Getting a Gravatar

One final point that's worth discussing in this chapter is the matter of WordPress avatars. Although WordPress provides a number of possibilities in this area, the most popular one revolves around an external service, Globally Recognized Avatar (Gravatar). Gravatar started as a tool meant to provide people with the capability of using the same profile picture (avatar) across the entire web.

What this means in plain English is that whenever you sign up for a web service, and if the service is Gravatar-compatible, so to speak, then it will fetch your profile picture from Gravatar automatically, instead of forcing you to upload it manually from your computer. Apart from the profile picture, Gravatar also gives you a personal online profile that anyone can see whenever they click on your (Gravatar) profile picture or something called Hovercard. Now, what does all this have to do with WordPress, right? Well, WordPress is one of those services and tools that widely support Gravatar in all possible areas of the platform. For example, if you create a new blog and use an admin email address that's hooked up to Gravatar, your profile picture in WordPress will immediately be replaced with the one provided by Gravatar. Moreover, if you ever comment on any WordPress blog with a Gravatar email address, your profile picture will be set as the avatar for the comment itself.

To set your own Gravatar, just go to https://en.gravatar.com/ and click on the Create Your Own Gravatar button. You'll be presented with a sign-up form for Gravatar. Since Gravatar is part of WordPress.com, you are able to log in if you already have a WordPress.com account. If not, you can create a new one. The fields are quite standard, with you being prompted to enter your email address and your preferred username and password.

Once you've completed the sign-up process, you can finally set your Gravatar. On the main Manage Gravatars page (accessible via the top menu), there's a link labeled Add a new image—this is where you can upload a Gravatar. The good thing about Gravatar is that you can choose where you want to get the picture from. You can either upload it from your computer, get it from some other place on the web (for example, from a direct link to your Facebook profile image), or use a picture that you've uploaded as your Gravatar previously.

In the next step, Gravatar allows you to crop and adjust your image. When you're finally happy with the result, you can click the big button and proceed to the rating settings of your image. Every Gravatar can be classified as G-rated, PG-rated, R-rated, or X-rated. The fact is that if you select anything other than G-rated, your Gravatar won't be displayed on all sites. Thus, it's a good practice to upload only appropriate images. When you're done with this step, from now on, your Gravatar is set up and ready to use. Gravatar also enables you to hook up more than one email address to a single account, as well as use more than one image. This is actually a great feature because you can manage each of your email addresses and every form of your online presence with just one Gravatar account.

Now, you can go back to your WordPress blog and check whether your new Gravatar has appeared in the profile section within the wp-admin (provided that you've used the same email address for the account).