The Perfect Profile Image.

Creating the perfect profile image needs a little preparation.


In this guide we will explain to you how we treat the profile image you upload, as well as take a look at some examples so that you can get the best results.
Before we start let us explain the importance of your profile image and why we hope that you will upload one.
In some of our NFC Personal devices we will be showing your profile picture, the primary reason for this is so that the person who has either found a lost device or has come to your aid can easily identify you as the person associated with the device.
This is most important in an emergency situation but it can also make it easier for your items to be returned to you if you are meeting someone who has called to say they have found your lost property.

Data Security

As with all of your personal information we take the securing of our data very seriously.
Any pictures that you upload to us will remain your property, they will be secured in our database and not left open on our file servers where others may find it.
As with all of your data you have total control and my delete or change at any time.

Editing Your Image

Your profile image does not need to be a large image, Images over 1 Mega Byte in size are un suitable to upload and therefore you will need to edit your image for size.
If you would like to edit your image but you do not have an image editor on your PC or device then i would like to suggest that you consider editing your image online. Pixlr is an excellent online image editor that is easy to use and is free of charge. You can get started by heading to https://pixlr.com/editor/ , the only requirements that you need is to have a device that is capable of running Adobe Flash.
Using Pixlr you will be able to change the dimensions of your image to reflect the examples below as well as saving your image with a size less than the 1 Mega Byte limit.

How We Treat Your Image

The image that you upload is not the exact image that we will be using as your profile image. Profile images with in the Tap2assist portal are edited to conform to a standard size, this means that we can display Profile Image After Processing. a quality image that will look good on our information pages.
Once you have uploaded the image that you would like to use as your profile image our system get to work. Firstly we locate your face in the picture, we then create a circular crop around your face. The result is an image that will be 250px wide by 250px high and will be less than 100 bytes.
This is why the dimensions of your image are important to us, if your image is to small and square your profile image will not look very good. To help you to avoid common pitfalls we have prepared the below example images to help you to create an image that will show your profile image in the best possible way.

Profile Image Sizing Guide.

So how do you get that perfect profile image? There are a few things that you need to take into account when creating your image file.
Image Size: We have found that a rectangular image gets better results than a square image, an image with atleast 600px in either the height or width has been shown to work well. Below are some images where you can see the before and after results.

Image Before Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Uploaded Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 1000px | Height 881px
Size: 625 KB

Image After Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Processed Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 250px | Height 250px
Size: 9.98 KB

Image Before Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Uploaded Image Information.
Image Type: JPEG File.
Dimensions: Width 433px | Height 650px
Size: 42.7 KB

Image After Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Processed Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 250px | Height 250px
Size: 11.4 KB

Image Composition: As you can see from the above images if you would like your profile image to be just a picture of your face then a tightly cropped image will work nicely.
If however you would like a profile image that shows more of your body then positioning yourself in a picture with more background showing will result profile image that is not so tightly cropped.
For examples of how to achieve such profile images check out our example images below.

Image Before Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Uploaded Image Information.
Image Type: JPeG File.
Dimensions: Width 940px | Height 627px
Size: 73.2 KB

Image After Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Processed Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 250px | Height 250px
Size: 11.9 KB

Image Before Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Uploaded Image Information.
Image Type: JPEG File.
Dimensions: Width 940px | Height 627px
Size: 47 KB

Image After Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Processed Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 250px | Height 250px
Size: 10.4 KB

Image Before Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Uploaded Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 600px | Height 600px
Size: 56.2 KB

Image After Processing.

Profile Image After Processing. Processed Image Information.
Image Type: JPG File.
Dimensions: Width 250px | Height 250px
Size: 8.35 KB

In Conclusion

Hopefully from the guide images above you can see that you can get great profile image results from images that are small in dimensions as well as well small in size. These images have the advantage of saving you upload time to our servers and mean that where we do display a profile image the needed information will be displayed quickly.
Remember there is no need to buy expensive image editing software you can always edit your image online. Pixlr is an excellent online image editor that is easy to use and is free of charge. You can get started by heading to https://pixlr.com/editor/ , the only requirements that you need is to have a device that is capable of running Adobe Flash.
Using Pixlr you will be able to change the dimensions of your image to reflect the examples above as well as saving your image with a size less than the 1 Mega Byte limit.
We thank you for checking out this guide and hope you have found it helpful in creating your perfect profile image.