A Forum Avatar is a Profile picture usually of you, that appears with your posts. You'll need a small JPEG image file of maximum dimensions 80 pixels x 80 pixels, and no more than 6Kb in size.
If you are using a Windows PC, the most efficient way to make a really good quality reduced size version of an existing picture is to download a free and safe software package called
Irfanview from
www.irfanview.comThis is a free and good image editor program that is far superior to anything that comes supplied from Microsoft with a PC. You might find it useful for other purposes too...
The following explains how to use
IrfanView to create an 80x80 JPEG image:
Load the picture from which you want to make the square-shaped Forum avatar, into
Irfanview (use the File > Open... dialogue)
Then click on "Edit > Create custom crop selection..."
Select "Set ratio for width:height" to "1:1", "Image DPI: 72", "Width: 200", "Height: 200", and click "Save and apply to image".
You should see a white square appear somewhere on your picture. Use the RIGHT mouse button to drag the square somewhere near the area you want for the avatar, then hold down the CONTROL (CTRL) key and use the LEFT mouse button to drag-adjust the size of the square to cover what you want, and then let go CONTROL and still use the RIGHT mouse button to adjust the new position of the square to suit. You can re-adjust the size of the square by pressing CONTROL again, and using the LEFT button to drag it bigger or smaller, and so on. When you're happy that the square encompasses exactly the bit you want, go up to the Edit menu and click "Crop Selection".
This will leave you with a square image on screen which is yet to be made the right size. The maximum size for a Forum avatar is 80 pixels by 80 pixels, so now click on "Image > Resize/Resample...". On this menu type "80" in the "Width:" box, and "80" should automatically appear in the "Height:" box if the button "Preserve aspect ratio" is ticked, which it should be. Then click OK. Now you have your avatar of 80 x 80, so click "File > Save As.." and choose somewhere on your hard drive to save it, and select "Save as type:" JPG and click "Save" - make sure you type in a different filename from that of your source image file!
Before you close Irfanview and upload the avatar image, check its saved image size as reported by your file manager. It must be 6Kb or less. If it is larger than that, then go back to the Irfanview File menu, and choose Save as... and as before, select JPEG on the Save window that opens. Before you click Save, click on the button at the bottom of that window called "Show options dialog". This then shows a "JPEG save options" window with a "Save quality" slider, which you can drag to a higher or lower setting. To reduce the file size but keeping the image dimensions the same size, move the slider a little in the "low" direction, then save it again and see if Windows reports a smaller size - you may have to do View > Refresh to see if the file size is less than before, and keep reducing the slider until the saved file size is 6Kb or less. Voila!
Alternatively to avoid this trial-and-error process, you can go back to the Irfanview web site and click the Plug-ins link and then "Download All Plugins", and install them by double-clicking on the downloaded .exe file. When "Installation successful" is reported, re-start Irfanview, load in your source picture again and re-crop it as before (sorry!). Then go to Save as, reselect JPG if it's not set already, and look at the Save Options Window. There is also a button on it called "Set file size" (RIOT plugIn), click the button and type in 6.00 KB and then Save. This should now be the right file size first time.
Go to your Forum profile and choose "Edit avatar" and upload that image to the Forum and you're done.
David
