how to make small gif files

[Little Yamori]

Thanks Greenlaw,

I was going for just a static jpeg, gif or png, whichever works best for the avatar. Here's my character's image. I just can't seem to get it smaller than 12Kb

[Greenlaw]

Ha, ha! That's super cute, Little Yamori!

For a static image, JPG is the most compact but you want the quality level set high enough to avoid artifacts. PNG should work too, no artifacts but slightly larger file size. The only reason to use GIF is to embed animation but the image quality will be much lower than what you'd get with JPG or PNG.

I'll take a look at this.

[Greenlaw]

Here's a couple of PNGs.

The first one is your original image scaled to 80 square pixels as required for an avatar. The file size is 9k.



Since the image is being scaled to 6%, I thought the outline work looked a little weak so I added a 12 pixel stroke (to the original) in the second version. This one is only 9k too.



Since these are PNGs, there is no loss in quality like you will get with JPG.

I think the character looks great but since the forum's icon size is pretty tiny, it might be better to draw it a little simpler and with thicker lines overall.

Oh, also I framed it inside a square canvas to fit the forum's 'avatar' format.

Hope this helps.

[Little Yamori]

Hey Greenlaw,

I really appreciate the help, and all the time spent. I'll keep at it until I get the file size right.

Thanks again for all you contribute to the forum too.

Cheers!