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Making Avatars

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:54 am
by JD
In response to avatar questions, with many graphics programs, especially photoshop, when you reduce the avatar jpg down to level 2 or 3, the program will say that it is under the 12k maximum file size you want. But then when you actually save the image, it ends up being a 17k or something like that. This is because when the raw jpg is saved, graphics programs will add information in hidden tags about author, file size, program made with, date etc. Depending on the graphics program, you can strip this additional info out to keep the file size at it's raw jpg size. Adobe Image Ready also makes stripped down jpgs. Image Ready usually comes with Photoshop CE (the expensive program, not elements or whatever)

Also, after making the 115x115 avatar .jpg file, make any adjustments to contrast, sharpness and color. Go light on the sharpness filter, it can really pixillate a small picutre. Then do a "Save-as" and select .gif sometimes shown as Compuserve .gif file. This reduces the number of colors available on the image to 256, but on a small image, it usually still looks good. gif is not good for large photo images.

One last thing is there are programs out there that specifically make avatars. I have not used them so I don't know how well they work or if they install ad-ware. They are free programs or services, so they might.

http://www.jql.co.uk/avatarsizer.htm

http://www.faststone.org/

Hope this helps,

JD

RE: Making Avatars

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:33 am
by Jim from Canada
Tried the first link to Avatar Sizer and you can see the results....first try. Thanks for the link!

Jim