Downsizing an Avatar

Post Reply New Topic

I've found a cool Avatar that I'd like to post, but it's WAY over the 6 meg. max size that this site allows. Does anyone here know how do downsize an animated Gif image??

Maybe use Microsoft Picture Manager to resize it...

Failing that, send it to me in an email and I'll see what I can do.
([email protected])

What is the image?

It must be enourmous if it hasa file size like that. What are the dimensions of it? Is it animated?

Photoshop will be able to make it smaller but it depends on what it is and whether it's suitable for an avatar.

Animated gif? Does this mean you want an animated avatar? That would drive me crazy!

Oh wait, no it would not, because I already have all animated gifs disabled in my browser

There is no easy way to reduce an animated gif in size, if you want it to remain as an animation. At least not that I know of.

For reducing a static image in size, Photoshop is the best for that sort of stuff. If you do not have Photoshop, then Paint Shop Pro is a cheaper alternative.

you could try getting an animated gif editor and cutting out some of the frames.. but that won't do much to the size and might ruin the effect of the gif.

If you use Windows, and only need to re-size something, Paint can do that.

For still images, I recommend IrfanView. It's freeware, easy to learn, and opens almost anything and converts it to whatever. You'll want to download the plugins also. Also, plays quite a few sound and video formats, if you need that.

You can resize an animated GIF without losing too much quality or its animation by using the FREE & "Open Source" GIMP program. You can download it for Windows or Linux here: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/.

Here's how:

• To open an image in GIMP, In the Main Toolbox File menu select Open.... In the the Open Image dialog box that appears, navigate to the image file and select the image file name, then click on the [Open] button.
• In the Image window's Image menu, select Scale Image.... The Scale Image dialog box will appear.
• In the Scale Image dialog box, simply enter your desired Width: and height: in the input boxes.
• If the chain icon next the Width: and Height: input boxes is unbroken, then changing the Width or Height will cause the other dimension to automatically change to maintain the same aspect ratio. Click on the chain icon to break the chain and allow the Width or Height to be adjusted independently.
• At the bottom of the Scale Image dialog box is the Interpolation drop down list. For best results, select the Cubic (Best) option.
• Click on the [Scale] button. The image file will be resized.
• Choose Save As from the File menu.
• Choose the location to save the file and type in the filename in the proper place (ex. myanimation.gif).
• Click on the [Save] button.
• Select the Convert To Indexed... option.
• Click on the [Export] button and then the [OK] button.

============================================================================

If you're still stumped, shoot me a PM and I'll be glad to help you out!

IrfanView does a good job re sampling images. Just type it in Google.