Image macro

An image macro is a picture with text superimposed, typically through the use of image editing software such as Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. The use of image macros has remained essentially the same since the early days of the Internet, typically thought to have originated in Usenet or on BBS. The name image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums, where in the past a set of premade image macros were able to be invoked by calling upon a macro which was expanded in one s post into the image. An example: to insert the now-bannable Timeline of History image, one would type [img-timeline].

=Usenet=

Image macros on Usenet were often used in flame wars and a fundamental feature of gif wars. An image macro usually expresses disdain towards a previous poster or a discussion thread.

=Internet forums=

On internet forums like Something Awful and imageboards such as imageboards and iichan, image macros are used to emphasize a certain phrase (often a meme) by superimposing it over a related picture. In some forums, use of image macros outside of certain subforums is seen as annoying or disruptive, and may be prohibited.

=External links=

*[http://1chan.net/overchan Overchan] (a full directory of English-language imageboards) *[http://wakaba.c3.cx/soc/ The Society for the Study of Modern Image Board Culture] *[http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/Image_Macro Entry on Image Macro in the Encyclopedia Dramatica ] (with a gallery of examples)

Please note that many of the following links may include pornographic content on some of their pages, however, the entry pages should be worksafe.

*[http://4chan.org/ 4chan] *[http://iichan.net/ iichan] - includes WAKAchan *[http://0chan.org/ zero channel] (a site dedicated to archiving imageboard content) *[http://wtfux.org/ wtfux]