MessageFaces
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I use it?
-
After installing the extension and restarting Thunderbird, open
Tools -> Extensions and double click MessageFaces. On the first tab of
the settings window, you can choose the Face image for each identity. On the
other tabs, you can enable support for the additional face types listed above.
- Why can't I use files larger than 725 bytes?
-
The Face header
specification dictates this to ensure your email can be properly processed
by all mail servers (and you do want servers to transport your mail to
the addressee, don't you?) Besides, not putting any limit on the image size
needlessly bloats the message size.
- Why is Gravatar support optional? Should I enable it?
-
It is optional because it requires an active internet connection, and many
people read their mail offline. If you do not, you should definitely enable
it: Gravatars are displayed by an increasing number of weblogs next to the
comment postings, so many people who don't even use Thunderbird or
MessageFaces have their own Gravatar.
- How can I make the Face images larger, e.g. Gravatar?
-
You can change the default maximum face size of 48 Pixels by changing a
hidden preference. Install the about:config extension, then open
Tools -> about:config. Type
faces into the filter field, then
double click on the extensions.messagefaces.maxsize pref and
enter a new size. Note that this setting will only enlarge Gravatar images
and set the maximum size of local face images and Face URLs. Face header and
X-Face images are unaffected, as their specification uses a fixed size of 48
x 48 pixels.
- Why is X-Face header support optional?
-
The technique used by MessageFaces to decode the image data is not very fast.
While you won't notice this on modern systems (e.g. PCs with 2 GHz and more),
it can seriously affect older computers. If there is enough demand, I might
decide to implement a new method of decoding (using C++ code instead of
JavaScript), which will be much faster.
Ironically, the color Face Header is easier to process, because MessageFaces
can let core Mozilla components do the main work.
- How can I set my own X-Face/Face URL?
-
MessageFaces does not include a user interface for these tasks. However, you
can manually set these headers.
- What are Face URLs?
-
Recently, the idea of putting a link to a photo of the sender into the mail
has been made popular by Apple Computer's .Mac
mail accounts. It works by inserting a special header named "X-Image-URL"
into the message, containing the http:// address of a picture that should be
displayed. MessageFaces also supports the rare headers "X-Face-URL" and
"Face-URL", which serve the same purpose. Note that you should read the
security/privacy warning displayed in the MessageFaces settings window before
activating this feature.
- Are picons supported?
-
Not yet. This feature will be available in MessageFaces 1.2.
- Are favatars supported?
-
No, and I will most certainly not add it. Favatars are meant to be added to
weblog posts where the commenter entered the URI of his home page, which is
then used to retrieve the favicon. As e-mails don't have a web page address
in them, MessageFaces would have to use the sender's e-mail address instead.
However, no one guarantees there is a web server behind that domain
name, and even if there is, it's not very likely that the user has control
over the top level directory (e.g. www.hotmail.com/). Additionally, a user's
home page is often at an entirely different server than his e-mail address
(perhaps because it's a hosting company, and his e-mail address is handled by
his ISP). So unless people e-mail me and convince me that it's worth the
effort, I'm not going to implement it - users have better options for online
face images (e.g. gravatar.com).
- What other mail/news clients support the Face header?
-
Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen, the creator of the Face header, maintains a list of
software that has Face support at http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/
(at the bottom of the page). The list is not very long, so it might be a
good idea to convince your e-mail contacts to use Thunderbird (and
MessageFaces) if they want to see your Face image ;-)
- Can I translate MessageFaces into another language?
-
Translations are always welcome - please contact me via the address given on
the bottom of this page. I only ask for two things: first, send me your locale
files, so I can incorporate them into the next release. Second, expect that I
contact you asking to update your translation for new releases.
