How can I make an avatar photo?

[Tim]

After being on the internet for several years, I've finally decided that I MUST have an avatar photo, since most other people already have them.

But my photo editing software won't make them small enough.

The Image Expert 2000 software that came with my computer has long since expired, probably because I never used it.

The photo software that came with my digital camera (Fujifilm Finepix Viewer) won't crop the photos down to any less than 160 by 120.

So what can I do to make a nice photo? I didn't see any way to compress the photos into .gif files.

A solution that costs $ Zero is preferred.

[croc_]

you could always send it to someone and have them do it :P

you might also want to check out www.download.com for any shareware or freeware that might do it.

[primesuspect]

Tim, email me the picture and I'll convert it for you.

[profdlp]

IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) will do it, and it's free.

Of course, it would be hard to turn down a generous offer like primesuspect made! :rockon:

[drasnor]

I use MS Paint and MS Photo Editor for all my image manipulation needs, except for animated .GIFs. I do those a frame at a time with the aforementioned Paint and Photo Editor, then combine with GIFBuilder. GIFBuilder is Macintosh-only and free, so I run it on top of Basilisk II (an open-source Macintosh emulator) or one of my Macs if one is nearby.

-drasnor :fold:

[kanezfan]

you can get the demo of macromedia fireworks free for 30 days, it's very easy to use and comes with awesome tutorials to teach you how to use it.

[tefleming]

If I remember right, I used the Image Resizer Powertoy in XP.

[Tim]

Primesuspect: Thanks. I may email you some photos. But I need to learn how to do this on my own also.

I downloaded the MacroMedia Fireworks program. Played around with it for a while, but couldn't get it to do anything useful.

A while back I was experimenting with the photo on the Home page of my website. I had saved it as a .gif file (I think), but I don't remember what program I used to do it.

[Dexter]

There is a great little shareware app called ClickPic. This adds simple image manipulation options to your Right-Click mouse button. It adds a thumbnail preview to the contextual menu of images, as well as menus for Resize, Rotate, and Convert file types. This can be quickly and easily used right within a Windows folder for single or batch resizes. It automatically saves any modifications to a new file with a "(1)" added to the name, so you don't ever have to worry about saving over your original by mistake. This program is great for quick resizes, my wife and I use it a lot for resizing digital photos in batch then adding them to an e-mail to famiy and friends.

WHen the 30 day trial runs out, the software still works, you just get a little 5 second nag screen when you go to use it.

Great little app, my wife loves it for simple resizes before posting to websites or e-mailing photos.

http://www.smalleranimals.com/saclickpic.htm

Dexter...

[Tim]

That ClickPic thing worked for me. Thanks for all the answers. Now I have to make a good photo to reduce to the allowable size.