MacGregorSailors.com

How in the world do you guys who have pictures displayed for your Avatar get a file at 6KB? I used photoshop to go down to 15 x 15 pixels with minimum JPG resolution and still get over 9KB, not to mention that the picture is a spec on my hi-res screen. Some of your pictures are actually clear. Do you get larger file allotments with rank or is there a neat trick I'm not aware of?

PS. Just went over 100 posts and got promoted to "Engineer" I find this hilarious, since I am probably the last person in the world to hold that title.

I use the software that came with my Canon camera to "export" the original picture to another one. In the process, it allows you to crank down the JPEG quality, and I run it down to 50%. For doing the cropping and final sizing, I sometimes use MS Office XP Photo Editor or MS Office 2003 Picture Manager.

Microsoft has a Free Image Resizer for Windows XP. Pretty cool. Really shrinks them down. I use it all the time.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... rtoys.mspx

Hey Delevi(engineer)...Im a recent promotion too...welcome to the elite...heh heh...But anyway, I always claim the title of CAPTAIN when on my MAC, even tho my 1st matie seems to always be in charge of things...sigh...isnt that called treason, mutiny, or some kinda crime in "water language"...oh well...I never argue with the crew even tho its only one.
Happy Sailing to you and your crew...

freeware .... Faststone Image Viewer .... easiest ever!

Thanks All. I'll do some downloading and give this another shot. Strange that Photoshop wasn't able to do the trick. Even if I was to get the file size down, the picutre would be invisible.

I used my HP Image Zone Software that came with my printer - it lets me size by Pixel count, which is real neat since you just set it to the limit of 80 vertical for Avatars...

delevi wrote:Thanks All. I'll do some downloading and give this another shot. Strange that Photoshop wasn't able to do the trick. Even if I was to get the file size down, the picutre would be invisible.

Well .... there IS a distinct sequence of events you need to follow.
Maybe this will help:

• - Start with an average photo at 1024x768, maybe 1 megabyte;
  
  - Crop your headshot (or whatever) as tightly as you choose from the larger photo;
  
  - If you used a constant aspect ratio, you have something like 320x240 pixels;
  
  - Now crop that into a square shape (240x240) by turing-off the "maintain ratio" option;
  
  - (Above 2 steps simply for clarity ... you can do it in one step);
  
  - Now use "resize/resample" to set the avatar size to 80 x 80, and it will automatically find it only ~3k to 5k bytes.

Note: Faststone viewer has a rather unique user interface. Once you load a photo into its workspace, the picture fills your entire display screen. Then by scooting the mouse to any of the four edges it presents you with alternate menu choices - means you need to learn how their menus are organized, but it becomes very easy and intuitive.

Is there anyway we can up the size of the avatar to say 20, would make it much easier. Then I could use a picture of my boat as my avatar.


Thanks!

offline wrote:Is there anyway we can up the size of the avatar to say 20, would make it much easier. Then I could use a picture of my boat as my avatar.

!	Frank C:
	You mean upsizing from 6 kB to 20 kB?? .... maybe not too likely. Notice that every avatar is repeated on every post ... 15 of 'em on each page. OTOH, broadband is ever wider ... I'll post your request where the Boss can see it.

Is it possible for Faststone to make my pic better looking? Maybe buff me up some.... Ah, never mind. The admiral like me just the way I am now.

Or better yet, can it make a Democrat look as good as a Republican?

MARK PASSMORE wrote:Or better yet, can it make a Democrat look as good as a Republican?

No but you can use the software to remove a republican from an incriminating photograph

MARK PASSMORE wrote:Is it possible for Faststone to make my pic better looking? Maybe buff me up some.... Ah, never mind. The admiral like me just the way I am now.

There's a song about that.

I finally got it to work. Used this website.

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/create-avatar/

Just browse and select a picture from your computer, select 80 for pixels, and then click on "Resize".

You will be able to select from three options (left crop, center crop, right crop) and then save the new avatar to your computer.

It was very easy.

Good Luck,
Jim