Smile Icons

This page covers simpler, single-color line or filled smile-face icons meant to blend into a general UI (like a feedback button or reaction icon), while Pathwork's Emoji collection includes fuller, often colorful illustrated emoji faces meant to stand alone expressively. If you want a smiley that matches the visual weight of your other interface icons, this page is the better fit; for a more expressive, colorful emoji, check the Emoji collection instead.

Both are common, but a smile-to-frown icon scale (often called an 'emoji rating') tends to communicate emotional satisfaction more directly and can feel quicker to answer than a 5-star scale, which is often used more for evaluating quality or performance rather than emotional response. Pick based on whether you're measuring satisfaction/mood or overall quality.

A common pattern uses 3-5 face variants ranging from a clear frown (very dissatisfied) through a neutral straight-line mouth (neutral) to a full smile (very satisfied), so users can pick the expression closest to how they feel rather than just a binary happy/unhappy choice.

Yes, this is a common and helpful pattern — using a color gradient (like red for dissatisfied through green for satisfied) alongside the different face expressions reinforces the meaning visually, making the rating scale easier to interpret at a glance beyond just the face shape alone.

Each icon keeps the license from its source library attached to it, and terms can differ depending on which library a specific icon comes from. Check the license shown on the individual icon's page before using it commercially.

Outline is generally the more common default for unselected rating options, switching to filled (or colored) once a user selects a specific rating — this follows the same visual pattern as other selectable icons like stars or hearts, giving clear feedback about which option is currently chosen.