Image macro

An image macro is a piece of digital media featuring a picture, or artwork, with some form of text superimposed.

[2] 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.

Beginning in 2007, lolcats and similar image macros (a form of internet phenomenon) spread beyond the initial communities who created them and became widely popular.

[5] Some common animal-related image macros include lolcats, every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten, O RLY?, Doge and Grumpy Cat.

Another popular type of image macro includes a picture of a certain person or figure drawn from various sources in front of a colored background, known as "advice animals".