A
typical Avatar stands out because
they are generally larger than most other icon
types ranging in size from 50 x 50 like a buddy icon or even
as large as 100 x 100 pixels. They are used to
convey identity of a user in a forum or message
board and are usually .gif or .jpg format.
Note: The
general icon size comparison is to give you an overall
idea of common sizes you
might see. Sizes may vary depending on display factors,
user settings, and/or application constraints. This
is especially true for desktop icons. In the example
the avatar happens to be 80 x 80 pixels
because I created it at that size and
I specified 80 x 80 in the HTML code. Would a large
100 x 100 avatar be usable ? Absolutely YES it "could" but
you need to be careful to make sure the forum
or bulletin board allows that size. Most likely you
would have better luck sticking to sizes like 50
x 50. Some popular forums using avatars are hosted by sites such as Planet
Half-Life, Movieforums.com,
or steampowered.com.
There
are a million others. For Webmasters (those developing and managing websites) PHPBB is
one popular (free) program that's very easy to install and allows administrators
the option to allow avatars to be displayed. Many of these forum or bulletin
board applications have different rules regarding maximum avatar size so there
is not set a standard across the board.
Example
of Planet Half-Life's forum member "Beagle" who
uses a 50 x 50 Beagle to display his identity
Free
Avatars are available on AlienEntity and are
generally .gif format and many are carried over
from AIM Buddy Icons since they are generally
about the same format. For the complete updated
index go here -->> AlienEntity
Free Avatars or visit Site
Updates.
