MTFCA Forum

If you'd like to add an avatar photo to your information block to the right, here's how you do it.

Once you've successfully registered and are logged on, look at the upper right hand corner of the screen and do the following things:

Before you get started though....please know....you'll need a REALLY small file size to do this (21 kB or less and 90 pixels by 90 pixels).

- Click on the down arrow next to your username at the top right corner of the screen.
- Click on "User Control Panel"
- Click on the "Profile" tab
- Click on "Edit Avatar"
- Click on "Choose File"
- Find the file on your computer that you're going to use.
- Click on "Submit"

Thanks! I think I got it!

That's what I call a really compact car.

Yeah it looks like I could bring the car in at night and set it up on the mantel above the fireplace!

Perry, in whatever software you used to shrink your avatar picture down to 90 pixels, see if it has a box you can click to preserve the original photo's aspect ratio.

Or, if you can find out how tall and wide the original photo is, set the maximum dimension of the shrunken photo to 90 pixels and the minimum dimension to less than 90. For example, if the original picture was 1024 wide by 968 pixels high, the avatar version should be:

90 pixels wide by (90 x (968 / 1024)) = 85 pixels high

I took mine down to less then the 90X90 and was still too big. I will keep at it.

Yea, right !

I don't seem to be able to "resize" my photo either ?

Easy as 1, 2.... well, pretty easy.
Thanks

Microsoft "Paint" has a resize feature that can shrink a photo down to a specified number of pixels while preserving the original picture's aspect ratio:

Click on the attached screen shot to see a larger view.

Even opening with paint, it won't go below 31 kb.

I guess I don't need an avatar. Was using a quick resize app on the "phone" it won't go small enough. Got to try regular pix and see if that still works for me.

By gum, I have an avatar!
All of about 5 minutes even with my mistakes on my antique Puppy Linux system.
Oh good grief. We have smileys!

After messing around for a while failing to get the file size below 21K I cracked the problem by experimenting with image file types.
I usually save in JPEG or BMP formats, For the avatar I tried GIF instead and - presto - saved with the 90 x 90 pixel size and under 21KB.
So, if you are having trouble, have a go at using the GIF format.
Cheers
Adrian

And you can edit - (I added the smiler "just because" I could!)

Duey_C wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:54 pm

Oh good grief. We have smileys!

It's almost too much goodness to take in Duey.

Hahaha! Almost!

Clearly above my "pay grade" !

I think I got it

Don,

Thanks so much for the info -- otherwise I wouldn't have an Avatar. I wonder if my grandson will be impress? Nah....

Took some struggling, but I think I got it...maybe...sort of.

I find it interesting how different the avatars look once in place.
On this 1600X900 resolution, 20" LCD desktop monitor, my avatar happens to look really good while some others are a bit fuzzy.
IF, IF it makes a difference, I started out with a 62KB, 640X480 photo of Lucky the TT that I had already shrunk from my phone and shrunk it down again to 88X66 pixels after I dragged and dropped it into my Linux mtPaint program with the "fix aspect ratio" checked.
It ended up to be 3KB.
Food for thought? I don't know. Interesting tho.
I do hope this helps someone. If you are still having trouble with an avatar and would like one, shoot me a PM. I might have a go at it for you.
We'll get used to a posters avatar until some jerk (like me) starts rotating the avatars around for fun! Hint hint.
This forum IS light as a feather and lightning fast for me. I hope you're faring the same!

Got it

If I can do it anybody should be able to.

I think I managed to get my Avatar up alright. Maybe.

Oh Boy, my first avatar

If this works, it took less than 3 min.

Picture test

Well the photo came out blurry, but it’s a start.

NICE avatars you guys! This is fun!
Angmar, a beautiful pic of your Runabout Mark!
critter, I wish to see more.

I had quite a time resizing. Ended up using Photo Editor. Now, if it will post.

Just got my avatar pic added, with some trial and many errors I got a picture small enough and saved it in the gif format as was suggested above.

Thanks for all your work Chris!


Avatar original pic:

Only took a few hours!!!!! Ended up with Mr Google How do I reduce a photo to 21 kb... up came a page that let me do it in two minutes. I could reduce to the required pixel dimensions but the kb never dropped below the 40's...sorted now... almost feel clever!!!!!

heres mine----a hassel to shrink it down so SMALL

I did it !
On my PC it was fairly easy

I went thru 5 pictures trying to change/upload and each time I got the same thing, file needs to be 90x90 and smaller than 21KB. It finally downed on me that it was restating the obvious, and even when my file was small enough so when you get a pic small enough to upload hit submit if it isn't small enough it will reject it, I waited 30 minutes trying to get a pic that was uploadable when in fact I never got it to load because I did not go far enough. I'll probability change it here in a little wile with what I wanted to in the first place.

OK YES IT'S IN ALL CAPS SO YOU WILL NOTICE. RESIZE YOUR PIC THEN SAVE IT AS A .GIF THIS WILL BE THE SMALLEST FORMAT AND SHOULD UPLOAD EASILY.

I resized mine to 90 x 90 but it was 45k. It was rejected as the max size is 21k, seemingly a hard limit.
I’ll keep trying

I can't get my photo small enough using Paint. I tried reducing by pixels and by percentage. I can't get below 124 Kb.

I posted a comment on this thread a few minutes ago but now it's gone. I clicked "submit" and it showed up.

Anyway, I reduced my photo to 1 pixel x 2 pixels and it was still too large. What are you guys doing? I used Paint.

Tony, do what Jerry said. I just tried it. My 90 pixel JPEG is 74 KB. I changed it to a GIF and it became 12 KB.


JPEG is 74 KB.


GIF looks the same but is 12 KB.

At 885 pixels you can see what it is.

And just how does one go from jpeg to gif ?????????????????

With your jpeg open in paint choose save as and select GIF.

Thank you Mr. Jelf! I saved my photo as a GIF and it worked. I also converted the large version to GIF but I had to reduce the file size down to 287 KB for it to load.

I converted my file from JPEG at 31k to gif at 8k

It worked

It’s a better picture of the cat than me but that’s no surprise

Test of new account, avatar, and profile.
I printed out all the fields from the old forum and entered the exact stuff into this new forum.
Except there was no field called "Full Name:" in the new forum so I'm guessing it's not going to look right.
The avatar was the old photo resized to 90x90 but it did not look readable so I substituted for the black balloon thumbs up.
This is only a test.
Vern (Vieux Carre)

I did as Tony B suggested and changed from .jpg to .gif and it allowed me to create my avatar.
Thanks!

I could not get this business down in the old forum and I can't now damn it. Win 10. Got to the paint business but not sure about the size. Dropped pixels to 90 got unuseable junk. (this added about 1 hr after the orig. post) The hell with it.

Test of old profile pic at 90 x 90.

Whoope I did it. I just gotta figure out how I did it

Steve, I remember you're on a Mac ?
On my iPhone your posts were in a smaller font size and now on the new site, they are bold large fonts ??
Did you do this on purpose or just your default ?

If you have Win 10 and are having problems read my post below "resizer app for win 10. Went nuts with Paint & really lost it but this worked for me.

OK. Finally. Cooler heads finally prevailed. Damn that avitar bunk really threw me for a loop. Sorry for the venting,

Charlie B in N.J. wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:22 pm

If you have Win 10 and are having problems read my post below "resizer app for win 10. Went nuts with Paint & really lost it but this worked for me.

Odd, I have 10 also and had no problem resizing in paint. I size by pixels, horizontal at 90 and whatever vertical was...

The biggest bummer of all? Apparently only needed it for the Avitar. The engine pic above is straight out of my pic file with no alterations.

Wow.
What an ordeal. I had to resize with GIF to make it all work.
Still learnin'

: ^ )

Well, I'll be damned - I apparently have an avatar !!! Holy Crap - I should just stay out in the shop !!!

Test

I got lucky with my avatar of Lucky the TT. I was wrong stating that I had taken the photo with my phone and then downsized it to 62K.
I took the photo with my antique Olympus D-460 digital camera set at the lowest setting (640X480) so the pic has been 62K the whole time.
I took some pics when I had a crazy induced thought about selling lucky to a fella in TN. Thank goodness he had other things going on and I hadn't gotten to know Lucky yet.
I downsized an avatar today of a TT for a friend that was only 560 some KB's. It turned out a bit pixelated/fuzzy.
How the devil do we keep larger pics from pixelating so darn bad when shrinking them?
On my Paint program I can't choose to turn it into a GIF. Don't have the option.
If I start rotating my avatars, I'm gonna use my old digital camera and start with low res pics already set to go with the old forum. They're clear as a bell!
Am I blowing smoke and totally missing the point?
Here's Dan's gorgeous Touring at 2.6 KB. I used the 34KB pic on the forum for use to downsize. Was this OK Dan? I hope so.
How'd it turn out? Pretty fair? Still learning.
I've much to learn with Ford model T's, old Twin City tractors and computers.

Just a heads up, I plan to change my avatar every so often just to keep folks on their toes.

Love, LOVE the Red Green avatar!!!
You're days ahead of me on avatar changes!
EDIT: Months actually.
Interesting notion: I had used my keyboard to make smiley or winky faces on the ol' forum. I typed colon, dash, end parentheses and got a smiley instead!

Thanks Duey! Looks like you got the hang of it to me.

A big "THANKS" to cdromtom for the guidance !

Dan, try that for your avatar if you'd like! Should be ready to go if you save it and add it...

Too bad you can’t click on the avatar to get a full size image on your profile page.

Uh huh!

Much better! Thanks!

Perchance, does anyone offer an Avetar producing service - like, for pay ? I don’t know gif ?, jpeg ? or even the various and sundry resize options. And my frustration level is low. But I’ve been on this Forum since Spring of ‘98 and would like to have - I still call it - a Profile Picture. Please PM me at gwhouse73(one)(@) gmail.com if interested....

George House wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:45 am

Perchance, does anyone offer an Avetar producing service - like, for pay ? I don’t know gif ?, jpeg ? or even the various and sundry resize options. And my frustration level is low. But I’ve been on this Forum since Spring of ‘98 and would like to have - I still call it - a Profile Picture. Please PM me at gwhouse73(one)(@) gmail.com if interested....

George....email me a photo you'd like "avatarized" and I'll return it to you, properly sized. No payment necessary.

My email address is rustyfordsATgmailDOTcom

My 'resized' picture has too much "Pixel-ating!" (Little 'blocks' all over the photo.) Won't add to my profile until I figgur it owt!

First posting on new site. Big improvement!

Here you go George. If on a Windows machine right click this pic, go to save as, remember where you put it on your computer then open paint not 3d paint and you can do this by finding the file where you put it, then clicking on it once, then right clicking and scroll down till you get to "open with" then pick paint( do not open in 3D paint). After its open just go to resize and change it to pixels and click in one of the boxes after changing it to pixels and delete the number and put 87 in one box and with the box checked "keep aspect ratio" it will autimotlicy update the other box. Then save. It will now be just the right size to be your new Avatar.

Easy, used Paint in Win10. Took down to 90x60 pix using resize in upper left.
Turns out to be about 5k size,

Avatar test.

Ed Baudoux wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:01 am

Avatar test.

All systems are GO....countdown to launch.

Thank you Adrian!

Your suggestion to change the file to a GIF file did the trick for me!

Using Windows Paint, change to pixels, I used 89 in the top box & I had the "keep Aspect Ratio box" clicked. Then after that I went to "Save As" & changed it to a GIF file...It worked then!

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/thr ... ed.614419/

Finally !.. Success ! Thanks to a little help from my friends I HAVE AN AVATAR TOO! But I had to get rid of that shirt....it made me look fat

Man, it was a bear. Think I got it

I think I recognize it.

yes you do Steve, just prior to us trying to get your dead T started. An adventurous day.

TEST, just wanted to see if it worked after 2 days of trying!

Howard Dennis

This is my daughter wearing a clown nose with her PJ’s on

I do not have paint and went to a re size site on the net and put in 90 x 90 pixels came back said too big Put in 80 x 80 still too large not a computer person and do not see anything about magabites. How do I do this with on line software as I do not want program stay on my computer I thought 90 x 90 would do it and it did srink the photo for me but can't get it posted on site. Thanks

Eck wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 11, 2019 4:21 pm

I do not have paint and went to a re size site on the net and put in 90 x 90 pixels came back said too big Put in 80 x 80 still too large not a computer person and do not see anything about magabites. How do I do this with on line software as I do not want program stay on my computer I thought 90 x 90 would do it and it did srink the photo for me but can't get it posted on site. Thanks

I'm guessing here....but your file size is probably still too big. It needs to be 21kb or smaller

IF IT CAN GO WRONG IT WILL FOR ME, DID IT JUST LIKE IT SAID TO, THE LITTLE BOX SAYS NO PHOTO SUBMITED I TRIED SEVERAL TIMES TOO WHERE DID I SCREW UP ?

Richard G. after turning blue in the face trying to get 90X90 picture, I used Image Resizer that Charles B used. It works like a champ easy to use even for old school non computer people like me. Just down load the program. click on select file, find the picture You want from Your picture files. Select the picture, click on resized file size 90X90. save resized photo to Your computer picture file. exit program. go back to MTFCA board. click on Your user name / profile. click on avatar edit. search picture files for Your resized picture, click on photo and then click on submit. That's it. Yes a lot of steps but pretty straight forward. Good Luck.

To add an avatar photo in window right click on the picture you want to use. Scroll down to open with paint and click on paint. In paint click on resize and select pixels, type 90 in the horizontal box and click ok. In the top left corner click on file, scroll down to save as and click on GIF Picture. Save as window will open, click on save. Your picture is now saved as a GIF and will now up load to your profile.

How does an Avatar photo differ from a regular photo?

How does an Avatar photo differ from a regular photo?

Apparently, the old message already posted feature doesn't exist anymore!

Larry, I could be a smart aleck and just answer your question by saying "It's smaller", but that doesn't tell the whole story...

Some say that an avatar is: "an icon or figure representing a particular person in video games, Internet forums, etc." which would seem to indicate that it is something without life.

Then again, an avatar is said to be: "a manifestation, appearance, or incarnation. In terms of social media in today's world, your Avatar is your identity. You choose to make your Avatar whatever you want it to be. It is what you project to others. There are many people who have a different image online than in person."

It could be inferred that an avatar requires a great imagination, whereas a picture is simply a " visual representation of a person, object, or scene, as a painting, drawing, photograph, etc." that is relatively easy to "see".

Hope this helps.

Of course, over time the meaning of words and phrases do change - what was originally meant no longer applies. I believe both of us remember when Coke was something easily obtained at the local store, no matter how young we were. It's a bad word now....as well as an older reference to the character immortalized by Sam Spade. Dick L. from St. Louis can certainly add much more - if he has the time and inclination.

I don't often envy the weather out west, but today has been an exception...enjoy your warmth!

AVATAR:

I think I got it! Had to use a PC instead of my Mac!

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:56 pm

"Easier on a PC..." ??? That does not compute.

My MacBook died a year ago, after many years loyal service. I'm stuck using my work laptop until I save the shekels to buy another one. They are superior in so many ways.

I have found that downsizing pics for an avatar on a pc can be done a little nicer by using a smaller pic to start with.
My avatar started out at 63K, taken with my old Olympus camera so it appears pretty clear in the avatar.
This worked good to help a couple other members here: I cheated and used their pics right off the page which is 30-50 K. I think. ?
I didn't click to get at the larger pic. I shrunk the page's pic down to 90 X xx.
windows bite (intentionally UN-capitalized). I use Linux since 2,011 as I'm in complete control of the machine and the operating system.
I'd prolly like a Mac too.