when they touch eachother, becasue the whole image will look bad after you place them ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀on steam, with one of those two types of distance from eachother.

Other Guides

If you want to check how to create emoticon art picture instead of generating it:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130380323

If you want to use your emoticons that Mosaticon cannot see:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167190805

If you want to create pixelart style emoticon arts:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166204116

If you want to create pointilistic style emoticon arts:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167189751

If you want to make transparent emoticon arts:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165353459

If you want to crop your emoticon art much more efficient, than mossaticon allows you to:
http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167191674

Final Words

I would like to thank Aevoa for allowing me to use informations from this guide.

This is my first (serious) guide and I want it to be most user friendly as possible, so please help.

If you find something that schould be included and I missed it, please inform me about it.

If you think some instructions are not enough clearly worded, leave a suggestion.

And finally if you spot any linguistic mistakes, let me know, (yes, it's not my native language).

Have fun with emoticons.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀g⠀a⠀w⠀r⠀o⠀n⠀e

26 Comments

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iMorais_xD 18 Apr, 2018 @ 8:15pm

nice,

(~ᵔᴥᵔ)~ 𝓑𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓑𝓪𝔂 ~(ᵔᴥᵔ~) 26 Sep, 2017 @ 10:16am

ok strange for me it was distorted in chrome but after I cot one line of each it works fine

gawrone [author] 26 Sep, 2017 @ 9:53am

Wow. Great work. I just checked in Chrome and it looked ok. In mozilla it was distorted. This issue is new to me, but I do not use Steam in browsers. I suggest one experiment. Try to cut one upper line of the top mosaic, and one from the bottom of the second, lower mosaic. Maybe mozilla distorts mosaics that are higher than certain emoticon number, and if it will be shorter by one emoticon row, Mozilla will not distort it? Tell me if that helped, I'm curious?

(~ᵔᴥᵔ)~ 𝓑𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓑𝓪𝔂 ~(ᵔᴥᵔ~) 26 Sep, 2017 @ 9:21am

Hey thx for the nice guide but every time i look at my emoticon art in the browser it looks buged but in steam it is normal. What did i wrong ?

gawrone [author] 19 Sep, 2017 @ 1:29am

I must say that I'm quite impressed. Copying that - one by one - had to be boring :) I do not mind at all until it's clear that this is a copy of my work. There is nothing wrong in making your own copy, if you do not take credits for someone else's work. You coming here and writing publicly that you recreated it is enough for me. Thank you.

Incubus 18 Sep, 2017 @ 9:15am

Thx a lot for that guide
I loved your crow so I recreated it (I hope you don't mind :S)

gawrone [author] 27 Jul, 2017 @ 6:36am

Thanks E P I C, thats great!

Taut 26 Jul, 2017 @ 9:21am

okay thanks

gawrone [author] 26 Jul, 2017 @ 9:20am

It is not happening always. Only when you edit your profile. As I wrote, there is no other cure for that, than to paste it back again. So try to minimalise the phrequency of adding changes to your profile.

Taut 26 Jul, 2017 @ 9:16am

why does the emoticon always bug out and have that diamond thing with a ? inside, also is there a way to fix this or do i just have to keep pasting my artwork back in?

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