How to Create a Steam Avatar
By Matthew Anderson
Updated September 22, 2017
“Steam” is a content delivery system developed by Valve Corporation. Users are represented by an avatar icon when playing online games that use “Steam” servers. The “Steam” avatar is also displayed on the user’s profile page. Users have the option to create an avatar using any image. The image file must meet a size requirement. “Steam” avatars can be created with any image editing program.
Open your image editing program. It does not matter which image editing program you use to create an avatar. Even basic programs, such as “Paint,” have all of the options needed for this process.
Create a new image.
Resize the image to 184 x 184 resolution. Almost all image editing programs will prompt you to enter the file resolution after creating a new image. “Paint” requires selecting “Attributes…” from the “Image” menu to access this option.
Draw your “Steam” avatar using the image editing tools.
Save your image as a .jpg file. This file can be uploaded to your “Steam” profile. “Steam” will automatically resize the image to create all of the appropriately sized avatar images.
Tips
You can create and upload “Steam” avatars at any resolution. Creating an image at 184 x 184 resolution is the best option. Larger resolution will be reduced to 184 x 184 when uploaded to the user’s “Steam” profile. Larger resolution images may also exceed the maximum 200k file size. Smaller resolution images will look slightly blurry when increased in size by “Steam.”
The “Steam” online conduct code prohibits users from making online avatars using intellectual property owned by others. This includes copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secret images.
References
Writer Bio
Matthew Anderson started as a writer and editor in 2003. He has written content used in a textbook published by Wiley Publishing, among other publications. Anderson majored in chemical engineering and has training in guitar performance, music theory and song composition.