Together with your profile name, Steam avatars are an important part of a player’s public identity. Your avatar and name will be visible to your friends and other people in chat groups, leaderboards, discussion groups, reviews, published content, and multiplayer games.
Aside from being attached to your identity, avatars also serve as an avenue for self-expression. Steam encourages everyone to “seek to balance self-expression” and to make avatars that are appropriate for the Steam community.
Read on to learn how to make Steam avatars, change your Steam avatar, change Steam avatar frame, and more.
How to Add or Change Steam Avatar
- Go to Edit Profile. The quickest way is via Friends>Edit Profile Name/Avatar. You can also access this by clicking on your profile name>Edit my Profile.
- Select Avatar on the left side of the screen.
- You can upload a new avatar by clicking Upload Your Avatar or choosing any of the available avatars in your account. When uploading your own avatar, make sure that it is at least 184px x 184 px.
- Hit the save button.
How To Get Avatar Frames Steam?
If you want to change the avatar frame on your Steam profile, you must get additional frames from the points shop. You can earn 100 points for every dollar you spend on Steam whether for games, applications, soundtracks, or in-game items.
Where to Get Animated Avatars on Steam?
You can get animated avatars on the Steam Points Shop.
How To Get Free Steam Avatars?
Aside from Steam itself, you can also download avatars from other sources such as – SteamAvatar.io.
How To Change Avatar Frame
To change your avatar frame in your profile, go to Edit Profile then Avatar. Scroll down to see the available avatar frames. Choose your avatar frame and click the save button.
How to Make Steam Avatar?
If you want to make your custom Steam avatar, you can use photo editing software such as Photoshop, GIMP, and Pxlr.
Creating a Steam avatar using the above software will vary. But here are the general steps.
Create a canvas measuring 184 px x 184 px.
Import the images that you want to use. If you want to set an image to another background, make sure that the said image is in PNG format or any transparent image format.
You can resize the background image to 184 px x 184 px and crop out the parts as necessary. Or if you just want to use a part of that image, move the image so that the wanted part sits on the canvas.
If you want to add effects to the background layer, you can do so at this point.
Add another image layer and resize it to fit inside the background image. The image must be in PNG format.
You can add a text layer if you want. You can choose your font, font color, and other effects to your font.
Here’s a tutorial on how to make a Steam avatar using Pxlr.
How to Get PNG Steam Avatars?
You can use Google Image Search to look for images that you can use for Steam avatars.
To narrow down your search, use the advanced operator Filetype. In this case, typing filetype:png after the query will search Google for PNG images.
You can narrow down your search further by using the advanced search options on Google. Enter the keyword in the search bar and then click on the images tab. Then click the settings options and then advance search. Here you have the option to narrow down your search by image size, aspect ratio, color, file type, image type, and usage type.
For your Steam avatar you might want to choose an image that has a square aspect ratio in addition to the format type PNG.
How to Make PNG Images for Steam Avatar
If you want a particular image for your avatar but can’t find a png version of it, you can remove the background image and convert it into PNG format.
You can do this using photo editing software like Photoshop.
Use the quick selection tool in Photoshop to remove the background of the photo. Here’s a quick tutorial.
If using GIMP, there are several tools that you can use to remove the background of an image such as the scissor select tool, and the foreground select tool. Here is a tutorial detailing how to remove the background using GIMP.
How to Make Steam Avatar the Easy Way?
Instead of using PhotoShop or other typical photo editing software, you can use Tiny Wow Profile Photo Maker in creating your Steam avatar.
Here are the steps in creating your avatar using Tiny Wow.
- Upload a photo or image in Tiny Wow.
- Tiny Wow will automatically remove the image’s background.
- You can use the zoom slider to increase or decrease the size of the image. You can also move around the square to select what part of the photo you want to be included. Once you are satisfied, select Process photo.
- Choose a square display or a circle display. A square photo is best for Steam avatars.
- At this point you will see You will see several versions of your uploaded image set in different backgrounds. If you want to reposition the photo within the frame, click Reframe Photo and adjust accordingly.
- You can play around with the colors and see how they will affect the background of the photo.
- If you found something you like, you can now select it and download the photo.
- You can now upload this photo on your Steam profile.
What’s great about Tiny Wow is that it is very easy to use and no sign-ups are required. Anything that you have uploaded to their website will also be deleted after an hour.
What Other Software or Tools Can You Use To Create Your Steam Avatar?
Aside from Photoshop, GIMP, Tiny Wow, and other discussed above, you still have other options when it comes to creating an awesome Steam Avatar.
Canva, Adobe Express, Picsart’s Profile Picture Editor, Fotor’s Avatar Maker, and PFPMaker are just some of the tools that you can use to create your Steam avatar. These tools allow you to upload a photo, remove the background, add your preferred background, and add text and other elements. Most of them have templates that you can use to make it easier for you to start creating your own Avatar.
The great part about these avatar/profile maker tools is that they are very easy to use. However, the options for editing your avatar can be limited.
Also, some of them like Canva, operate on a freemium model. This means some of the elements may not be available to you unless you subscribe to their premium membership.
How To Find Games With Steam Avatars?
You can find some of the official game avatars in this link. Steam Community: Change Avatar. Not all games will have official game avatars.
Is the PNG the Only File Format Accepted in Steam Avatar?
No. You can use both PNG and JPG images for your avatar.
However, if you want to set an image against another background, then you need a PNG format because it has a transparent background. So if you layer it atop another photo, some parts of the background photo will be visible.
What is the Maximum File Size for Steam Avatars?
The file size of your image should not exceed 200kb.
How To View Previous Steam Avatars?
You won’t be able to view your previous avatars through your Steam account. However, you may be able to find your avatar history using the third-party site steamid.uk. You need to enter your Steam ID and log on to the site. If you don’t know your Steam ID, log on to the Steam Website and click on your profile. The number that you will see on the URL is your Steam ID.
Why Was My Steam Avatar Removed by Valve?
Steam avatars, like the rest of the content that you upload to Steam, must adhere to community guidelines set by Steam/Valve. If you feel that your content was removed by mistake, you can contact Steam support.
Summing It Up
Steam avatars are an important part of a player’s public identity and also serve as an avenue for self-expression. Avatars are visible in many places on Steam such as in chat groups, multiplayer games, leaderboards, discussion groups, etc.
There are many available avatars both in Steam and outside of Steam but you can create your own if you want to.
You can use traditional photo editing software such as Photoshop, GIMP, and Pxlr to create your Steam avatar. Alternatively, you can use avatar or profile pic creation tools such as Tiny Wow Profile Photo Maker, Fotor Avatar Maker, and more.
Using traditional photo editors requires more skill but provides greater flexibility. Avatar Makers are easier to use as you need only to upload a photo and the tool will take care of removing the background for you. You can then add a new background and other elements that you like. However, your options for customizing your avatar are limited.
Tiny Wow is a great choice for avatar makers because it is totally free, easy to use, and it deletes all your data after an hour.
Steam avatars should be 184 px x 184 px and not more than 200 kb in file size. Both JPG and PNG formats are accepted.
We hope that this post helped you in understanding what avatars are and how to make one for your Steam profile.
