Make a profile picture

Framing for small sizes

The face finder locates your face and centers a square crop around it. You can move and resize the box. Profile pictures are mostly shown tiny, so the live preview draws the result as a circle at 40, 96 and 180 px. Check the 40 px one in particular. If your face is hard to make out at that size, crop tighter.

Because a circle shows any off-center placement clearly, nudge the box until your face sits in the middle.

A good avatar usually shows head and the top of the shoulders, with the eyes about a third of the way down. Leave a little space above the head so a round mask does not clip your hair.

Background choices

You have three options for what sits behind you.

If you replace or blur the background, the person cutout runs first. Check around your hair in the circle preview, since a stray patch of the old scene stands out at small sizes. Mid-tone blues, greens and grays sit well behind most faces, without washing out pale skin or swallowing dark hair.

• Original keeps the scene as photographed. Fine if it is simple and does not compete with your face.
• Color puts you on one flat color. It makes the avatar easy to spot in a list of names, and a color that contrasts with your hair and clothes works best.
• Blurred keeps the original scene but softens it, so there is still a sense of place.

Choosing the export size and format

Export at 400, 800 or 1080 px square, as PNG or JPEG. 400 px is plenty for most chat and forum apps. 800 px suits professional networks and team directories. 1080 px is a safe choice when a service asks for a large upload and shrinks it itself.

The file is square. Sites that show a circle apply their own round mask, so keep important parts away from the corners. JPEG gives smaller files; PNG avoids compression on flat color backgrounds.

Making it look like you

Use a recent, well-lit photo where you are facing roughly toward the camera. Natural light from a window, falling on the front of your face, is hard to beat. If the photo is a little dark or flat, run Photo enhancer first, then come back here; the photo and History carry over between tools.

Use the same picture across the services you use. People learn to recognize an avatar, and a consistent one makes you easier to find.

What it will not do

• Small, turned or partly covered faces can be missed; move the box by hand if so.
• Hair and other fine edges can come out imperfect when the background is replaced or blurred.
• Exports are square. A round look comes from the site that displays the picture.
• It does not retouch or change your face.

Devices and downloads

The face finder is a 230 KB download (MIT) that starts after one press of the main button. The person cutout, 25.9 MB (Apache-2.0), downloads only if you choose a color or blurred background. Both stay cached. They run in a background worker, on WebGPU when available and on WebAssembly otherwise. On WebAssembly the face finder takes a fraction of a second and the cutout around a second on a typical laptop.

On-device AI: A small neural network that runs on this device after a one-time download. See what is stored on this device.

Step by step

1. Open a photo of yourself. A recent, well-lit, front-facing photo works best.
2. Adjust the square crop. Check the circle preview at 40, 96 and 180 px.
3. Pick a background. Original, a flat color, or blurred.
4. Export. Save at 400, 800 or 1080 px as PNG or JPEG.

Questions about profile picture maker