Adding Profile Pictures to a Tumblr Blog Theme

Add your Tumblr blog profile picture, also known as your portrait or avatar, to your blog’s theme. Your Tumblr portrait displays on your dashboard and next to each of your posts in your followers’ timelines. Your profile photo also appears in your blog’s main page, its location determined by the blog’s theme layout. You can upload a different profile portrait for each of your blogs. If you prefer, you can upload your profile photo as a header image for one or more of your blogs.

Profile Portrait

To upload or change your profile portrait, click the settings gear icon in your dashboard, then click the name of the blog to edit in the right sidebar menu. Click the avatar icon next to the title of your blog in the blog Settings page. The File Upload dialog box opens. Click the camera icon in the center of the form to open the Browse dialog box. Browse to and then click on your portrait photo. Click “Open” to upload the photo. You can also click the “Take a Picture” icon to snap a photo with your camera. Click “Save” in the dialog box to save the photo.

Avatar Specifications

The optimal image size for your Tumblr profile portrait is 128 x 128 or larger. Square images maintain original quality better than rectangular images because the Tumblr platform automatically renders the image as a square. Rectangular images will appear distorted. The Tumblr platform supports the JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP file formats for portrait photos.

Header Image

To use your photo as a header image for one of your blogs, open the selected blog in your dashboard by clicking the arrow next to your primary blog, then clicking the name of the blog to modify. Click the “Customize” tab in the right sidebar menu to open the selected blog theme in Edit mode. The blog opens with the Customize panel attached to the left side of the window. Click the “Upload” icon in the Header section to open the Browse dialog box. Browse to and click on your photo file, then click “Open” to upload the file. Click “Save” in the Customize panel to save the changes. The image now displays as the header image on your blog

Animated GIFs

In addition to the JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP file formats, the Tumblr platform supports animated GIF images up to 1MB in size for use as your header image, and in photo and text posts. When you upload a static photo or an animated GIF as a header image, the image stretches to fill the entire header area as defined by your theme, regardless of the size of the image.