Creating a Gravatar

September 25, 2009 in General, Tricks & Tips by Angelina Roberts

If you visit a number of blogs regularly and ever comment on posts you will know that some users have images appearing beside their comments. These images are known as avatars and most blogs use a global system known as Gravatar.com to call a user’s avatar image. Many of the users commenting on TotalApps don’t have an avatar so I thought I’d cover how easy it is to set up and create your very own globally recognised avatar image.

Like most users you are probably a little nervous entering your email address into a website you haven’t used before. To reassure you, I have been using the service for a number of years and have yet to have a single email from them. Getting your globally recognised avatar is really simple.

Head over to www.gravatar.com and click “sign up”. Enter your email address into the form and Gravatar will email you to verify you own the address.

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Once your account is activated you can set up a number of different email addresses and a number of different avatar images. Gravatar can take images from your computer, the internet and directly from a webcam. Once uploaded, size the image as appropriate and hit save.

You now need to rate your image according to its appropriateness, mine are all rated G.

It can take ten or fifteen minutes for the system to update but once it does your wordpress comments both on your site and others will have your great new gravatar. Note: If you are commenting on blogs you must use the email address associated with your account on Gravatar.com for the images to appear.

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How to create a Simpsons Style Avatar
If you are stuck for an idea for an avatar then why not get started with a Simpsonized version of yourself ? Firstly you will need to take a photo of yourself, if you have an Apple Mac with built in iSight this is ideal. Using photobooth take your photo. The image must be better than 640×480.

Head over to http://simpsonizeme.com/ and upload your image. The site will ask you some questions about your age, hair etc but the process is very quick. Once complete you can tweak your design and look. Once you are happy with the Simpsons version of yourself you now need to set the image as your Gravatar by uploading it at Gravator.com

Show off your latest avatar by commenting below.