Buddy Icon Archive Preserving the tiny pictures that made the internet personal.

Reference desk

Make a buddy icon that works at actual size

A practical guide to a tiny canvas: readable silhouettes, pixel text, limited palettes, short loops, and preserving your original artwork.

By Buddy Icon Archive

Start with the small version

Choose 48×48 or 50×50 pixels and keep an actual-size preview beside your zoomed drawing. A large preview can hide the main problem: details that look beautiful while enlarged may disappear in the finished icon. The technical reference explains why both dimensions appear in surviving documentation.

Give the image one clear job

  1. Choose a subject. Start with a face, symbol, short phrase, or single action.
  2. Make the silhouette readable. Crop tightly and simplify details that merge together at actual size.
  3. Separate foreground and background. Test the edges against both light and dark surroundings if you use transparency.
  4. Keep text brief. Draw or choose letters whose smallest gaps remain open on the final grid.
  5. Test without explanation. Temporarily hide the filename and ask what the picture communicates on its own.

Animate a gesture, not a whole production

A blink, a color change, a reveal, or a short movement can do enough. Make the first frame legible and check the transition from the last frame back to the first. Repeated flashing is visually demanding; a quieter loop can still feel alive.

Export a GIF when you need animation, then reopen the exported file to check every frame, transparency, and timing. Export settings can change the result even when the working document looks correct. Keep the editable original separately.

File size is a design constraint

Reduce unnecessary frames and colors before sacrificing the feature that makes the icon recognizable. A flat background often costs fewer bytes than photographic noise. If you are reconstructing a particular client’s behavior, use its documented constraints; a small modern avatar does not automatically satisfy every old AIM limit.

Study examples without losing their context

Compare Dollz for silhouettes and clothing, blinkies for text and rhythm, and cartoons for expressive faces. Open an icon’s record to see its dimensions and original file. Work from your own artwork or material you have permission to adapt; an archive download is not a new license.

If you share a new icon, keep the creator’s name, date, working file, and export together. Those small records are exactly what is often missing from the old web.