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An example of an image macro.
An image macro is a term coined for a picture with superimposed text, often for humorous effect. It is not to be confused with macro photography.
Internet forums
On internet forums and imageboards, image macros are used to emphasize a certain phrase (often an Internet meme) by superimposing it over a related picture.
Formats
Although they come in many forms, the most common type of image macro is a photograph with large text superimposed in Impact font, using all upper case letters and coloured white with a thin black outline. [1]
One of the more famous image macros is "O RLY?" O RLY is often used on the internet as an abbreviation for the phrase "Oh, really?" Originally started with a snowy owl photograph (which is the classic O RLY image macro)[2], it spread out over the Web quickly and was followed by other macros that convey a wide range of emotions. Another style of image macro that has amassed its own separate subculture is the "lolcat", a photo of a cat with a humorous and ridiculously misspelt caption.
Etymology
The name "image macro" was first used on the Something Awful forums.[3] The name derived from the fact that the 'macros' were a short bit of text a user could enter that the forum software would automatically parse and expand into the code for a pre-defined image,[3] relating to the computer science topic of a macro, defined as "a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure."
Though modern-day image macros may not follow the literal concept of a macro, the name is still often used in accordance with their definition as described above.
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