Avatar Picture Editing

[Gabe]

This has come up a few times so I thought I'd make a post about it.

To edit your Avatar picture do the following.

Select Settings in the top right of the page next to Logout.
From there you will get a whole list of things on the left hand side starting with My Messages....look down till you see Edit Avatar under the My Settings section.
Once you select that it's as simple as choosing to provide a link where your Avatar is, or picking it in a folder saved to your computer.

NOTE: Edit Profile Picture and Edit Avatar are two different images. The Avatar is with each message you post while the Profile picture is when someone views your Profile page on the website. There are a few people here who have different images loaded for their profile compared to their Avatar...some of which are quite interesting. :D

[supertrout]

My issue is sorta that my file size is too large. How do I reduce file size to 90X90 pixels or 19.5 kb ?

[Gabe]

The way I do it is very simple.

Open in Paint. (yes, basic paint)
Hit Ctrl+W (for Image, Stretch/Skew)
Then put in a percentage lower than 100 to reduce the size.
Once it's shrunk to an acceptable size, save as to avoid replacing the original. (I ususally just add an 's' to the filename to designate "small")

[supertrout]

Thanks for the help!

[ryank]

Eric, let's see a full size pic of your avatar, that looks like a very nice fish!

[Chinook SSSF]

Another way you can do your avatar is to take your image into a photo edit program and downsize it to 90x? BUT.... It is best to "crop" a square image out of the pic before you downsize so that it will stay in constraint when viewed...

ALSO When you downsize any image that much it must be sharpened a bit or it will be blury. I use only unsharp mask at about 18 to 30 %...


ALSO To get the file size smaller, since you started with a JPG, after you crop and downsize the image to 90 x 90 .....try convert the graphic to a GIF if your still not getting down to the file size you require, if the color holds, your all set...this file will be much smaller than a JPEG of the same pixils..

Very few cameras shoot in GIF and you wouldnt want this anyways. So most images must be converted to get the right file size.