Ever left a comment on a WordPress website and wondered where that little profile picture came from? Or logged into your own website and wished you could change the picture at the top right? Or maybe your website’s WordPress theme even has a picture on every blog article you write, but it’s a generic-looking profile photo.
I’ve got great news! You can, indeed, change that.
Your profile picture is also known as an avatar. Well, WordPress uses a specific service known as Gravatar. That’s short for Globally Recognized Avatar.
And when I say WordPress uses them, the Gravatar services are now actually run by Automattic, the company that maintains WordPress. Gravatars aren’t limited to WordPress. They can be used on a variety of platforms, including custom-written web code.
But if you’re reading this—and you are—then most likely you have a WordPress website and really only care about how it looks there.
Well, your Gravatar is easy enough to customize. If you already have a WordPress.com account (that’s different than an account for your own WordPress website), then you can just use that to log into gravatar.com. If not, you’ll first need to create an account for yourself on WordPress.com using the email address you have set up in your WordPress website.
Then, follow these instructions:
- Add any email addresses you want to create Gravatars for. Typically this is at least the one you set your user up with on your WordPress website. But you can also set up any alternative email addresses you use.
- Upload the image you want to use, crop it as appropriate, then select the rating.
- Finally, select which of your email addresses you want the image to go with.
That’s it! Now you have a custom image on your own website, as well as any other WordPress website where you leave a comment.
