Avatar image sizes

[Siegfried]

Avatar images should be 100x100, and may not be more than 400x400.

We have this rule as otherwise people with slow connections have trouble loading the site. I think it's a quite generous rule considering that all avatars are rescaled to 100 pixels anyway. However, gong through a random topic today I found examples of;

839 x 1,080 pixels (354 KB!)

800 x 600 pixels

600 x 600 pixels

500 x 313 pixels

None of these are acceptable and avatars should take up around 20KB at most. Please people, reduce your avatars if yours is over 400 pixels. I really haven't got the time to PM everyone about this so in the future I'll just remove avatars.

(If you don't know how to reduce images there is a great tutorial by Lord Of Pies. No extra software is needed.)

[Millacol88]

Haha.....I was one of the ones whose avatar was to big. Mine was something like 2500 by 1400 pixels! I was one of the ones who recieved a pm about this a while back. I had'nt realised it took such a long time to load. Through an ironic twist of fate I am now on dial-up and have experienced first-hand how long some peoples avatars take to load.

[Siegfried]

Haha.....I was one of the ones whose avatar was to big. Mine was something like 2500 by 1400 pixels! I was one of the ones who recieved a pm about this a while back. I had'nt realised it took such a long time to load. Through an ironic twist of fate I am now on dial-up and have experienced first-hand how long some peoples avatars take to load.

Don't worry; you've been beaten; 2919 x 2189 pixels (1.7 MB) is the new standard.

Thanks for fixing yours.

[JimBee]

But how can people have those huge avatars if the site automatically rescales them?

[Siegfried]

But how can people have those huge avatars if the site automatically rescales them?

The browser rescales them after they have loaded. The full image is still loaded.

[I Scream Clone]

I admire your sneakiness Sinner! I had a feeling the mystery raffle would turn into something to do with Avatar sizes. Bravo

Small Avatars On!

[Darth_Legois]

The browser rescales them after they have loaded. The full image is still loaded.

OH! I never knew...

I Think mine is under 100x100.....

But when I change it I will have to scale it down on Flickr or whatever.

[Admiral Blockbeard]

I believe mine to be small. however it was a while ago.

Could you check for me please? Or tell us how to check?

Regards, Cpt. PB.

[Siegfried]

Could you check for me please? Or tell us how to check?

Yours is OK; 100 x 71 pixels. How you can tell depends on your browser, but generally it's;

1. Right click on image
   
2. Select "properties", "image properties" or similar
   
3. Look for line in the box about pixels
   

I admire your sneakiness Sinner! I had a feeling the mystery raffle would turn into something to do with Avatar sizes. Bravo

Small Avatars On!

It's a co-incidence. Topics like this result in a lot of rare-posters posting and that makes it clear what ones have slow loading avatars.

[Skinny Boy]

Mine says: Uploaded file 100x100. So its ok? I'm not given a size (bytes wise). Oh, wait, I can just go check the file .

[Lasse D]

I don't see any reason for having avatars larger than 100x100 when they are rescaled to this site in the (slow!) browsers. It's such a waste of resources (and one must right click the avatar and press "Adblock Image...")

But if it gets out of hand, I have a trick to cure it: don't rescale the avatars for a member when he views it! Or even better: upscale if larger than 400x400!

[AgentRick]

However, gong through a random topic today I found examples of;

839 x 1,080 pixels (354 KB!)

HOW is that possible? I mean, using common sense an avatar shouldn't be the size of an average laptop screen!

[I Scream Clone]

HOW is that possible? I mean, using common sense an avatar shouldn't be the size of an average laptop screen!

Sometimes common sense doesn't come in to the equation. As Sinner said the software rescales the image so the user may be oblivious to the problem.

Silly User

[Millacol88]

HOW is that possible? I mean, using common sense an avatar shouldn't be the size of an average laptop screen!

Really? My camera automatically takes pictures at a resolution much higher than that!

[Sir Dillon]

Isn't it possible to not accept any image larger than the allowed size?

[Siegfried]

Isn't it possible to not accept any image larger than the allowed size?

For hosted ones yes. There is the option of banning external images... but many reponsible people use that feature.

[JimBee]

The browser rescales them after they have loaded. The full image is still loaded.

Ah thanks. My original size is 700 something for both height and length, but it's scaled o 100x91... I guess I have to re-size!

EDIT: I think this is okay...

Edited November 24, 2008 by JimButcher

[Guss]

Really? My camera automatically takes pictures at a resolution much higher than that!

the images that camera takes are not supposed to be used for an avatar, or for internet! that's usually image big enough to works on it ( photoshop things^^), or to be printed at big sizes, that's not the same purpose^^

to use it for internet and avoid peoples to takes a lot of time loading it, you'll have to resize your pictures^^ when you upload it to some website, they automatically resize it, but not on every websites^^

I think that my avatar is 88x100, I know how it works so I usually reduce it to the good size, so that's ok ^^

[Tacitus]

Don't worry; you've been beaten; 2919 x 2189 pixels (1.7 MB) is the new standard.

Thanks for fixing yours.

Totally me. I linked it to the wrong brickshelf file, and clearly didn't notice.

[Siegfried]

This problem is rearing its ugly head again. Thankfully most members are keeping the size down, but going though a few random topics I found ones of;

388 x 474 pixels

710 x 802 pixels

669 x 669 pixels

800 x 966 pixels

768 x 576 pixels

500 x 375 pixels

Please be considerate to other members and reduce your avatar if it's above 400x400. Once again, avatar images should be 100x100, and may not be more than 400x400. The image may be displayed as 100x100, but the full image is loaded first.

[Holodoc]

Once again, avatar images should be 100x100, and may not be more than 400x400. The image may be displayed as 100x100, but the full image is loaded first.

I would like to emphasize that small avatar pics and photos in general keep the site working faster. In addition to that more and more people are browsing the net with mobile devices (including me).

It's a lot more fun and keeps the speed up if the browser isn't busy loading ridiculous photo sizes.

So please hold on to the 100x100 pixel limit (it's not that difficult - PM me if you have problems in keeping your avatar small).

Same counts for photos in general: The board software resizes bigger pictures for a better viewing convenience, but they have to be loaded at full size.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Big Cam]

I loaded mine from flickr, I'll check right now and if it's big, I'll reload a smaller version. I never knew it loaded the original image, I always thought the resize tookcare of it.

[Ratshot]

I never realized that this slowed the site down, I made sure my avatar was 100x100 as my last one was huge.

[Holodoc]

I never realized that this slowed the site down, I made sure my avatar was 100x100 as my last one was huge.

Sorry if I confused: It's not the avatar size that's slowing down, but 5745x3957 pixels big photos for instance.

[Siegfried]

From now on I'm just removing large avatars and PMing the member; anything else just takes too long. I just removed this from somones profile; 2,816 x 2,112 pixels and 1.5 MB is waaaay to big.

Please note that if people don't start taking more care we might just have to ban external avatars to all ranks below Eurobricks Knights.