Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A greatly reduced photographic copy, usually reproduced by projection.
Wiktionary
- n. A photocopy that is greatly reduced in size
WordNet 3.0
- v. photocopy printed or other graphic matter so that it is reduced in size
Etymologies
- micro- + copy (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Positronic brains had the standard Three Laws of Robotics burned into them, not once, but millions of times, each microcopy of the Laws standing guard to prevent any violation.”
“He put the microcopy in an enlarger, and carried the enlarged print with him to the conveyer room.”
“Vall pressed a lever under his screen, and a rectangle of microcopy print popped out.”
“Fiddly pull-downs, peculiar microcopy, trillions of steps, and minimal transparency.”
“Methodist has invested in high resolution microcopy that can see at nanometer, rather than millimeter resolution, including a confocal laser scanning microscope, a Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) microscope, and an in vivo multi-photon laser scanning microscope.”
“Tightened up copy again (I don't think you can do this enough, and recommend that you revisit microcopy again and again when in the design phase)”
“It's also a perplexing balancing act between designing for conversion "the dough" and employing some conventions (e.g. not hyperlinking logos back to the app's main home page, stock photography, microcopy, offers, etc.) that feel more trickster-like "the spam.”
“Write great microcopy that answers questions before a user has time to consider navigating away”
“Ironically, the smallest bits of copy, microcopy, can have the biggest impact.”
“And because its so contextual, microcopy isn't always obvious.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘microcopy’.
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Thrown Away Words
See sionnach's link on snollygoster, and feed your righteous Wordie anger here.
snollygoster, microcopy, microreader, microreproduction, record changer, portapak, pantdress, pocket-handkerchief, poke bonnet, vitamin g, lantern pinion, frutescent and 10 more...
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Digital Terms
Words come and go, perhaps nowhere faster than online. Some industry terms to stay current -- or to remember as they rest in peace.
tweet, cpm, crackberry, nofollow, brick-and-mortar, page view, double opt-in, opt-in, opt-out, mash-up, word of mouth, ctr and 200 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for microcopy.
ecbrenner "Microcopy is small yet powerful copy. It’s fast, light, and deadly. It’s a short sentence, a phrase, a few words. A single word. It’s the small copy that has the biggest impact. Don’t judge it on its size…judge it on its effectiveness." --Joshua Porter Jun 9, 2009