Important How to use your images on Grepolis

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DeletedUser40816

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How to use your images on Grepolis


So, you have requested a COA, or a sig to be made, but you have no idea how to actually put it on your account. Well you have come to the right place!

Quality

Quality is important. You don't want a blurry image, or a resized image to promote yourself, it doesn't look right, and screams low quality then you aren't going to want to use it. The first thing to do is make sure the image is the right size that you want it for. Below is a list of size limits for this server, where the first number is the width, and the second is the height:

Forum:
Avatar: 80 x 80 pixels
Signature (not spoilered): 700 x 120 pixels
Signature (spoilered): 640 x 480 pixels
Images in posts: There is a max size limit of 640 x 640 pixels, and animated images are not allowed.

In-game:
Personal Coat Of Arms (COA): 240 x 180 pixels
Alliance Coat Of Arms (ACOA): 240 x 180 pixels
The in-game alliance forums have a fixed width, so images of a size larger than 740 pixels width will be resized.

Now, on to the file type. The most commonly used file types for images are .jpeg, .gif, and .png. Jpeg files can be used for uploading photos online, however for smaller images its effects are far more noticeable. The long and short of it is that jpegs compress the image to reduce the file size, which effects the quality of the image. Also jpeg files do not support transparency. Gif files are best used for animation, however like the jpeg it will compress the file. Most photo manipulation software will limit the gif files to 256 colours, so your images can look quite low quality. Png files are the best to use. They maximise the quality (which does mean that the file size will be larger), and they allow transparent images. For sigs, COA's, and avatars this is the best option.

 
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DeletedUser40816

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Uploading your images

Forum Signature

There are three ways to upload your signature to your account, and it all starts with the Settings.
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On the left hand side you will see a panel, which gives you all the options for editing your profile. As you can see below, it has the options for editing your profile picture (Same as your Avatar, but for your profile only), editing your avatar, and editing your signature. As we are wanting to add on a signature, we shall click on the edit signature option.
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This is where the three options come available to you.

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1) The Text Box. This is the best option, as you can avoid the file size limit that Grepolis has, keeping your signature at its best quality. It also allows you to position your sig where you want in your sig space, as well as add text. Just remember to keep the signature rules in mind (120 px height limit, spoliered images 480 px height limit), plus the character limit that the sig space has.
This method will use an external hosting site to provide the image url address, such as photobucket, imageshack, or tinypic. If you have had a designer on Grepolis make you a sig, most likely they will have uploaded it to one of these sites. If so, then just right click on the image, and copy the image address. Then in the text box click on the image button, and paste the url in.

2) Uploading to Grepolis via a url. Like the text box, you use the image url address. However Grepolis will then upload it to their server. Although this keeps the signature quite secure, it does mean that Grepolis will resize it (both in dimension size and file size), causing the quality to be lowered drastically. Not one you really want to use.

3) Uploading to Grepolis from your computer. As it says on the tin really, it just saves you from using another hosting site.
Grepolis will then upload it to their server. Although this keeps the signature quite secure, it does mean that Grepolis will resize it (both in dimension size and file size), causing the quality to be lowered drastically. Not one you really want to use.
 

DeletedUser40816

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Forum Avatar

There are two ways to upload your avatar to your account, and it all starts with the Settings.
t8tl.png


On the left hand side you will see a panel, which gives you all the options for editing your profile. As you can see below, it has the options for editing your profile picture (Same as your Avatar, but for your profile only), editing your avatar, and editing your signature. As we are wanting to add on a avatar, we shall click on the edit avatar option.
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This is where the two options become available to you.

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1) Uploading an avatar is slightly different to uploading a signature. The url option here is still limited by the Grepolis limits, so the aim here is to make sure that the maximum image file size is 19.5 KB. Just paste the image url address and Grepolis will do the rest. This is the best option if the image is the right size.

2) Uploading to Grepolis from your computer.
As it says on the tin really, it just saves you from using another hosting site. Grepolis will then upload it to their server. It will resize it if the file size is too big, so you may lose quality, but it isn't usually too bad a loss in quality.
 

DeletedUser40816

Guest
Personal Coat Of Arms

Unlike the forums, there is only one option for adding on a personal COA, and that is uploading it to Grepolis.

Go to Profile, and on the sub-menu tabs select Personal Coat of Arms.

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Once there you will find the following screen. Click on the browse button to find where you have saved the image on your computer.

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Then just press "Save" to save the changes.
 

DeletedUser40816

Guest
Alliance Coat Of Arms

Pretty much the same as adding on a personal COA, you just need Leader or Founder privileges to be able to access the Alliance Properties page.

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DeletedUser40816

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Posting images on the external forums

The WYSIWYG posting system gives you the options to upload the images from your computer, or via url which also has the option to retrieve the file and reference it locally. Although I have not personally used the upload from computer or reference locally options, it is safe to presume that they lower the quality, so the best option is to go for paste the url and make sure that the reference locally box is unticked.

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Posting images on the in-game alliance forums

Pretty simple for this as we are going back in time to using Bulletin Board Codes (BB Codes). Just click the image bb code button, or type in
, followed by pasting in the url of your image.

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Other Notes: Uploading images to the internet

One of the most common questions I have had asked on skype from players is how to upload images in general to the internet. The answer: upload it to a host site. The best sites to use are photobucket and imageshack. Both are free, and imageshack even allows you to upload images without having to register an account (for about 50 images, then you need an account to upload more from the same computer). They are the most reliable host sites around, and I have never had any actual problems with them. Just be aware that photobucket has a dimension limit, if an image is over it when you upload it then photobucket will automatically scale it down (so for large images use imageshack as they allow up to 10000 x 10000 pixel images).


 
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