so how DO you shrink down an image to avatar size?

[mopaul]

without fuzzing it all up? when i shrink a jpg. down to 48 by 48 pixels, it looks like shit. what should i do?

[expatriot]

1. You need to crop it and then shrink down.

Repeat until you get something that is recognizable.

[demnan]

2. I agree with this

of course this really limits what you can use to a single simple image like a face, for instance.

[expatriot]

7. I love how you alternate your avatar between your two kids!

I notice that you switch between the two every so often. I need to do that more often. Actually, I think I am going to put them in my signature too.

[demnan]

8. Wow!

Thanks for noticing. I do try to give both their due (if I don't they are extremely jealous and will let me know about it!)

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. What are you using to do the shrinking?

A decent program may do it well, but I've got OK results with a combination of Microsoft Imaging and Paint. I use Imaging to save it sa a bitmap, and then Paint to shrink it to a smaller bitmap. Then I use Imaging to save that as a jpeg.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I did mom's in Paint shop pro. Just reduced it.. nothing else

[benburch]

5. The Gimp is free and does this well!

http://www.gimp.org/

[lpbk2713]

6. IrfanView works good.

And it is freeware also.

[VOX]

9. I've used this, it works very well! n/t

[evlbstrd]

10. And it helps to appy a sharpen filter if the software has it.