[GUIDE] Posting pictures, avatars and signatures

**Nimriel**

Everything you need to know about posting pictures, avatars and signatures!

Table of content:

I. How to add a avatar to your forum profile

II. How to post an image in the forum or add a signature

III. Online image hosting websites and their usage: Imageshack and Photobucket

IV. Avatar and signature Rules

V. Cropping images

VI: Lowering the file size

I. How to add a avatar to your forum profile

This forum has three options to choose from on how to add an avatar to your profile. You find these options if you click on ‘Profile’ at the top menu bar.

1. Upload Avatar from your machine:
This means that you upload your already saved avatar from your computer. Note that this board only support one avatar image upload at one time, its width and height can be no greater than 80 pixels (80x80) and the file size no more than 6 KB. Which means that the size of the image will be small and the quality of it will be very low. It will look something like this:

2. Upload Avatar from a URL:
Enter the URL of the location containing the Avatar image, it will be copied to this site.

You don’t have to save it to your computer; you just paste the direct link (URL) here. The same rules imply as on the first option.

3. Link to off-site Avatar:
Enter the URL of the location containing the Avatar image you wish to link to.

I think this is the best option by far. You can add an avatar that’s much bigger in both perspectives (be sure to follow the avatars and signature rules for this forum though). All you need to do is to find a direct link to the avatar of your choice, or upload it from your computer. You can for example use ImageShack or Photobucket for this task.

II. How to post an image in the forum or add a signature

First of all you need a website to host your image for you. Two of the most popular image hosting websites are ImageShack and Photobucket. I will explain how to use both of these step by step a little further down. There are some great websites out there where you can find nice avatars and signatures, if you don’t want to make your own. My favorites are http://photobucket.com and http://www.deviantart.com. Make sure you ask the owners permission before you use it.

To make a image show in the signature box when posting on the forum or when you make a post on the boards, you need a direct link to the image. Then you need to put the html code [img] before the link (URL) without any spaces and [/img] after the link. When you make a post in the forum, you can also use the tag which says Img at the second right under the subject line (you use it by highlighting the link and then click on the tag). This tag doesn't exist in your profile window where you add your signature, which means you need to add these tags yourself or use Photobucket. Make sure that you have ‘Yes’ marked in your forum profile where it says “Always attach my signature:” Here:

III. Online image hosting websites and their usage

ImageShack http://imageshack.us/
This one does not require you to make an account. You can just upload images, up to 1.5 megabytes(MB) in size each. The allowed image formats are: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, tif, tiff, and swf.

Go to http://imageshack.us/. Click the 'Browse...' button and navigate to your image that's saved on your computer. Click 'Open' once you have found the image, and then click the 'host it!' button on the webpage. Once you have done that, it uploads the image onto the ImageShack servers, and brings you to a page with 8 different URLs.

There are three thumbnail URLs options at the top. The first is in HTML, for use with coding websites. The next two are for forums. The TwilightMOM forum support the first option, “Thumbnail for forums (1)”. Once people click your thumbnail, they will be taken to the full-size image on the ImageShack website.

Next, further down, you have "Hotlinks". These are used to post full-size image into a post on a forum, without the thumbnail link. "Hotlink for forums (1)" is the one you would use for this forum. There is also a hotlink for websites in HTML code, there as well.

The next URL is labeled as "Show image to friends". This URL would simply be pasted into a post and can be clicked to go to the image on the ImageShack website. Lastly, the next URL is called "Direct link to image", and is the one that links directly to the image hosted, without the host's website behind it. This direct link is the base that all the other links are made from.

Btw, for the hotlink images, ImageShack adds a link to the ImageShack website's home page for when you click on the thumbnail/image. This is unnecessary, and may be removed if you wish. The parts that can be removed are, "[ URL=http://imageshack.us ]" and "[ /URL ]" (both the uppercase and lowercase ones), and for websites, "<a>" and "</a>".

Photobucket http://photobucket.com/

You must make a free account to able to use Photobucket. It might seem unnecessary when you have sites like ImageShack, but I highly recommend you to make your own account. This keeps all your images in one place, showing thumbnails and URLs for every single one of them. This makes it easy to share your images with your family and friends. Another plus is that you can upload short videos on there as well.

Photobucket supports images in formats: gif, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, swf, and hosts full-size images up to 1MB in size. Images over 1MB are automatically resized. Videos are supported in these formats: avi, mov, mpeg, mp4, asf, wmv, divx, 3gp, qt, dv. Videos must be under 100 MB, and less than three minutes long.

To add a image, click on the 'Choose files' button (make sure , navigate to your image that's saved on your computer and press 'Open'. Your image will now automatically start to upload to your account and once it’s done “1 of 1 image has uploaded!” will be displayed at the top. It will ask you if you want to add a title and description to the image you just uploaded to your album. When you done press the button 'save and continue', or skip this part by clicking the other option 'return to album'.
The first link is used to add your image to a a e-mail or IM The second one is the direct link to the image, which for example can be used to add a avatar to your profile on the forum. The third link is the html code for the image when posting it on a webpage. The forth link is the one that you would use for posting the image in this forum.

IV. Avatar and signature rules
TwilightMOMS as set some rules regarding the image size of avatars and signatures.
Avatars - No bigger than 2x2 (2 inches by 2 inches) or 144x144 (144 pixels by 144 pixels.

Signatures - No bigger than 2.5 inches tall (180 pixels) and no longer than 10 inches... (720 pixels).

Read more about the signature rules of this forum: http://twilightmomsforums.freeforums.org/signature-avatar-size-t3217.html

V. Cropping images

Cropping is defined as using an image-editing program to cut out parts of a large image. Cropping is very useful when, for example, you have taken a photograph you want to share with the rest of us.

We're going to go over how this is done with a program called MS Paint, which comes with every version of Windows. There are more programs out there to accomplish this, but this is the most simple and easiest way to do it.

1. Open the image file inside MS Paint. This can sometimes be done by right-clicking on the file and selecting 'Edit'. Or, you can right-click on the file, go to 'Open With...', and select 'Paint'. Another way is to simply open up the program by going to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Paint. After that, just go to 'File' and then 'Open...', and browse to and open your image.
2. Once you have the image open inside Paint, click on the Select tool to the left. Move the mouse to one corner of the image you want to cut out, hold the mouse button, and drag to the opposite corner, drawing a selection box around it.

3. Press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to copy that selected image into the computer's memory. Alternatively, you can go to 'Edit' and click on 'Copy'.

4. Press Ctrl+N (or go to 'File' and then 'New') to create a new Paint document. When it asks you whether or not you want to save the current image, say No.

5. Move your mouse to the bottom-right corner of the empty document, and make sure that the mouse cursor changes to the resize pointer (diagonal dual-arrow line). Click and drag that up and left, leaving yourself with the smallest document you can make. This step prevents white edges around your image crops. When you paste the image in, in the next step, it will automatically enlarge the document to fit the image's size (if you are asked if you want to do this, say Yes).

6. Paste the image from the computer's memory into this new document by pressing Ctrl+V, or going to 'Edit' and then 'Paste'.

7. Once you have the newly-cropped image as your whole new document, you can save this image by going to 'File' and then 'Save As...'. Select a directory to put the file in, type in a name, select the image format to use ('Save As Type:' box; discussed earlier), and hit the 'Save' button.

You now have your cropped image.

VI. Lowering the file size

Changing the image from an uncompressed BMP format to a compressed format such as JPG, is one of the easiest ways to decrease file size. Just open your image in MS Paint, go to 'File', and then 'Save As...'. Then, just change the "Save As Type:" box to say one of JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Just click 'Save', and now you have the same image, saved in a compressed-file format, with a much lower file size.

This can also be done with a larger-sized JPG image. By doing this, you'll end up with a JPG image of a smaller size.

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Hopefully this guide made a lot if things clearer for you Very Happy

If you would like me to add something to this guide or correct my spelling, please be my guest and send me a PM.

//Nimriel
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☆ My fan art ☆

**sindella** · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:42 am Post subject:

Fantastic guide! I'm sure many will find these extremely useful.
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Images used with permission from Amy Howe

StellaLuna03 · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:53 am Post subject:

Thanks for the help!
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**MyEscape** · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:58 pm Post subject:

testing **crossing fingers**
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"...try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, all right?" He smiled crookedly.

**Kel** · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:04 am Post subject:

Thanks for posting and sharing this with everyone. Great Job!!!!!
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**EmmaPheonix** · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:50 pm Post subject:

You know a lot about this stuff. Thanks! Very Happy

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**ASH** · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:38 pm Post subject:

WOW!

you put alot of work into this! Thanks a ton!
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twilightsoccermom · Newborn Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 7 Location: Louisiana

thanks so much. I just wanted to see if my avatar would show.

volturijane · Newborn Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 20

Thanks for the information! This is really helpful.

EDluvrFANpireMOM · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:10 am Post subject: oh well

Guess this will have to do for now Confused

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**Pixie** · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:14 am Post subject: Re: oh well

VEGASGAL · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: trying this out!!!!!!!

I'm seeing if this works![/img]
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'Keep the Dream Alive' - Kate

**Pixie** · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:43 am Post subject:

It worked but its way to large. Try resizing where the height it about 180pixles.
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"Throw it out the window"- Jacob

VEGASGAL · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:18 am Post subject:

Thanks for the advice Pixie,

I thought this was the best place to try it out in case something like this happened!! Embarassed

As I was linking an img, how do I adjust the size? I'm new to all this Confused

I'm chuffed though coz I managed to work out how to add an Avatar today for the first time too Very Happy

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'Keep the Dream Alive' - Kate

**BeautifulDisaster** · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject:

You can't adjust the size on this site; you need to save it somewhere that allows editing. Many of us here use photobucket.
www.photobucket.com
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