Why are avatars and profile images so small

[joehiddenabdl]

Is there a reason why the avatar and profile pictures in here have to be so itsy busty teeny tiny? I had to crop hell out of my current one and I lost all the best parts about it ( I was all toddlers up and in a child's room and every thing idk it's just confusing as so many other places let you go as big as you want

 

[Jeremiah]

The avatar and profile picture rules are to eliminate unnecessary file sizes. This saves space on the server and makes downloading pages quicker. My main device for visiting here cannot handle a lot of content because of how old and outdated it is. Because of the avatar sizes, I can sill view this forum just fine with the page size set to 50 posts. I can also use an Internet provider that charges by the GB of data use and not worry about how much data I use visiting here.

By the way, there are programs to reduce the image size and pixel count of pictures without cutting off parts of the image. I do not remember how I did mine in the past, but a quick Internet search should give some good suggestions. Windows's Paint program can be helpful to edit and change the file type to save space. Linux has programs available to resize images very quickly and easily. My favorite on Linux is to do a large batch of pictures with one typed command. Did this to remove all metadata on hundreds of pictures once; the poor computer stayed busy for hours.

 

[Akastus]

By the way, there are programs to reduce the image size and pixel count of pictures without cutting off parts of the image. I do not remember how I did mine in the past, but a quick Internet search should give some good suggestions. Windows's Paint program can be helpful to edit and change the file type to save space. Linux has programs available to resize images very quickly and easily. My favorite on Linux is to do a large batch of pictures with one typed command. Did this to remove all metadata on hundreds of pictures once; the poor computer stayed busy for hours.

Seconded. Any image manipulation program, including basic ones like Windows Paint, should have an option to "resize" the image, which allows you to reduce resolution without cropping. You lose fine detail as a result, but in this context, it doesn't matter, since the image is displayed too small to see fine detail anyway.

Personally, I find large avatars an annoying distraction, and I'm glad ADISC doesn't support them.

 

[Mattew]

I used MS Paint to adjust mine. I don't have many image adjusting stuff on my computer, and it something that was already there and is free.

 

[Moonshot]

I used one of my own photos, cropped it, and used MS Paint to get it to the right size. The resize feature worked well for me as I am not very tech savvy.

 

[Cottontail]

A few tips:

• Make sure your images conform to ADISC's maximum dimensions / file sizes before you upload them. If you don't, ADISC will conform them rather brutally, and they'll look crappy (very muddy-looking JPEGs, for instance).
• Try to find a program that lets you control the quality of the file you save, particularly if you're using a lossy format like JPEG or GIF. Use the highest quality settings you can while still remaining under the ADISC file size limits. Photoshop and GIMP are great, but I know that not everybody has the time or the nerve for those (GIMP is free, but its Unix heritage means that most Mac and Windows users will find it rather quirky and user-unfriendly).
• Use PNG format if you can (if the resulting file size is under the ADISC limit). The apparent quality will often be visually superior to JPEG and GIF.
• If you can't do these things, you can probably ask somebody to help you!