The present invention relates to a security element for security papers, value documents and the like, having a micro-optical moiré magnification arrangement having a motif image (30) that consists of a planar periodic or at least locally periodic arrangement of a plurality of micromotif elements (36, 38), and a planar periodic or at least locally periodic arrangement of a plurality of microfocusing elements for the moiré-magnified viewing of the micromotif elements (36, 38) of the motif image, the motif image (30) including two or more sub-regions (32, 34) having micromotif elements (36, 38) that differ from each other in their contrast, and wherein the shape of the sub-regions (32, 34) forms, due to the contrast differences in the micromotif elements (36, 38), a perceptible macroscopic piece of image information in the form of characters, patterns or codes.