The most common place you will find avatar's on the Internet is at bulletin boards / forums / message boards. An avatar is an image, usually a gif or a jpeg that is about 40x40 pixels in size. An avatar can be a photo, cartoon, an animal, or any graphical element that can be saved in a common image format such as a gif or jpeg. An avatar is usually placed below a member name and therefore represents the member's character just as much as the name does.