Avatars are meant to be controlled by the user, not by you. So yes, in a way, you’re being forced to use the Gravatar service. But remember, it gives the user the ability to use the same avatar anywhere, and you can always restrict the display of a gravatar based on content ratings (G, PG, … Read more
The get_avatar() function applies a get_avatar filter hook, that you can use to change the avatar markup: return apply_filters(‘get_avatar’, $avatar, $id_or_email, $size, $default, $alt); I think this would be the correct way to hook into this filter: function mytheme_get_avatar( $avatar ) { $avatar=”<img src=”https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/22728/<” . get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/images/authors/’ . get_the_author_ID() . ‘.jpg” alt=”‘ . get_the_author() … Read more
If you want a super-lightweight solution and don’t mind dabbling in a little code, drop this in your functions.php; function __default_local_avatar() { // this assumes default_avatar.png is in wp-content/themes/active-theme/images return get_bloginfo(‘template_directory’) . ‘/images/default_avatar.png’; } add_filter( ‘pre_option_avatar_default’, ‘__default_local_avatar’ ); Alternatively, if you want a bit more juice, with the ability to manage everything in the admin, … Read more
Good news for WordPress versions 4.2+ Since version 4.2 the handy get_avatar_url() function, introduced as a feature request in ticket #21195 few years ago, now ships with the core: /** * Retrieve the avatar URL. * * @since 4.2.0 * * @param mixed $id_or_email The Gravatar to retrieve a URL for. Accepts a user_id, gravatar … Read more