Question on avatar here.

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I've got an avatar I want to use specifically for this website. Problem is, even though it's 100X100 pixels, it has too large of a file size to fit on here apparently. Yet I see others on this website with avatars definitely exceeding even these dimensions. Question is, does anyone know how to compact the file size to fit the requirement on here? or do you have to be a certain rank to post bigger avatar file sizes?

I had the same problem with one of my images, so I switched to the current avatar. Decreasing the size on my old avatar seemed to make the image too blurry.

If you're having trouble with an avatar file, you can ping it and than re-save it as a jpeg file. If the file was a ping file to begin with, you can save it as a jpeg file. I've made many avatars.

I have trouble getting any avatar to show that's not a jpeg file.

seems like the avatar quality is preserved better when it is converted to a gif file. but i am not an expert by any means.

also, thread moved from Random Discussion to WrongPlanet.net Discussion

A gif file is limited to 256 colours but for many avatars that's more than enough, and the file size is usually correspondingly small.
A png file, like jpg, can have many more colours but you now need to be more careful about the size.

I've PM'd Prism, offering an "avatar creation service", but it's not been read yet.

Don't know what program you use to edit images, so you'll have to figure out where these options are.

The thing you're looking to do is to reduce the actual file size (in kilobytes). Three things affect the file size in image properties.

1. Image size (height and width)
2. Pixels per inch
3. Quality setting

Generally the first thing I do is check the image properties. For the web, you don't need any more than 72 pixels per inch for resolution. If the image size is already small enough, start with making sure the pixels per inch is no more than 72. Higher resolution isn't necessary for web avatars. You're not going to see higher resolutions anyway once they are display, so any higher than that is just a waste of pixels.

If that doesn't bring the size down enough, reduce the quality size to 80% and see what file size that brings it too.

I always use jpeg since I've never known of any web site that won't accept them. PNG and GIF will very often work as well, but some sites don't let you use one or the other or both.

Thanks guys for responding. I guess I should have mentioned I use photoshop CS5 to make my avatars. Also, I save the images in JPEG, but they still are too big it says. I think I'll try saving it as a GIF file to see what it does.

Are they at 72 px/inch?

What are you using for quality setting? Try around 75%.

What file sizes are you seeing in the final jpg?

I've almost always found that if the height and width are fine, and 72px/inch is used, the quality setting has a dramatic effect on the file size.

That won't actually change the image size - it's more of an "intention" setting for file display/print usage.

I've just shipped a png version back, weighing in at 9,324 bytes from an original (and correctly dimensioned) file of 29,539 bytes. It's just occurred that I could have left it as a jpeg file which would have been only 4,627 bytes. Oh well...

The final file size really comes down to the colour optimization and compression algorithms used although as this original image still contained all the IPTC and XMP data, that didn't exactly help.

True, but it will change the file size some if the image is huge. Doesn't have as much affect as quality setting though.



Cool. Good to hear it's done.



True too. I really don't know much about compression algorithms, so I never advise anyone about them. I've never have had to mess around with them myself to get images to work online. Maybe I just haven't run into an image that needed them adjusted. Hadn't thought of the data junk. I never use files with that stuff embedded for avatars, so that never even occurred to me.

Okay guys, I just put them in gif format and it worked for this website as you can see now. Thanks for your help.

SCORE! glad to see it.

Nope, it won't affect the file size at all - but altering the file's dimensions may result in the DPI value being changed because of the software being used to do the resizing, which will give the impression it has, and again, depending on the software, if the DPI value is changed in relation to the intended print size (without that size being changed), then the file size will change because the resolution will need to change in order to maintain that print density.
But simply changing the DPI value will have no effect on the file because for the file itself, it is meaningless.

Consider: a 640x480 image contains 3072 pixels. Nothing's going to change that unless the image's dimensions are changed. Nothing's going to change the way it's displayed on a monitor because it will always need to fill a block of 3072 pixels.
Let's say it's a 72 DPI image: what's changed about the image - the number of pixels? The area it covers on a monitor? Now let's say it's a 300 DPI image - any difference?
Nothing has changed - unless it's being printed.

So for printing:
If that image is printed at 72 DPI (1 DPI = 1 pel) then the print size will be 8.8" by 6.6".
If it's printed at 300 DPI then it will be 2.13" by 1.6".
If we want a 300 DPI print which is 8.8" by 6.6" then the image dimensions will need to be 2640x1980.

So the DPI value stored in the file only reflects the intended print size.

For jpeg this is usually the real clincher and for something as small as an avatar it can be wound much lower than would be used for a conventional image.
Saving as a gif file will also usually work but as a gif file can only represent 256 colours it may not look very good: it depends on the number of colours present in the original. For a photographic image the results may end up a little blocky and coarse but for a cartoon-style image (using far fewer colours), the visible difference could be very slight.
I would have used a gif file for my avatar since it's clearly a cartoon, but the shadow effect I'd added failed because of the number of colours required to represent it - so I used a png format instead.

For Photoshop, saving as "optimised for web display" (I forget the wording: I'm not in Windows now) will make a much better job of optimizing the colour palette and minimizing any visible differences.
Also, if the avatar is being saved as a jpeg file, stripping any EXIF, IPTC or XMP data will help too - they're hardly required for an avatar!

Ooh, that's a different one - it's bigger and even better!

Yup. I'm really terrible at explaining this stuff, even though I used to work for an offset printer in the imaging department for years. You're much better at explaining it than I am.

I left out the part about reducing the size as well as the DPI. This is why every now and then certain people tell me I ought to be a teacher, I don't do it. I'm always forgetting process details I never have to think about when I'm doing them myself when explaining the process to someone else.