How do you get a pic down to 80 X 80 pivels for an avatar?
I know this is a stupid question to most of you, but I've always been told that "no question is stupid if you don't know the answer. The only stupid thing is to not ask the question".
So I'm askin'. LOL.
Bob
Bob, have you got a program like Paint Shop Pro or similar? You can specfiy the HxW in pixels then resave it and use that saved version as your avatar. You can also do this in the Paint program that comes with XP. Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint. Open your picture in there then go to Image/Attributes, click the pixels box, resize, save a copy. (Sorry, I'm assuming you have a PC not a Mac, but a Mac will have a similar basic graphics editor also I assume).
John
There are some free programs out there to do just this. For example, Visualizer Photo Resize is available from tucows.com here:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/397055
A great little freebie for quick image adjustments is photofiltre.
Then you would just open the picture, right-click and select 'image size' and change it to what you need.
What I get caught by here with avatar files is the file size itself has to be pretty small, so lots of jpg compression is sometimes required. Photofiltre offers the compression ratio as a pop up when using 'save as'.
Very small program, under 2 meg and works quickly with very little resources -
http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/
If the original picture is not close to square, you might want to crop it first, then re-size it. JpegCrops is good:
http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/
As the pirate says, "Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh"!
I used Paint to get it down to 80 x 80 pixels and 75.1kb. I used PhotoFiltre and could only get it down to 16.6kb, and it looks like crap.
When I try to upload it, I get a message that says "Pictures can be no larger than 8192 bytes."
What now?
Bob
A pirate was recounting a story about when he embarked on a deserted island.
He said “I got off the ship and walked across the island and a lion jumped out on me and went RRROOOAAARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.
The listener said, “I’ll bet that was really scary!”
The pirate said “AAARRRGGGHHH, I sh*t all over meself!”
The listener said, “Well, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I might have done the same thing if a lion jumped out on me!”
The pirate said, “No, not then! Just now, when I said RRROOOAAARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Hi Bob. I guess this is a test for me since your post got me to thinking that I should add an avatar. I use one on some other forums. What I did was to use a photo editing program to resize the pic smaller. I'll post this and keep my fingers crossed.
Update: Looks like it worked but the pic size, 34 x 50 pixels is too small. I'm going back and resize it to so that the length is 80 pixels.
Shastastan,
I got it resized to 80x80, but it's still too large in "bytes" to upload.
Bob
A few sites who allow you to use an Avatar automatically re size the original pic upload. Haven't tried if that happens here or not.
Would be nice, if PGMusic could adopt that feature.
Cheers,
Mike
Use more compression. This is generally a slider presented during the save process. If it has a choice "Save for the Web", use that. If it asks for the dpi, use 72.
Bob, what format is picture?
Sometimes for an avatar simply saving as gif will reduce filesize enough, just another thing to try ..
Resize and save as gif, see how big it is in filesize.
Bob - if you can't figure it out, send it to me and I'll fix it for you. my email is
beagle at beaglesound dot com
I've tried numerous formats. The one you see now is a gif, at 80x70, but it's grainy as crap. Original photo is really clear, a 445x398 at 75kb jpg. I even used PhotoFiltre for numerous versions, but this is only thing I can get small enough to load.
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Just changed mine ... re-sized it and saved it as a GIF. JPG wouldn't take for some reason.
What's wrong with that one Bob?
looks fine for an avatar!
It'll work rharv. The avatars the rest of you have are clear and crisp. They just look like miniature photos. Mine looks like an old TV picture with lots of "snow". LOL.
I do appreciate all of your help, because before this post, I didn't have an avatar.
So thanks to all of you. I'm kinda ugly anyway, so maybe a grainy photo is better. Hehe.
Bob
One trick is to crop a large picture down in size, as opposed to trying to shrink the whole large picture .. for instance that dial I have for an avatar is about 1/20th of the picture of the amp to begin with..
Then less compression and resizing is needed. Although it seems like yours wasn't that big to begin with. 450 X 400 isn't large.
I'm never pleased with how these avatars look when they have to be so small. Maybe you are being too hard on yourself - looks fine to me
I agree with rharv. Your's looks fine for a avatar and much better than mine. I'm going to have to change mine to something else.
Stan
Update: I guess I'll stick with this one for awhile. I love that cornet.
rharv,
Actually I did crop it. This is the bottom right hand corner of a 2272x1704 jpg. The cropped version came out very clear and crisp. Then it went downhill from there. The 8,192 bytes is pretty small number when you are talking about a pic.
It's a pretty small number for anything related to computers.
Bob
When I was a kid, we took our "box springs" from an old mattress and set it on fire to burn off the fabric and the wood. We hooked the "wires" to it and propped it up against a tree and had a hillbilly antenna.
The TV picture that came through looked like my avatar! LOL.
Bob
Post the picture somewhere and I'll see if other tools can do any better .. but I doubt it would be by much.
The criteria is pretty minimal; filesize, accepted format and dimensions ...
rharv,
There it is. I told you I wuz ugly! LOL.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=a5j6fs&s=6Bob
rharv
And on a more serious note, that's really nice of you to look at it for me. I do appreciate it.
On some things, I'm a reasonably advanced computer user, (build one from scratch, install OS, drivers, etc.).
On other things, I'm a noobie. If I've never had to or needed to do something before, I never bothered to learn how to do it.
That's why I ask people like you and the other good folks on the PG forum for advice.
Thanks,
Bob
I'm not a graphics artist, but my website employment keeps me pretty current with latest software, including graphics stuff. I have some pretty good tools, wouldn't say I can use them better than anybody else, but I have learned a few tricks.
Like I said, with the file restrictions it likely won't be much of a difference. I think it looked fine as it was for an avatar. Another option may be to link to the image somewhere else, which may make the filesize disappear .. just a thought, may try later.
rharv,
That's a big improvement. Thank you! It no longer looks like it's snowing!
You, and many others on this forum, are great examples of people taking time out to do something for somebody they don't even know.
That is a really cool thang about the PG forums.
Something as "trivial" as an avatar, and you and others take time from what you doing to help out!
Thank you,
Bob
Another thing that can get in the way of successfully getting an 80x80 avatar is Exif data that can come along for the ride. Digital cameras often add yards of this data. Exif data includes items like what lens was used, the f-stop, distance to the subject. This extra data bloats the size of the result.
When that is the case, you want to use image software that gives the option of not including the exif data when you save the file.
I've used Irfanview for years and it's freeware.
Hi Bob,
when rescaling from a large format tova very small format you should do it in stages and apply some sharpness or unsharpness filters during that process. It helps reduce the grain effect.
Quote:
A pirate was recounting a story about when he embarked on a deserted island.
He said “I got off the ship and walked across the island and a lion jumped out on me and went RRROOOAAARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.
The listener said, “I’ll bet that was really scary!”
The pirate said “AAARRRGGGHHH, I sh*t all over meself!”
The listener said, “Well, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I might have done the same thing if a lion jumped out on me!”
The pirate said, “No, not then! Just now, when I said RRROOOAAARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
A guy went to a fancy dress ball dressed as a pirate.
One of the more 'refined' guests sidled up to him and cracked: "So, where are your buccaneers?"
He replied: "On my buckin' head."
John
All I did is crop, resize and save as GIF format (no exif data that way).
All in photofiltre
Sometimes the sharpening and other filters add noise.. use only as needed.
No foolin', we had a bar called the Buccaneer. The manager told me he was going to put on a cover charge and asked my opinion. I told him he'd have to leave it at 2 bucks, a buck an ear.
Another way to do it is:
1. Fix the size to the recommended 80x80 and ignore the file size.
2. Upload the picture to an online storage place, and
3. Note the URL (address) and enter that in the box provided
It will show fine.
Dick
(Right Click on my AVATAR and look up its Properties.... it shows the URL [http://www.tchairdjian.com....]
the pic size 80 x 80, and file size as 14,000+ kbs)
Maybe someone should start a new thread just for pirate jokes. But until then,
A pirate walked into a bar, and the bartender said "Hey, man, I haven't seen you for a long time. What happened? You look terrible!"
"What do you mean?" growled the pirate. "I'm fine."
"What about that wooden leg? You didn't have that before."
"Well, Matey," said the pirate, "we were in a battle at sea, and a cannon ball took me leg clean off. But the Doc fixed me up with this here wooden leg, and I'm fine now."
"Oh, yeah? Well, what about that hook? The last time I saw you, you had both hands."
"Well, Laddie, we were in another battle, and we boarded the enemy ship. I was in a sword fight and me hand was cut off, but the Doc fixed me up with this hook, and I feel great now."
"Okay," said the bartender, "but what about that eye patch? The last time you were in here, you had both eyes!"
"One day, we were at sea, and a huge flock of birds flew over the ship. As I looked up, one of them sh*t in me eye!"
"You're kidding!" said the bartender. "You lost an eye just from some bird poop?"
"Nah… it was me first day with the new hook."
Jon
Quote:
rharv,
There it is. I told you I wuz ugly! LOL.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=a5j6fs&s=6
Bob
You look ok Bob.. anyway its how we all should look at your age