Gravatars are those little photos next to the comments on The Clubroom – Jess, Kathryn and I all have custom ones… and you can too, if you like.

What is a Gravatar?

In this example, you can see a comment from me, which has a photo of me as my Gravatar. You can use any image or photo you want, it doesn’t have to be a photo of you (some people like to use a photo of a pet or a particular place).

All you need is a photo or image you’d like to represent yourself with. If you have one on a smartphone that you’d like to copy across to your computer to use, have a look at this article for how to copy from an iPhone or this one for how to copy from an Android phone. Or see below for a list of websites where you can get free photos/clip art if you don’t want to use your own.

I don’t have a photo / I don’t want to use a photo of me

Don’t have a photo or image you want to use? Don’t worry, we’ve listed a few websites that have ‘free for any use’ clip art and photos…

These can be handy if you don’t want to use a photo of yourself and you don’t have another photo/ image you feel comfortable using…

How to set one up

  1. Once you have a photo sorted (see above) the website to set up a Gravatar is gravatar.com and it’ll look something like this:
  2. Click on the “Get started now” button (see above).
  3. You’ll see a screen like this – type your email address into the box and click on “Continue”:
  4. They’ll send you an email to the address you’ve given them (to make sure it’s really you).  Open the email and make a quick note of the code that they’ve given you, then type that code into the box on the next screen.
  5. You’ll then see some options for uploading your picture.  If you have a built-in camera on your device, you can choose “Use camera” and take a picture of yourself, but I don’t have one, so I’m going to choose “Upload image”, as I’ve already got a picture in mind.
  6. A File Explorer window will open, a bit like this.  Find the image you want to use, click on it to select it, then click on “Open”.
  7. When the photo uploads, you’ll see a page like this where you can edit it, if you’d like to.  When you’re happy, click on “Done” in the top right.

    (By the way, I’ve used a picture of Sir David Attenborough for this, because it’s just an example.  We’d rather you didn’t use pictures of other people – pets or nice scenery is fine if you don’t want to put your face online.)
  8. You’ll see a box like this – click on where it says “Enter name”:
  9. When you do, a side panel will open up and you can fill in your name and some information about yourself, if you’d like.  Click on “Save changes” at the bottom once you’re happy.
  10. After that, when you post a query on the Clubroom, provided you use the email address you used to sign up to Gravatar, your picture will appear next to it, a bit like this:

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask us in The Clubroom.
We look forward to seeing your Gravatars!

One more important note

These Gravatars are not something we run – and since they’re run by a separate organisation, the picture you set up may be visible if you leave comments on other websites that use the same system and you use the same email address for it.  If that bothers you, best give it a miss (or use a picture that you wouldn’t mind the wider world seeing).