Poll: Circle borders or Square nudes?

[Gauche]

Lots of web designs these days use border-radius to "crop" user avatars into circles as oppose to regular ol' squares

Which do you prefer?

Spoiler: My thoughts

Avatars are such a key component in how one is perceived on the net. To alter them for design purposes is just rude in my book. Its not like they are converting the image into a circular file image. No data is being saved as the whole square image loads in. Why not let the User choose their preferred border frame of choice? I suppose the site wouldn't look uniformed though...

Circles change the focus of the image to the center. In the above gif two whole rings are cut off by the "cropping". For shame!

 

[Lufia Erim]

Circle looks cleaner. It has a certain elegance to it without the edges.

 

[Kyrian007]

That's easy, provide space enough for the square and let the USER decide which they prefer.

 

[Gauche]

Circle looks cleaner. It has a certain elegance to it without the edges.

What of nubbed corners?

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Depends entirely on what is within the avatar borders.

My first avatar on here was designed from the get-go as a circle, depicting a representation of my ..you know.. Avatar. With a capital A.

My second avatar image is a galaxy, which would look stupid in any other format then a rectangle.

So..context matters?

 

[Trunkage]

Personally, from your example, the ending close up doesn't work in the circle for me at all but the rest of it looks good. So I'd agree, context matters, including the animation

 

[Squilookle]

Holy cow- I was convinced this would be a wild west thread. But you're serious?

If the important elements are visible, it doesn't matter. At all. Personally I'd go for circle because it's used less often, and therefore stands out more. It really does not matter. Even if nubbed corners are overused to death, you can even get away with using those if you really want to.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

In the example given, the square works best, but I'm fairly sure you could switch that round an find one where the circle works better. Personally I'd go for Gauche's nubbed corner suggestion

 

[gigastar]

Why are people afraid of crisp, clean corners?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Pfft! Scrubs, the lot of ya'! All true Avatar havers use Octagons and Mobius Strips.

 

[Akytalusia]

you can fit the equivalent circle inside a square.
you can edit your square avatar slot to be a circle without issue.
the square you can fit inside a circular avatar slot is smaller than the equivalent square.
you can edit your circular avatar to be a square at a loss of resolution.

square avatar slots secure objectively superior versatility.

 

[Poetic Nova]

It really depends on the avatar itself.
With my current one, I don't mind it if it's a circle, actually doesn't look the best in a square as the background isn't transparent.

 

[Avnger]

Circle looks cleaner. It has a certain elegance to it without the edges.

What of nubbed corners?

This is pretty. I like it best.

 

[Aerosteam]

Square please. I can make the edges rounded off if I want to, I don't see why it has to be forced like some websites.

 

[Gauche]

Pfft! Scrubs, the lot of ya'! All true Avatar havers use Octagons and Mobius Strips.

Spoiler: How isn't bacon winning out?

Why are people afraid of crisp, clean corners?

Spoiler: This image came to mind

It all makes sense now

It really depends on the avatar itself.
With my current one, I don't mind it if it's a circle, actually doesn't look the best in a square as the background isn't transparent.

Spoiler: Here is a png version

 

[Poetic Nova]

Spoiler: Here is a png version

Much appreciated, thank you very much!

 

[bluegate]

Depends on how well the shape fits within the surrounding design.

I personally have no preference and don't care about corners being cut in a circular avatar, if my picture doesn't fit well in a circular form then I'll look for one that does fit.

 

[gigastar]

Why are people afraid of crisp, clean corners?

Spoiler: This image came to mind

It all makes sense now

Oh come now youre perfectly able to stub your toe on a cylindrical table leg.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It really depends on the image being used. I don't think mine would look very good if it was put into a circle. In your example however, I don't think anything is really lost since the main focus is on Sonic.