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by Tim Zurowski on Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:28 pm

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I am trying to change and upload a different avatar, but no matter what I do, I cannot get it down to the maximum size of 9kb. I sized it to 50x50 pixels and even at a saved quality setting of 1, it is still around 30kb. How do you get them down to a size that will be accepted for upload to NSN?

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Tim Zurowski
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by nclements on Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:56 pm

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What file format are you trying? An uncompressed file should be a maximum of about 10k (50x50x4 where "4" represents 32-bit) plus a bit more for the header information.

If you still can't get it, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do.

Nicholas

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by Royce Howland on Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:11 pm

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Tim, you need to strip metadata and do not embed the sRGB color space (or any other).

Royce Howland

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by Tim Zurowski on Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:35 am

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Thanks for the help guys. I decided to give up. The only way I was able to get it down to under 9kb, was to use the Save for Web feature in CS3 (which I never use) but the resulting image is so poor that it would not look good as my avatar. When I use Save As, the image looks okay, but I cannot get it under 30kb that way. Basically, I was just changing it from my Snowy Owl to a head shot of myself. No big deal

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Tim Zurowski
https://timzurowski.smugmug.com/

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by thorin on Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:03 am

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What is wrong with this picture - a contributor with over 10,000 posts can't change his avatar? Royce, how about a detailed explanation of how to accomplish this task?

David

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by Royce Howland on Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:08 am

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The issue is simply the file size, not the process of changing the avatar file. To get the avatar JPEG down to the size that our forum software will permit, it is necessary to strip out metadata and the color space, as mentioned previously. Normally with Photoshop this would be done with Save For Web, since Save As does not remove the extra information. However there are many other software programs that would do the same thing.

Tim knows this.

I can't say why a 9KB 50x50 JPEG would look too poor to use, perhaps there's simply too much detail in it...

Royce Howland

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by Greg Downing on Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:38 pm

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There is really no reason why, with stripped metadata, that a file of 50x50 can't be sized to 9KB. Tim's current avatar is less than half that size, as is mine.

Tim, if you send me the file I will take care of it for you personally.

Meanwhile we will increase the max file size by 50% for avatars if that will also help.

Greg Downing
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by nclements on Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:02 pm

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For a limited time (until Greg says otherwise) Avatars can now be up to 15,000 bytes in size, a 50% bonus.

Also remember that the 15,000 bytes limit is only imposed for avatars that are hosted at NatureScapes.net. Users can always store their images elsewhere and link to them. (I believe the 50x50 pixel limits will still be enforced by the forum's software.)

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by Tim Zurowski on Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:31 am

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I did not realize that the Avatars could be linked to another location, but I guess that makes sense as that is how I post all of my images. So, it was really easy to do and did not require any special sizing. So the change is now made, and everyone can now see my ugly mug

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Tim Zurowski
https://timzurowski.smugmug.com/

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by nclements on Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:58 am

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Tim,

The next time you want to create an avatar, try using PNG as the output format. It's lossless (unlike JPG) and seems to do better than JPG with some small images. For instance your current avatar is 16k; the PNG equivalent (which looked about the same to my untrained eye) was 7.5k, which would easily have fit in the previous limits. Which makes sense as the image is 50x50 (2500 pixels) with 3 colours (no transparency so we lose the 4th byte per pixel), and a small bit of header/meta info.

Nicholas

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by E.J. Peiker on Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:33 pm

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Seriously, 5K is more than enough for a 50x50 Avatar even saved at a setting of 10 on JPEG. If you can't get it down to that there is only one reason, there is metadata in the file.

A completely uncompressed TIF at 50x50 is less than 20KB so a JPEG would be MUCH smaller than that even with minimal compression.

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by Tim Zurowski on Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:53 pm

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In CS3 it read as 34.9 kb when I sized it and saved as jpeg, so I am not sure why it would now read as 16kb? Regardless, since it is working and I can link it to my server, size is a non-issue for me now

EJ, when I used the Save for Web feature, which is the only way I know of to remove the metadata, the image looked really bad. I am sure you guys could have made it look good, and there are many ways to make it it work under 10kb, but I do not know how to do it (other than Save for Web).

Anyway, if you guys can stand seeing my mugas my Avatar, I have no other concerns in this area

Cheers
Tim Zurowski
https://timzurowski.smugmug.com/

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by thorin on Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:52 pm

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Oops Tim,

Can we have the owl back?

Glad you got it figured out - hope I can do the same soon.

David

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by Jim Neely on Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:44 am

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After doing a Save for the Web, I get the following message trying to upload:

The upload was rejected because the uploaded file was identified as a possible attack vector.

What's going on there?

jn

[b]Jim Neely - Dripping Springs TX[/b]
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by Royce Howland on Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:09 am

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Jim, I believe that error message (perversely) means that your image is too small.

There is some security code in our upload routines that figures, from what I can tell, that an image file that is super tiny probably isn't legit. I'm guessing your attempted avatar is only a couple KB in size; increase the JPEG quality to get the file size up to at least 3 - 4KB and it should work.

Royce Howland

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by Jim Neely on Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:18 am

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Thanks, Royce. I'll give it a try.

jn

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by George DeCamp on Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:27 pm

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thorin wrote:Oops Tim,

Can we have the owl back?

Yeah, or at least pass out some anti nausea meds!

George DeCamp
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014945113337

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