Avatar information / help

Ok what is an Avatar? An Avatar is a graphical symbol used to represent something. In the case of Cheetachat it is an image file you select to for yourself, much the same as you would select a piece for a boardgame. There are thousands of avatars already in place and uploaded to the Cheetachat Avatar repository but you may attempt to submit a custom avatar for your own use I believe still. The limitations for legal ( uploaded ) avatars are that they be 32 pixels high by 48 pixels wide in size or less and that they be in the JPG format when they are submitted. GIF or other types of image files are not accepted and if you attempt to submit an avatar in anything other than a JPG format it may not even get a rejection reply. Once an avatar is adopted by the Avatar Repository it is free for ANYONE to use so keep this in mind when selecting avatar image content as a picture of yourself can be used by others. While it is possible to use your own custom avatar you would need to send it manually or make some provision for it to be downloadable by others you wish to share it with. This is of course not a huge job to do, as it only requires you have some place to store the avatar online and provide those who you wish to share it with the URL for the image. They then can save it into the avatar folder in Cheetachat and it will display for them just as any other avatar provided it is a unique name not already used by some other avatar currently on file. In that case the avatar from the repository would show up on those peoples system you have not provided the avatar to. Keep in mind if you make your own custom avatar and share it with others but make it large it may take up too much screen and make it hard to keep reading the other content on the screen. So even if you make an oversized custom avatar, I would still suggest you try to limit the height to 60 pixels or less. Once the avatar is submitted, and approved, it is then available for downloading by way of the program. These are downloaded to everyone in BMP format ( Windows Bitmap ) and the reason for this is the fact there is some limitations in what can be displayed and transfered as far as image formats I am not fully aware of even. I just know that the avatars you get transfered within the program from the repository are BMP format files on your system. They are kept in the C:\Program Files\Cheetachat\Avatar folder if you use Windows 95/98//NT/2000/ME/XP and have allowed Cheetachat to install in the default folder. How to make an avatar... The simplest way to make an avatar is to get an existing image and resize and/or crop the image to the size required. This requires one to have an image editor program which two of which you will find below in the links on this page. Both of the programs listed here are freeware. That means that it costs you nothing to use them. There are far more advanced image editor programs around but most cost something to purchase. I will confine the listing to freeware programs. These programs are also used for converting bmp, gif, or other formats into jpg formats or the other way around. The other way to go is to start the avatar using Windows Paint function and then after adding whatever details to it, you can resize the resultant bmp file to a jpg format using one of the image editors mentioned already. The process of making your own avatar can be rather time comsuming but it will also give you some degree of experence with the software on your computer and the process of editing an image file. Just remember to always save your work to a new file name when working with an image you do not wish to loose. This is rather easy to do by adding numbers to the end of the file name already used in most cases. With some practice, almost anyone can obtain a reasonable result and make their own custom avatar. Be aware of one fact in this process. If you choose to use a real life image of yourself, once submittied to the avatar repository, it is free for anyone to use. Perhaps a better way to do this is to obtain a basic webpage site, or put the image on a profile so that it can be downloaded from there to who you wish to see it and by so doing keep some degree of control over your own personal image or avatar. Text version.    (this may be an older version of this text) Other Downloads and Links. If these links are not working it is likely they have changed since this page was made. Please try the links on this page to see if you can find what you need. All the offsite links below open new browser windows. Avatar Repository Ifran image editor download site. Image Forge Editor Return to Cheetastuff Menu Page. Return to main screen Close This Browser Window