Avatars

nyk45 · Post by **nyk45** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:00 pm

I wanted to have my own avatar, but it turns out although it meets the pixel size req, the file size is too big.

And since 10kb is awfully low imo, I was thinking, maybe increasing it to 40, or something?

Blue the Thief · Post by **Blue the Thief** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:16 pm

That WOULD be a good idea.

I mean, really, you can't even make out Blue's saber in mine!

If they do upgrade it, it will probably be only to about 20, 30 at best.

nyk45 · Post by **nyk45** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:25 pm

dang my ideal avatar is 38kb.

but well, 30 is good enough already.

And 20 is better than 10. (:

Blue the Thief · Post by **Blue the Thief** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:33 pm

I'm not saying they WON'T jack it up to 40, but they do all they can to keep the loading time's down.

And 10KB seems to be the norm on most forums

nyk45 · Post by **nyk45** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:50 pm

Blue the Thief wrote:I'm not saying they WON'T jack it up to 40, but they do all they can to keep the loading time's down.

And 10KB seems to be the norm on most forums

I am not so sure about that.

I don't remember having any problem uploading avatars in other forums.

Plus, I am quite active in one, where the pixel size limit is smaller (only 80x80), but the image size restriction isn't so tight.

Blue the Thief · Post by **Blue the Thief** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:08 pm

Most I've been on have only a 10KB

....Then again, I've only been on 2 or 3 after this

Dark Spark · Post by **Dark Spark** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 5:15 pm

If you have the ability to save the avatar as a GIF file, it'll likely save space without degrading the picture quality.

JPGs tend to be mucked up a little from the compression needed to fit it within 10K.

Deandra · Post by **Deandra** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:15 pm

My avatar is 2.82 KB

Unless your avatar has a whole lot of animation, it's usually possible to drastically reduce the file size without affecting the quality. Dark Spark is right that .gif files are usually smallest for avatars, but it varies depending on what it looks like.

If you've got a link to the avatar you want to use, I can probably photoshop it to compress it a bit (unless it's animated).

Cactus · Post by **Cactus** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:05 pm

Reduce the number of colors if you can; that can often help drastically. No need for three-million colors when it's a simple image with just 20K colors actually visible in it.

nyk45 · Post by **nyk45** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:10 pm

well thanks for the tips.

I will use photoshop to change it to a gif file if possible.

I'll edit the post when done.

--EDIT--

Thanks so much. (: