LOLCAT Tutorial

Now for a bit of fun. This simple tutorial will walk you through the steps of creating a LOLCAT.

First, you must procure an image of a cat.

Now comes the hardest part - captioning it. Keep in mind that the caption usually acts as a ’speech bubble’ for the cat. Check out a good source for LOLCAT inspiration here. There is also a set of grammatical ‘rules’ for captioning LOLCATs. Wikipedia has a good article on the syntax:

The caption is intentionally written with deviations from standard English spelling and syntax,featuring “strangely-conjugated verbs, but [a tendency] to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar.” These altered rules of English have been referred to as a type of pidgin or baby talk.The text parodies the grammar-poor patois stereotypically attributed to internet slang. Frequently, lolcat captions take the form of snowclones in which nouns and verbs are replaced in a phrase. Some phrases have a known source while others seem to be specific to the lolcat form. Common themes include jokes of the form “Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun.”. “I has a noun” pictures show a cat in possession of an object while “Invisible noun” show pictures of cats interacting with said invisible object. “My noun, let me show you it/them” pictures are accompanied by cats apparently presenting or offering an object.

- Lolcat Wikipedia Article

Once you’ve decided on a caption, grab the text tool. LOLCAT text is usually white, so choose that for your foreground colour.

Type out your caption.

You might need to adjust the size of the text with Character Options. Highlight your caption and adjust the size. LOLCAT captions are ususally made in a large, bold font. Impact is a popular choice.