# How do I post an avatar image? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 6, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401 "2020-12-06T19:10:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/1 "2020-12-06T19:10:09Z")
I’m still getting used to the new board software. When I came back after some absence, I was issued a plain grey A next to my name. Mrs. Nott made a pictograph I’d like to use, and I began to look for my profile. I don’t seem to have one. I don’t know how to replace my “A in a grey square” with my “ask no questions” image. Can you help me out? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/2 "2020-12-06T19:13:11Z")
Go to your profile – click on the gray “A” in the upper right corner of your screen, click on the icon that looks like a person’s head and shoulders, and then select “Preferences”. There, you’ll see an option for “Profile Picture.” You have the option to upload a custom image; you may need to resize the image that Mrs. Nott made for you (I don’t remember if there are size constraints). ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/3 "2020-12-06T20:01:55Z")
Thank you, **kenobi\_65**! After some wrestling with the image size, I have a new avatar. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/4 "2020-12-06T20:08:50Z")
Most excellent! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/5 "2020-12-07T17:11:15Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > … > After some wrestling with the image size, I have a new avatar. I’m considering doing the same. Please share what image size finally worked for you. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/6 "2020-12-07T19:35:39Z")
It’s a png file, 194 pixels x 194 pixels. I hope that’s useful information. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/7 "2020-12-07T22:23:35Z")
It is. I ended up grabbing the large size of my standard issue icon off my user page. That’s a 120x120 png. Which I then diddled, saved as a 120x120 png, and uploaded. The icon shown next to each post is 40x40, so resizing that down from 120x120 should be pretty smooth. Not that jaggies much matter on something as un-fancy as my icon. Hope this info helps somebody some time. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/8 "2020-12-07T22:33:41Z")
Haha. Good job on the avatar, @LSLGuy. I just clicked “180 flip” for mine. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/9 "2020-12-07T23:08:45Z")
If you’re at all HTML savvy it’s easy to trick Discourse into rendering any white letter in any color of box. So you could become a different color or get an N in the same color then cut-and-paste it with your inverted F or whatever. I tricked Discourse into generating an S icon in my assigned color then just pasted in 2 Ls from my real icon and cleaned up the edges. Viola! ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/10 "2020-12-07T23:12:17Z")
I do envisage an “N” sharing the inverted “F”'s vertical bar. I shall see. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-post-an-avatar-image/927401/11 "2020-12-08T00:46:04Z")
Here’s my older post partly explaining how the Discourse icon generator works. > [@Is every icon unique?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-every-icon-unique/917100/4): > > I investigated the HTML. The icons are generated on the fly using a simple interface that specifies the letter to be used, the RGB color value in hex, and the size in pixels. Which means there are 256^3 = 16,777,216 possible colors for any given letter. Though humans (and their monitors) can’t discern nearly that many different colors in the gamut. Times 26 letters gives 436,207,616 possible icons. I don’t know if a Discourse username can start with a non-letter. The icon generator always ren… Here’s the rest of the story. This is an example of an auto-generated icon I grabbed from another user: [https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/90.png](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/90.png) And this is the corresponding url: > [https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/90.png](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/90.png) - The letter to generate is given in the part of the URL after “/letter/”. You can use upper or lower case in the url and it’ll always generate an uppercase response. - The next section is the hex RGB code for the background. You can find yours by looking at the generated icon on the change-icon popup. - Finally, the name part of the filename.png is the size in pixels. So that Url makes a T, with a background color of #EA5D25 that’s 90 pixels square. Happy diddling!