Creating a Gravatar: Step-by-Step Instructions

By Rob Jenson, a former CHS systems administrator for the Center for Hellenic Studies.

You may notice that some members of our community have a customized image associated with their profile. Our FAQ explains that those images are called Gravatars. Here’s how to get your own!

Steps to create a Gravatar:

  1. Select an image or icon that you would like to use to represent you on the HeroesX Forums or any other WordPress site you join. Select an image that is fairly square in shape … if it isn’t you will have to crop it when you upload it to Gravatar. It does not have to be very high resolution.
  2. Create a WordPress.com account. Since you are not planning to create a blog right now, you can use the following link to create a WordPress account without starting a blog: https://signup.wordpress.com/signup/?user=1 . They will ask for an email address, username and password. You should use the same email address that you used on HeroesX Forums. You can use any username you want, but you probably want the username to match your HeroesX Forums username. I do not recommend that you use the same password in both places.
  3. WordPress.com will send you a verification email with a link in it to your email. Click on the link in order to activate your WordPress.com account.
  4. Go to the website http://en.gravatar.com … click on Create Your Own Gravatar
  5. On the next page, click on I already have a WordPress.com account!
  6. On the page which is headed Sign in to Gravatar with your WordPress.com account. Enter your email address and password here.
  7. Click on Authorize to allow Gravatar to connect to WordPress
  8. Click on Add one by clicking here! on the page titled Manage Gravatars
  9. Choose where you’d like to get the image from … you can then select My computer’s hard drive to upload the image you selected in step #1
  10. Use Browse to select the image from your computer, and click on Next
  11. Crop you image, Choose a rating for your image, and you should find yourself back to the Manage Gravatars page, and your image should be associated with your email address for any WordPress sites.
  12. To check your Gravatar on the HeroesX Forums, log out and log back in again. You will see a tiny copy of your Gravatar in the top right corner. Now when you post to forums, your gravatar will appear as the icon representing you.