Micro-heroes (nicknamed "micros") are basic pixel representations of many media characters, that are drawn in a very specific cartoon style and displayed through the web. Micro-heroes initially represented characters from a myriad of comic book series, but now have come to also represent pop culture icons, such as TV series characters, old American cartoons, manga/anime heroes or pro sport athletes. Their dimensions are somewhat similar to those of the characters drawn in the chibi (ちび, "small, tiny") style of manga and anime. While there may be a minor similarity between the two types of art, Micro-hero artists prefer to have their art classified as Micro-heroes and not chibi.
The image files tend to be saved as the GIF or GIF file types. Whenever a person new to microing joins a micro group or forum they are taught early on that JPEG is a bad file type to use. Mainly because the JPEG format provides some badly compression, causing color mistakes. Micro-heroes have developed further than stoic poses to include many different posed micros as well as animated micros.