Question reguarding creating profile pictures

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

I noticed that the images I draw for profile pictures are often blurred when you hover over the name in the steam discussion forums and I was wondering if there is a way to fix that. I noticed the profile pictures you can purchase from games with steam points don't have that problem, so I was wondering if there is a way to create images and upload that can be just as clear too for steam discussion forums.

Thanks in advance

[Azure Fang]

What resolution and format are you saving the images in before you upload them?

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

It's not perfect, since Steam also likes to scew with resolution when uploading things ( would be nice if we had options to keep steam from resizing things, hint hint lol ) to your steam page. But Here's a small example of my current profile picture I that I drew, vs one I purchased from Darkest Dungeon II's pack when viewing them on a Steam Discussion Board:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2984662046

Is there a way to make my custom profile picture just as crisp at least the one provided from the game's point store?

[Azure Fang]

Again, what resolution and format are you saving the images in before you upload them?

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

Originally posted by Azure Fang:

Again, what resolution and format are toy saving the images in before you upload them?

I've been changing it a little bit. The one I'm currently using is rather large, since I made it for use outside of Steam. 2048 x 2048. But I've made them smaller, 400x400 or 512x512. Did one that was 1024x1024 ( think they all use 350 dpi ). They always look good on everything, except on steam discussion forums, where they blurr.

I've done 184 x 184 as well, which is what I got when I google recommended resolutions for steam profile pictures too and it's still not to where I like it. No matter how I try to change it, it always seems to be the same.

[Azure Fang]

Originally posted by Rivet the Lombax:

Originally posted by Azure Fang:

Again, what resolution and format are toy saving the images in before you upload them?

I've been changing it a little bit. The one I'm currently using is rather large, since I made it for use outside of Steam. 2048 x 2048. But I've made them smaller, 400x400 or 512x512. Did one that was 1024x1024 ( think they all use 350 dpi ). They always look good on everything, except on steam discussion forums, where they blurr.

I've done 184 x 184 as well, which is what I got when I google recommended resolutions for steam profile pictures too and it's still not to where I like it. But no matter how I try to change it, it always seems to be the same.

You still haven't said what format, but this is something to work with.

With custom avatars, there will always be some quality loss. Steam converts the image to JPG from whatever source you send, so you need to start with something lossless, such as PNG, with no compression and at a square resolution. Once you have your source image, scale it down in GIMP to 184px and save as PNG again. Upload the resulting image.

There is always going to be some degradation due to the conversion of customs to JPG. But starting with a lossless format and not letting Steam do the scaling for you will avoid some of it.

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

Originally posted by Azure Fang:

Originally posted by Rivet the Lombax:

I've been changing it a little bit. The one I'm currently using is rather large, since I made it for use outside of Steam. 2048 x 2048. But I've made them smaller, 400x400 or 512x512. Did one that was 1024x1024 ( think they all use 350 dpi ). They always look good on everything, except on steam discussion forums, where they blurr.

I've done 184 x 184 as well, which is what I got when I google recommended resolutions for steam profile pictures too and it's still not to where I like it. But no matter how I try to change it, it always seems to be the same.

You still haven't said what format, but this is something to work with.

With custom avatars, there will always be some quality loss. Steam converts the image to JPG from whatever source you send, so you need to start with something lossless, such as PNG, with no compression and at a square resolution. Once you have your source image, scale it down in GIMP to 184px and save as PNG again. Upload the resulting image.

There is always going to be some degradation due to the conversion of customs to JPG. But starting with a lossless format and not letting Steam do the scaling for you will avoid some of it.

Sorry, PNG is correct.

Just tried saving it as a jpg on my pc and uploading it. First I changed it to something random since it's not always instant on change then to the new image.

Doesn't really look any better honestly. Going to guess that keeping it as crisp and clean like those point shop avatar's isn't a possibility... What a bummer. Least it looks good just about everywhere else at least.