# Main > Technical Support and Notices >  How  can  I  get  avatars  from  CG?

## HRLMT

Can  CG  provide  me  with  avatars  that  I  can  select  from?

----------


## ChickPea

Hi, do you mean your profile avatar? In that case, no. People upload their own avatars. You add one via the Settings menu at the top right of the page.

----------


## silk186

I also have this problem. 

I've tried uploading a few that are below the 512 by 512 pixels or 512.0 KB limitation but I get the 'Unable to save image' message every time.

----------


## Mouse

What kind of image are you trying to upload?

EDIT: sorry - I seem to be asking questions that can be easily misinterpreted tonight.  I meant is it a png, jpeg, or.... what type of image file are you trying to upload?  I think we have to use jpeg or png (I might be wrong)  Mine is a straightforward jpeg

----------


## ChickPea

Silk, just checking what you're trying to achieve...

There are two pics associated with your account. One is the avatar, which is what you see in forum comments (e.g. mine is the pink Mackintosh rose). You can also have a profile pic. This can only be seen when someone visits your profile. It doesn't show in forum posts. Check out Diamond's profile. He's got Joe Pesci for his avatar and a rather terrifying profile pic of what he looks like in real life!  :Razz: 

Is it an avatar or profile pic you want? I just looked in settings, and it seems that your avatar should be 80x80px, though profile pics can be larger, as you've noted.

----------


## silk186

I've tried with both the profile and avatar, both with a link and my own file.
Every time I get the same error 'Unable to save image'.
I tried when I first joined but thought it might have been related to post count.
I tried again today but once again, no luck.

I tried uploading this 


This PNG image has the incorrect file extension.

I tried uploading this

This JPEG image has the incorrect file extension.

----------


## Mouse

Ok.  I had a similar problem last time I tried to upload an image to my Challenge thread.  It turned out that my extension was all in lower case.  Once I changed it to upper case (the same extension letters) it worked fine.  

At the time I thought it was just one of those freaky glitches, but maybe some setting on the server has been changed in an update at some point, and it no longer likes files that have extensions in lower case?

Just a wild card suggestion, but try it  :Smile:

----------


## silk186

I'll give it a try. It's difficult to find a decent avatar that is  80 by 80 pixels, the 100.0 KB is OK.
It should be increased to 150 x 150 or even 200 x 200, and keep the 100.0 KB limitation.

edit: I tried with a new file: 80 x 80 2.5kb failed every time with .JPG, .JPEG, .jpg and .jpeg

Also, it seems very strange if you successful uploaded a profile picture, I use copy image address and that fails.
Does the site convert it into something incomparable?

I was unable to set either of your avatars as my own.
https://www.cartographersguild.com/c...ar104141_2.gif
https://www.cartographersguild.com/c...tar92725_3.gif

----------


## Mouse

I find the resolution is perfectly ok for such a very small picture, but then I'm using a 15 inch laptop  :Wink:

----------


## silk186

The resolution looks OK on my monitor, the avatars are unusually small.
The size is inconvenient because you can't find anything this size on google.
Try a search some something with a custom size of 80 x 80, they are all crap.
Even windows icons are a higher resolution. The current resolution on windows is 256x256.
A google search with size set to icon gets you 256x256 and 128x128. 
I'm on a lot of forums and on all others i can use these for avatars. Some are more generous with allowing larger gifs.
If CG is concerned with storing larger icons you can use an image host, or recommend one for users.

----------


## Mouse

The original mouse is actually well over 1500 px and not square.  If you find a picture you like you can reduce it in GIMP... or, if you aren't familiar with doing that kind of thing just yet, if you upload it to this thread I can reduce it to size for you  :Smile:

----------


## ChickPea

> The resolution looks OK on my monitor, the avatars are unusually small.
> The size is inconvenient because you can't find anything this size on google.
> Try a search some something with a custom size of 80 x 80, they are all crap.
> Even windows icons are a higher resolution. The current resolution on windows is 256x256.
> A google search with size set to icon gets you 256x256 and 128x128. 
> I'm on a lot of forums and on all others i can use these for avatars. Some are more generous with allowing larger gifs.
> If CG is concerned with storing larger icons you can use an image host, or recommend one for users.


The avatar size is set by the vBulletin software that runs the forum, as far as I understand. People upload very large images to the Guild every day, so it's certainly not a storage issue. 

I can appreciate it's quite a small size, but hey, you want to learn vector, right? So make your own. If you haven't got Illustrator yet, download Inkscape for free, and give it a bash. It's quite possible to have crisp clear images that are only 80px (you know, like mine!  :Razz: )

----------


## Mouse

The weird thing is that I've just tried to upload a fresh image to my profile, and its well within the 512 limits, but it won't work.  Maybe this is a recent hiccup of some kind.  I've tried everything.

This is the one:



EDIT: its definitely not the size of the image.  I couldn't even upload this one, which is only 10 px square

----------


## ChickPea

Yeah, I think there's a problem. I just tried too and I'm getting the same error. I tried to upload from my PC and also an online image, but I'm getting the 'Unable to save' error.

I'll let Robbie & Redrobes know and they can take a look. Might be a permissions problem. Not sure. I'll raise the issue.

----------


## Mouse

I've just tried a gif, and that didn't work either.

----------


## Mouse

Silk - if you haven't got the software to be able to reduce a picture of your choice to the right size, the offer is still on.  Just upload it here and I'll process it for you.

I'm sure the uploading glitch will be sorted out soon enough  :Smile:

----------


## silk186

Reducing the image size isn't difficult but allowing a larger pixel size would allow myself an others to use the link feature to change avatars.
This was especially a pain when I was trying to figure out what was causing the issue with uploading an avatar.
I'm pretty sure the 80x80 is not a limitation of vB as older versions like v3 support larger avatars than 80x80.
From a web search it does not seem to have a size limitation.

----------


## Mouse

I am supposing that there is a good reason why the limits are set the way that they are.  Maybe its to make sure there's plenty of space, both now and into the future, for all of us to be able to upload our maps.  Those allowances are stunningly generous.  Even those of us who can't afford to donate to the Guild are permitted to upload map images up to 9.4 MB each time, and I alone have well over 100 of them dotted all over the place on this site.

It is very easy for me to imagine that the entirety of the rest of the system must be kept neatly trimmed right down to a minimum to allow the Guild to function as it does.

----------


## Voolf

> Reducing the image size isn't difficult but allowing a larger pixel size would allow myself an others to use the link feature to change avatars.
> This was especially a pain when I was trying to figure out what was causing the issue with uploading an avatar.
> I'm pretty sure the 80x80 is not a limitation of vB as older versions like v3 support larger avatars than 80x80.
> From a web search it does not seem to have a size limitation.


The limitation is not set by forums version but settings in admin options. in this forum its as follows:
"The maximum size of your custom image is 80 by 80 pixels or 100.0 KB (whichever is smaller)."

Avatar is just an avatar, It helps recognize people before reading they nickname. I like when it is small. On some forums admins allow it to be large, but its take so much space on the threads... NO.

----------


## Robbie

Could someone try uploading a custom avatar and see if it works?

----------


## Voolf

I am not sure what is the problem because silk post is very vague. It seems like he is trying to upload an avatar from URL. He says "link feature", but it dosen't get uploaded as one, because it has bigger size tne 100 Kb. Is what i think is happening.

Robbie is the limitation of avatar really 80x80; 100kb? Or this is just a default text you haven't touched?

----------


## Mouse

Midnight mouse is working fine  :Smile:

----------


## Robbie

> Robbie is the limitation of avatar really 80x80; 100kb? Or this is just a default text you haven't touched?


It is the current setting...I haven't considered increasing the settings...I guess I could. We have plenty of space, although there hasn't really been any shortage of creativity and function in existing avatars.  I also am not a fan of allowing animated avatars, do we have any of those?

----------


## Mouse

EDIT: There are four I can think of, but I've taken the names out - not wishing to make anyone feel like I've picked on them.  

I don't dislike any of them at all, in fact some of them are quite beautiful.

----------


## Mouse

I just tried to upload this version to my Profile Image, and it didn't work.  The image is 300 px square, and 111 KB



Is it that the instructions aren't tallying with the settings?  The instructions say 512 px square, or 512 KB, whichever is smaller.

----------


## Voolf

Have you tried uploading GIF instead of PNG ?
If that doesnt work, then someting must be broken.




> It is the current setting...I haven't considered increasing the settings...I guess I could. We have plenty of space, although there hasn't really been any shortage of creativity and function in existing avatars. I also am not a fan of allowing animated avatars, do we have any of those?


I dont think we have to make them bigger, but if there is a function that takes the image upon upload and shrinks it down to the max allowed size, this could be nice. People would not have to care about resizing themselfs.

----------


## Mouse

Gif didn't work either - and I tried a png and a jpg again as well.

Nothing.

----------


## Robbie

Apparently last time I updated the site, it overwrote the permissions for certain upload folders...I think I just fixed them all, so you should be able to do profile pics now.

----------


## Robbie

> I dont think we have to make them bigger, but if there is a function that takes the image upon upload and shrinks it down to the max allowed size, this could be nice. People would not have to care about resizing themselfs.


I think that may exist in vb5, but not in vb4...I'm working on acquiring the upgrade and such soon. There's going to be a lot of challenges involved in doing the upgrade.

----------


## Mouse

> Apparently last time I updated the site, it overwrote the permissions for certain upload folders...I think I just fixed them all, so you should be able to do profile pics now.


Perfick!  It worked  :Wink: 

Thank you Robbie  :Very Happy:

----------


## silk186

I tried uploading a few avatar and profile picks, both from link as well as upload.
All are smaller than 100kb, with the pixel limit some are under 10k. All attempts have failed with the same error.
If the file is too large, it will give a different error regarding file size.

----------


## silk186

> Gif didn't work either - and I tried a png and a jpg again as well.
> 
> Nothing.


I had tried these all as well before posting.

hmm, no post merge function. I will try to avoid double posting.

Profile and avatar uploads both function correctly now. Thanks Robbie.

150x150 is an ideal avatar size, and the 100kb limitation is suitable.
honestly, storage of avatars is not an issue as the 100kb limitation would be perfectly suitable not non animated (gif) avatars.
I have some 500x500 avatars that are under 100kb.
150x150 seems to be around 10-20kb.
Assuming everyone uploads a 150x150x 20kb avatar (many people don't bother) 500 avatars would be the equivalent of 10 MB map.


Some sites allow long avatars which can be very annoying as they can be longer than the post.

----------


## Straf

I don't think there's anything wrong with 80x80. I'm not too keen on large avatars as they can screw with the containing frames and cause rendering problems, especially on mobile devices. I'm not too keen on remotely hosted avatars either as if the other site is down or something is slow it can cause loading problems. Oh and they can cause certificate problems and may cause surf protection layers to erroneously report the site as a scam.

----------


## Mouse

I agree with you Straf, though were your reasons are understandably technical, as a one time Webmaster yourself, mine are primarily aesthetic.

As long as we can upload recognisable identifying images I don't really see the need to change anything at all, or we will end up with posts being more about who has the most excellent avatar image, which... _in my opinion_.... would cheapen the flavour of the site.

----------

