Avatar question

[foxhunter]

Can any of the computer experts out there give me some advice on successfully creating an avatar?
I tried posting one and it told me "too many pixels"
Is there a way to reduce the pixel count? Scanning from a print of the original? Any other ideas?
Or is the original pixel count irreversible and subsequently a no go?
Most photos these days are taken with a megapixel digital camera. Any ideas?

[letchworth]

Can any of the computer experts out there give me some advice on successfully creating an avatar?
I tried posting one and it told me "too many pixels"
Is there a way to reduce the pixel count? Scanning from a print of the original? Any other ideas?
Or is the original pixel count irreversible and subsequently a no go?
Most photos these days are taken with a megapixel digital camera. Any ideas?

No expert, but have played around with these a bit--- since you have already tried to poste one, you already know that part-- let me fill in the blanks.

I use the free program Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/ to do the conversion.
In Irfanview select the area of the photo you wish to use by left clicking and dragging to create a selected area or box. Goto Edit>"Cut selection" and when the area is replaced with a black box you have successfully moved the selected area to the clipboard.

Now goto Edit>paste and you are now working with just the area you wish to use. Save it to a convenient spot (I use desktop- and give it an easily remembered name-- I will later delete this working file).

Now goto Image>"resize/resample" and click on the button "Set new size". Since the board has a limit for Avatar sizes of 150 wide X 150 high- look at the numbers in the top left corner of the dialogue box and in the "set new size" box & fill in whichever box you would like (W or H) and the other box will be filled in for you.

Click "OK" and you have converted your original image to the new size. Save it, again to desktop, and verify that it is, indeed, at or below the maximum file size of 150 KB. If not, you may need to reduce it again- but if satisfactory-- submit it as you tried earlier.

Good luck- some pictures reduce more satisfactorily than others-- but most turn out fine.

To view the screen representation closer to the final product- use Irfanview's zoom-in/zoom-out buttons on the toolbar, which will change the zoom size indicated on the top blue bar-- (but will not change the size of the file, even if saved while the zoom buttons make the picture look larger or smaller-- you must change the size as previously directed and save the finished file)
letchworth

[Ruffinit]

Another way to do it is by using the software already on your Windows machine called Paint. You can cut out the same as above and after saving the cutout, you can then go into Image | Attributes and see how big it is. You can then reduce as needed by percentage. Nice simple program and already on the computer under Start | All Programs | Accessories

[foxhunter]

Thanks guys. I will try them out. Don't need to crop just cut the pixel count and therefore file size so will see if these work for me. Thanks again.

[5aces]

http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/

Riot is easy for avatar images.

Load your image,Edit/Resample/Pixel Size and save the new image.

150 X 150 is usually the maximum pixel size for avatars.

Works on shrinking down total file size to meet the 150 Kib size limit too,and you may have to shrink your avatar to perhaps 100 x 100.

[Marietjie]

Foxhunter - I use: http://www.shrinkpictures.com/create-avatar/

[foxhunter]

Got it Marietj

[letchworth]

Looks like you are all set-- good work

letchworth

[OldLincoln]

I've tried a few and the easiest is Windows Office Picture Manager. If you already have MS Office installed you probably have it and don't know it. You can do all the usual stuff and the ones I use most is crop, resize, and compress pictures. Here's how to find it:
=====================
Start Picture Manager from the Start menu

Microsoft Picture Manager is installed with all Office suites and can be used on individual images. Use the following instructions to start Picture Manager.

1. From the Start menu, select Programs or All Programs.
2. Open the Microsoft Office folder.
3. Open the Microsoft Office Tools folder.
4. Click Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
=====================

[Patrick A]

Thank you for posting the links.

[timbalionguy]

Useful for far more than resizing images, GIMP can do most things Photoshop can do for free.
http://www.gimp.org