Avatar - how to get sharp image?

[Guest]

I tried a using a small jpeg picture as avatar but it turned out even more blurry by the time it was approved.  Then tried a clip art that was 165 X 165 pixel.  When I reduced image size to 128 X128 it just got more blurry.

So question is how does one get a sharp avatar?  I have only CS3 to work with.  Some of the pictures, and all of the clip art  seem relatively sharp.

[Zeno Bokor]

just to make sure, you are talking about the little graphic and not the big one in the profile. In that case, save it as a 48 by 48 pixel png-8 file as that is what it converts it to anyway so better give it what it wants in the first place as this way you can get a better preview of how it'll look when uploaded

[Phos_four_dots]

Zeno Bokor wrote:

just to make sure, you are talking about the little graphic and not the big one in the profile. In that case, save it as a 48 by 48 pixel png-8 file as that is what it converts it to anyway so better give it what it wants in the first place as this way you can get a better preview of how it'll look when uploaded

To be dead accurate, and to wring every possible bit of clarity out of your avatar image, work mindfully with your eye on a final size of 46px × 46px.

[Zeno Bokor]

well, the biggest one is 48 if i remember correctly(the one from the popup profile)

[Phos_four_dots]

Zeno Bokor wrote:

well, the biggest one is 48 if i remember correctly(the one from the popup profile)

HOLY SMOKES, YOU'RE RIGHT!

I wasn't trying to be a pedantic smarty-pants about the 46px vs. 48px. The only image I checked the properties on was the one seen in the left column, which does, indeed measure out to 46 × 46. That's the size I used when I created my avatar. I never measured the avatar as displayed in the profile pop-up, because even when taking a pretty long look, they appear virtually identical.

Why they'd hassle with two different display sizes of only 2 px difference is indicative of how Jive has their priorities screwed up.

I'd LOVE to hear the explanation about how they came to the decision where they thought this was the smartest way to manage assets.

[Zeno Bokor]

here's the fun thing, it's only one image and it gets resized automatically, check this out

http://forums.adobe.com/people/Zeno%20Bokor/avatar/48.png?a=1152

http://forums.adobe.com/people/Zeno%20Bokor/avatar/255.png?a=1152

http://forums.adobe.com/people/Zeno%20Bokor/avatar/10.png?a=1152

just change the number and it gets resized on the fly(i think, dunno much about serverside software)

[Phos_four_dots]

Heh, that's funny.

I guess my choice to use the non-antialiased Silkscreen pixel-font was prescient, then. It won't blur no matter what size it's displayed at!

(Looks like it's limited to 128px × 128px, even if you substitute larger values in the URI)

[Guest]

Once again confusion is the watchword.  In the Activate Avatar thread John Cornilleco says

"I'm confused. Are we talking about the Avatar or the Profile Pic? The profile pic is the one that gets resized to 320 pixels wide. The forum avatar has an upper size limit of 128x128 pixels. If trying to upload something larger than that you will probably get an error message. Accepted file types are GIF, JPG, and PNG, but I believe that all get converted to PNG by the forum software (so an animated GIF won't work).

John"

So from this I gather it is 128x128 rather than 46x46?

[Phillip M Jones]

I've checked an my Avatar as uploaded to adobe forums is 128X128 and its a png.

[Phos_four_dots]

What I'm understanding is that 128px × 128px is the MAXIMUM size image you can upload for an avatar. And, if you try to upload an image that's bigger than that it'll fail.

Besides, I haven't seen any place that displays avatars any bigger than 48px × 48px anyway, so the smart way is to just create/crop/optimize your avatar image at that size before you upload it. And you might as well Save For Web as a 24-bit PNG, since it's going to be converted to that during the upload process anyway.

[Guest]

I must be missing something.  I take a picture of 800x800 pixel or a clip art of 200x200 pixel.  I click on image size and reduce it down to 46x46 pixel.  All I get is a pixelated mess no one can recognize.

So how does one get an image that is relatively sharp?

[Kath-H]

Have you tried Save for Web? You can change size, swap formats, see what looks best.

[Guest]

Tried that, but not much difference.

On this thread it says 46 pixel.  On the other Aviatar thread they are saying 320.  What is correct?

[Kath-H]

Different dimensions for avatar / profile pic.

[Phos_four_dots]

In other words...

Avatars and profile pictures are two different items, to be uploaded separately.  They can be the same image, of course, but  for best results prepare each of them separately at their proper, respective sizes before uploading.

[Zeno Bokor]

the big grayscale egghead from the profile page is different from the little blue eggheads that are used as avatars. You upload the small ones from Change Avatar while the big one from Edit Profile

[Guest]

Thanks everyone, guess I was expecting too much out of such a small image.

[pbear*]

Try an Unsharp Mask every 50% reduction in size.