How to Change the Default Gravatar in Wordpress
As much as I love seeing the mystery man appear in Wordpress comments across the internet, your blog deserves better. In this tutorial we’ll take a custom image and add it as the default gravatar to give your comment section a more personalized touch.
The Goal
If you still haven’t been acquainted with the mystery man icon, here’s a short introduction:
Now that you’ve been properly introduced, let’s get rid of him. We’ll do this by adding more options for defaults. The solution in this example is much more elegant than simply replacing the default image. The result will be much more customized and will give you options straight from the Wordpress 2.7 dashboard under Settings>Discussion.
Gravatar Code for functions.php
Each Wordpress theme has the option of including functions.php. This file is responsible for loading any additional options for the theme in the Wordpress dashboard. The default Kubrick theme for instance, would use functions.php to change the header colors. We’ll be using it to specify a brand new avatar for use with the current theme. Start by opening up the functions.php file in your theme directory. If you do not see one, make it now. Depending on your current theme, there may already be some code involved. Ignore it, our code will be independent from the rest of the code.
add_filter( 'avatar_defaults', 'newgravatar' );
function newgravatar ($avatar_defaults) {
   $myavatar = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . '/images/buildinternet-gravatar.jpg';
   $avatar_defaults[$myavatar] = "Build Internet";
   return $avatar_defaults;
}It’s actually a relatively simple function. You’ll only need to change the image location and avatar title to your own needs. For those interested in the full process, here’s a more specific breakdown of what’s going on:
- The add_filter function says that we’ll be editing the avatar_defaults array using our custom function “newgravatar”
- The newgravatar function is responsible for providing the location and title of our additional gravatar option
- The first line in the function points to the new gravatar in the images folder of the template directory
- The second line designates the name that will be displayed next to the image dashboard options.
- The third line sends back the results to the avatar_defaults array to be included in the theme
Goodbye Mystery Man
It’s easy to add or change existing gravatars using this snippet of code. If you’re looking to have a couple options at once, simply duplicate the lines in the function with “$myavatar” and then rename the variable. Now there is absolutely no excuse for letting the Mystery Man into your comment section ever again. He’s had a good run, but his retirement is long overdue.
Discussion
February 19th, 2009 at 7:46 PM
Nice tip Zach! I will definitely be customizing this in my redesign. Bookmarked!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:34 PM
@Andrew
Haha, you’d think I would have noticed you’re still representing the mystery man community by now! In any case, glad to be of help!
February 20th, 2009 at 2:57 PM
nice tip thanks a lot..
February 21st, 2009 at 7:21 PM
Nice to see this tip spread across the net
I discovered this here a month ago and it’s still working great. HowTo: Set A Custom Gravatar Image In Wordpress 2.7
This is also very handy for theme developers to raise usability of their theme. So nice you mention it here. Would love to see this more in use.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:04 AM
Dude, you rock! Thanks so much, exactly what I was looking for.
See it live on my blog. 
P.S. I *much* prefer the clean white background of your site.
March 8th, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Sorry, off-topic question, but what is the font used in the picture? I really like it!
March 8th, 2009 at 3:32 PM
@Sander
That is Archer semibold. Of of my personal favorites. Glad you like it too!
http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_styles.php?productLineID=100033
April 18th, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Thank you so much
Just what I needed!
chibi’s last blog post..#4 Moon Crisis Make-Up!
April 21st, 2009 at 2:53 AM
Hi, I tried to implement the code above in my functions.php. But after uploading it on my ftp I get a blank screen on my wp-admin.
What am I doing wrong?
Ydwer’s last blog post..Dit is een testbericht
April 21st, 2009 at 2:59 AM
I just figured it out. I added some new around the code and that cause the problem.
Cheers, great code!
Ydwer’s last blog post..Dit is een testbericht
April 29th, 2009 at 7:26 PM
Sweet! Thanks!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:10 PM
Thanks, works perfectly.
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July 20th, 2009 at 11:35 PM
Nice works Thanks!
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July 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 PM
Awesome, just what I was looking for! Thanks!
August 14th, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Great it works !
Greetz from a happy belgium guy who isn’t a mystery anymore
August 15th, 2009 at 7:57 AM
very cool and informative tutorial!! 10x
August 21st, 2009 at 11:13 PM
Very easy and worked perfect for me, thanks.
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September 8th, 2009 at 12:58 PM
thanks for the tip … appreciated …
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September 13th, 2009 at 5:29 PM
Cool ..Thanks..I always change the default icon to something fancy, though adding one of your own is great advice.
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September 16th, 2009 at 6:16 AM
Thanks for this, it works perfectly.
Now if only I was good at creating a custom avatar.
Great site by the way.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:45 PM
I made the change as suggested. But it change the gravatar for all users. How do I change single user profile. In the user profile there is no gravatar selection of custom name field.
Thanks in advance
October 7th, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Doesn’t work for Wordpress 2.8.4….there is no such code in the functions.php anymore – so now what?
October 7th, 2009 at 1:09 PM
@bob
The code in this tutorial was never available by default on any Wordpress version. As evidence by this blog, you can get it working in Wordpress 2.8.4, but you’re going to have to put the code into the functions.php file (or create one from scratch).
October 15th, 2009 at 6:26 AM
Check:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Gravatars#How_a_Gravatar_is_Constructed
&default=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.somesite.com%2Fsomeimage.jpg
So, it can be done right into wordpress now
December 17th, 2009 at 12:58 AM
simple and easy way to bring gravatar in your comments http://flexlearner.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/how-to-add-gravatar-to-your-wordpress-comments/ it just took me 5 minutes to do that.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:16 AM
Hi there, i’m having problems with the steps that you provide. I have followed it, but when i view it in mozilla firefox it doesn’t show up, but in google chrome and ie it works.
Am i missing something?
January 4th, 2010 at 6:03 PM
Worked like a charm! Thanks for the code. Now only if pushing the footer all the way to the bottom codes worked just as easily =(
January 6th, 2010 at 7:15 AM
Awesome content, im a newbie for a wp blogger thx 4 the tutorial
January 7th, 2010 at 4:17 PM
Just what the mad doctor ordered!
Thx,
E
January 8th, 2010 at 11:49 PM
Perf. Worked absolutely perfectly.
Thank you!
January 9th, 2010 at 4:10 PM
wow, thanks…
January 25th, 2010 at 8:48 AM
Thanks for this. It solved my problem. Cheers
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 AM
Thanks for this tip. Haven’t done it yet, but it seems simple enough.
Here’s another question. Hope you do not mind.
How do I get my gravatar to default to the left side of my comments instead of the right? Just looks so much better and appropriate on the left.
Thanks
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:09 PM
@Sam
Just use some CSS to float the image to the left. That should do it just fine!
February 25th, 2010 at 12:04 AM
nice tip thanks a lot..
March 5th, 2010 at 2:09 PM
Thanks worked great!
March 16th, 2010 at 3:01 AM
Hi, it didn’t quite work for me — it still seems to be querying the gravatar server, instead of my custom icon it shows a broken link style image with a question mark, and the url instead of being from my own blog is showing up as a gravatar URL with a whole bunch of garbled junk after
March 16th, 2010 at 3:03 AM
instead of
March 16th, 2010 at 3:41 AM
Ok nevermind I worked it out haha. Thanks for the tutorial!
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