Avatar differences (artifacts or something on steam vs original)

[CohenTheBlue]

link to image:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26715353/original-vs-steam-avatar-comparison.png

Has anyone encountered similar oddities?

[ReBoot]

Compression. 'nuff said.

[CohenTheBlue]

Both are same resolution images (1280x1280@90dpi), even if i upload 184px image there's still no blur on the original 184px image but steam image gets blurry around the "horns" part.

Does Steam do somekind of automatic compression/work on all the images, even if they're already in the required format? What exactly is the required format besides 184x184 px size?

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Turisas:

Does Steam do somekind of automatic compression/work on all the images, even if they're already in the required format?

Judging by the picture you posted: yes, of course!
The required format would be JPG. Because those look like JPG compression artifacts.

[CohenTheBlue]

You mean steam natively uses jpg. PNG is also allowed, but makes no difference which i use, results are the same.

[ReBoot]

Then the uploaded image is compressed after uploading.

[CohenTheBlue]

Apparently. I have not encountered similar problems with other images, though. Hence the "has anyone encountered this". Considering i exported all from SVG for these tries, so no conversion or anything. For jpg I exported 10240x10240 png and scaled it in gimp. Should be foolproof experiments.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Turisas:

Apparently. I have not encountered similar problems with other images

Similar images or not similar? As you most likely know, the lossy JPG compression is well-suited for images with more diversity like photos so it's way harder to see JPG compression artifacts on fotos than on single-color surfaces.

[CohenTheBlue]

A similar punisher logo doesn't have this. I'ts b&w though.

Probably compression algorithms misrepresent the fading color in those areas.

Sad, though. Nice logo if i do say so myself...

[Seven7]

export image as 184x184pix 72 dpi without compression

Steam used uglyest libjpg library in this Universe

when you upload image, steam add vignette, noise, then convert to jpeg with 50% or more compression => ugly avatar

upd: try export without antialiasing +try add Noise to image before export - or use nearest colors for avatar - steam libjpg can't work proper with exported vector graphics with solid fill and contrast colors

[CohenTheBlue]

Thanks, trying right now!

[CohenTheBlue]

Not happening. Might be a little better with Seven7's suggestions but not noticeably. Gotta redesign, the orange color gradient just can't look normal on steam it seems. :(

[Felix]

JPEG compression is most notable on Red/Pink tones, which is why you are noticing it a lot with your current avatar and not with your previous black & white avatar.

[CohenTheBlue]

So, a redesign is here. Took out the gradient and went with different colors, any primary color was still awful.
Link for future reference[dl.dropboxusercontent.com]