What Does Manip Mean?
Fandom CultureShort for 'photo manipulation' — fan-made imagery created by editing existing photos or screencaps, often to depict a ship together. Manips were a staple of older fandom art communities.
Manip in Practice
A manip might place two actors who never shared a scene into the same frame, swap costumes, or build an entire AU aesthetic out of composited images. The form flourished in the LiveJournal and early Photoshop era, especially in RPF and live-action fandoms where there was abundant photo material to work with. Fan etiquette generally treats manips as transformative art, though communities have long debated where to draw lines around using real people's images. The word survives today even as tools have changed.
Example usage
"Someone made a gorgeous manip of the two of them at a royal ball for the fic's cover art."
Related Terms
Fanart
Visual art of existing media made by fans — illustrations, comics, paintings, digital pieces — spanning every style from quick sketches to gallery-grade work. Fanfiction's sister discipline.
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Moodboard
A collage of images, colors, and textures arranged to evoke the aesthetic of a character, ship, AU, or fic. Moodboards are a popular form of visual fanwork, especially on Tumblr.
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RPF (Real Person Fiction)
Fanfiction about real people — musicians, actors, athletes, streamers — rather than fictional characters. RPF is a major, long-established wing of fandom with its own norms and debates.
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More Fandom Culture Terms
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