UPDATE: Adding a Twibbon to your Twitter Profile Image no longer shrinks it to 73px x 73px. Twitter have introduced a new image size at 128px x 128px so we are now able to use this!

One of the most common queries we get here at Twibbon towers is why we shrink your profile picture to 73 x 73 pixels whenever you add a Twibbon.

Twitter stores three versions of your profile picture:

• the original image that you uploaded
• a 73x73 px version
• a 50x50 px version

Twitter allows us to take any of these versions to overlay your profile picture with a Twibbon. However, we can only give one version back to Twitter. Once we've added the Twibbon and given your new profile picture back, they then recreate the three versions using this new image.

If we choose the original large image for you to add a Twibbon to, then Twitter will shrink this for the smaller versions and the Twibbon would appear tiny and unrecognisable in the 73x73px version (this version is the one that you see the most on Twitter as it appears besides users' statuses).

Therefore we have to overlay your 73x73 image with the Twibbon so that it is big enough and recognisable beside your status. The downside to this is that your original picture has now become pixelated, but this is better than having a Twibbon that noone can see.

Once Twitter allows us to give more than one version of your profile picture back, we will be able to develop a feature that no longer shrinks your avatar to 73 x 73 pixels.