how do i make an avatar?

[deputy jailer]

How do I make one of my photos my avatar for the site? I am using photo bucket and can't seem to get it small enough.

podge

[Bigdog]

Josh - you can try downloading Irfanview and use it to re-size your picture or perhaps check with Camo about reducing it for you.

[Pete1941]

Bigdog, just a question because I certainly don't know what I'm talking about here . Would the thumbnail deal work with getting the picture smaller . As I say, just a question cause I'm still computer challenged in some areas. Pete

[Bigdog]

Pete - for the board software the avatar image must be no larger than 80 X 80 pixels and no more than 6K in file size. If the thumbnail meets those requirements it will work. The biggest problem with avatars is getting the file size small enough and leaving enough image information to still be able to make out what the picture is supposed to be.

[Hengy]

When I made my Avatar, I used the standard "Photo Editor" standard on Win-doze... I just cropped myself out of my Barbershop Quartet picture and kept resizing it until I got the file size and dimensions that were acceptable for the forum software. I guess I just used "Dumb Luck"... I am pretty Dumb!!

Mike in La Crosse, WI

[Rudi]

Josh, Pete:

BD is correct. Download IrfanView... I use it almost every few days or so to resize, resample, convert and do all kinds of neat stuff without losing cohesion on the original jpg, gif or bmp. These types of files do degrade unlike tif files.. but if you save as a new name, then the original does not get changed.

You can also do this in WinXP Photo Resizer Powertoys.. the links are on the main page of the server as well as in the How To Do Neat Stuff In A Post. These two utilities are the easiest to use.. ask me.. I was a dummy and I do mean a dummy.. I had to work hard at learning this stuff... now I am just somewhat competent at it..

Choose the file you wish to resize.. load into Irfanview.. Choose Image - Re-size/Resample. Set new size as a max of 80x80 pixels. Hint.. it your image is tall and narrow choose 60x80, If it is long and horizontal choose 80x60, and if the image is pretty well even height by width.. then choose 80x80 max. Make sure the Preserve aspect ratio box is checked. Ckick OK. Now if the file is about what you want looks wise.. click File Save As - then choose a simple name such as your userid. Click on the arrow on the Save as Type and choose GIF. Choose the proper directory to save, then save. You should then have a file compatible with the Avatar requirements.

WinXP Photo Resizer is almost as useful. Choose Custom and then type in say 75x75 in the screen size boxes and then ok. See what it comes up as.. it probably will come up as a 75x65 pixel file...

[spiveyman]

Irfanview is good stuff! Not too complicated either.

[JimT]

I just used the paint program in windows to resize my photo for my avatar. It may stretch it a little, but I didn't mind since I'm a little out of shape anyways.

JimT

[rggiuliani]

Microsoft Picture Manager works if you have Office.