TeaChat

I have never had as much trouble uploading an avatar as I've had here. I know the regulations save space, and I understand that; but I cannot for the life of me get any photo to fit. I am not a graphic designer or heavy photo editor so I don't know all the trade secrets. I use picassa and iphoto. That's it. I'm sure I'm overlooking something, or perhaps there is a simple way that I just don't know about. Can any of you clue me in? I apologize for being dense.

The first thing to ask is have you been able to upload any photo here?

Next, what does the error message say?

You will have to resize your photo to 100X100 pixels. Nothing larger will fit.

And not compressed. You have to resize, not compress. Compressing leaves the file size too large even if the photo is the correct size.

I think I have always used photos saved on my computer for this, and resized them using my computer's installed photo editor.

When you save, does the program let you specify the quality of the JPEG? I know iphoto doesn't. A more compressed JPEG is what you need. And by compressed, I mean JPEG compression, not image size.

Please feel free to PM me if you need more assistance.

Chip wrote:Please feel free to PM me if you need more assistance.

I posted because I wanted to avoid having to bug you about it, but that may be what it takes. I guess my problem is that I don't know how to "resize". Compression does not work, like you said. The file is always to big.

Is there an easy "resize" feature on a mac that I don't know about? Picassa does not seem to be able to do this.

ohhh, mac. I do not know.

You would not be bugging me ...

tortoise wrote:...Is there an easy "resize" feature on a mac that I don't know about? Picassa does not seem to be able to do this.

I'm on a Mac, but I AM a graphic designer and use Photoshop. I am sure there must be a free program that will allow you to adjust the JPEG compression. Gimp is the first to come to mind.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelb ... otoedm.htm
http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-p ... -software/
http://www.lifeclever.com/10-free-web-b ... photoshop/

Agree with the OP. It's not the 100X100 that's the issue, it's the file size. It was a PITA to get my image quality reduced enough to fit.

TwoPynts wrote:

tortoise wrote:...Is there an easy "resize" feature on a mac that I don't know about? Picassa does not seem to be able to do this.

I'm on a Mac, but I AM a graphic designer and use Photoshop. I am sure there must be a free program that will allow you to adjust the JPEG compression. Gimp is the first to come to mind.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelb ... otoedm.htm
http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-p ... -software/
http://www.lifeclever.com/10-free-web-b ... photoshop/

Interesting TP. Whenever someone on Windows compresses, the file remains too large even though the image size is "reduced" to 100 X 100 ...

Instead, all they have to do is resize the image which also reduces the file size.

I will have to get on a mac one day.

Chip wrote:...Interesting TP. Whenever someone on Windows compresses, the file remains too large even though the image size is "reduced" to 100 X 100 ...

Instead, all they have to do is resize the image which also reduces the file size.

I will have to get on a mac one day.

I see there is an overlap in terminology here.
When I think resize, I think of changing the actual pixel dimensions. When I think compression, I instead thing of changing at what quality the JPEG saves. Photoshop has a very nice "save for the web" function that lets you preview the image and final size, and adjust the compression accordingly. It also gets rid of extra "stuff" attached to the file that increases its size unnecessarily. I think GIMP has a similar feature.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I will give it a shot...next time I have a few hours on my hands.

It's amazing how important an avatar becomes. I've spent way too much time on it already and you see the result.

I'll figure it out.

I've got all avatars turned off, makes life much easier for me.

Do you have a google account? easiest way I've found to resize for online use is to use the photo bit of my google account - just click on the pic, click on edit and it brings up the picnik photo editor, same across windows, linux and mac. Click the resize and off you go.

Just tuned on avatars and tried to resize a photo and add it via picnik

3,2,1...

bit squished but seems to have worked - I'd crop to 1:1 before resizing next time.

*or leave it at the original ratio

I have had to resize images in Photoshop, setting the image size to 100 pixels square at 72ppi, THEN save as gif to get them small enough. Doesn't help if you don't have PS, though.