Welcome images
Post a welcome image card with each new member's avatar, name and member number, and design your own layouts and backgrounds with Premium.
On this page
- Before you start
- Set it up
- Settings explained
- Welcome image channel
- What's on the card
- Custom backgrounds (Premium)
- Welcome image designer (Premium)
- How the bot picks the image
- Using the image inside a welcome message (Premium)
- Examples
- Troubleshooting
- No image is posted
- My background isn't used
- The image looks different from the preview
- My changes don't show up
- Related
A welcome image is a picture Buddy draws for every new member: their avatar and name on a background, with your server name and "You're our 128th member". It's a fun, eye-catching way to celebrate each join. Every server gets the standard card for free. With Premium you can upload your own backgrounds and design the layout yourself.
Before you start#
The image is posted on its own, as a picture with no text. You can use the same channel as your welcome message (the image then appears right below it) or a separate one.
Custom backgrounds and the Welcome image designer need Discord Buddy Premium. Free servers get the standard welcome image.
Set it up#
It's under Welcome & onboarding in the sidebar.
In Welcome image channel, choose the channel the image is posted in, then click Save channel. That's all a free server needs.
In Custom backgrounds, choose a file under Upload a background and click Upload image. 1772×663 px works best.
In Welcome image designer, click a preset under Built-in presets (or New layout), pick a background from the strip under the image, then click any part of the image to move it or change its style.
Give the layout a name, click Save changes, then Set active so the bot uses it.
To turn welcome images off, set Welcome image channel back to Disabled - Select Channel to Enable and click Save channel.
Settings explained#
Welcome image channel#
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome image channel | Where the image is posted when someone joins. Disabled turns welcome images off. | Disabled |
What's on the card#
The image is 1772×663 pixels and is built from these layers, bottom to top:
| Layer | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Background Image | Your chosen background, scaled to cover the card. |
| Background Frame | A colored border around the edge. |
| Server Avatar | Your server icon in a circle (left out if your server has no icon). |
| Member Avatar | The new member's avatar in a circle. |
| Member Count | "You're our 128th member". |
| Member Name | The new member's username. |
| Server Name | Your server name. |
| Welcome Line | "Welcome to". |
The words themselves are fixed; you change where they go and how they look.
Custom backgrounds (Premium)#
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload a background | Adds an image to your server's background library. PNG, JPEG or GIF, up to 3 MB. 1772×663 px works best; other sizes are scaled to fit. Uploads are stored as PNG, so an animated GIF becomes a still image. |
| Your uploaded backgrounds | Every background you've uploaded. Click the trash icon to delete one; you'll see a preview of the image before you confirm. |
Welcome image designer (Premium)#
Start from one of four Built-in presets (Classic, Left Split, Minimal, Duo) or one of My saved layouts. The preview uses your own Discord name and avatar.
- Click a layer on the image (or in the Layers list) to select it, drag to move it, and drag the handles to resize it.
- Guides shows center lines to help you line things up.
- Click a thumbnail under Background image to use it. The first four are Buddy's built-in backgrounds, the rest are your uploads.
When a layer is selected, the Properties panel shows its settings:
| Layer type | Settings |
|---|---|
| Text (Member Count, Member Name, Server Name, Welcome Line) | Visible, Position (X/Y), Font Size (Member Name has Font Size — Short Names and Font Size — Long Names; the long size is used for names of 14 characters or more), Font Weight, Font Family, Text Color, Center Align, Shadow Offset, Shadow Color, Stroke Width, Stroke Color |
| Avatars (Member Avatar, Server Avatar) | Visible, Position, Size, Shadow Offset, Shadow Color, Ring Width, Ring Color |
| Background Frame | Border Color, Border Width (0 for no border) |
| Background Image | Scale (50–500%), Offset X/Y (or drag the image to pan), Reset to Fill Canvas |
The bar under the designer controls your saved layouts:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Layout name | The name shown under My saved layouts. |
| Save changes | Saves the layout. A preset shows Preset — save to keep until you save it as your own. |
| Set active | Makes this the layout the bot uses. Save the layout first. The active one shows Active (bot uses this). |
| Duplicate / Delete | Copy or remove the layout you're editing. |
| Bot sends | Active layout only always uses your active layout. Rotate all layouts picks one of your saved layouts at random for each new member. This saves as soon as you click it. |
The bot draws the image on its own server, so stick with common fonts such as Helvetica (the default). A font name the bot doesn't have falls back to a default font and may look different from the preview.
How the bot picks the image#
Each time a member joins (bots are skipped), Buddy:
- Picks the layout: your active layout, or a random saved layout in Rotate all layouts mode. A server with no saved layouts gets one of Buddy's standard layouts.
- Picks the background: the uploaded background saved in that layout. If the layout uses one of the built-in backgrounds, or none, Buddy uses a random background from your uploads, or one of the four built-in backgrounds if you have none.
- Draws the member's avatar, name, member number and your server name, and posts it as
welcomeImage.png.
Built-in backgrounds aren't locked to a layout. To always use one specific background, upload it under Custom backgrounds and pick it in the designer.
Uploaded backgrounds are only used while the server has Premium. If Premium ends, your layouts keep working with Buddy's built-in backgrounds.
Using the image inside a welcome message (Premium)#
Instead of (or as well as) posting the card in its own channel, a Components welcome message can show it inside the message. On the Welcome messages page:
- In an Image Gallery or a section Thumbnail, choose Welcome Image card (premium).
- Or add a Welcome Image File block to attach it as a downloadable file.
- Or load the Welcome Image card inside a card (premium) sample.
Buddy draws the card for each new member using the same layout rules as above and attaches it to the welcome message. If the card can't be drawn, the welcome message is still posted without it.
Examples#
A Left Split layout with a big member avatar on the left and the text on the right works well with a dark background. What members see in your welcome channel:
welcomeImage.png
(Image: Alex's avatar in a red ring on the left. On the right: "Welcome to", "Buddy Café", "alex_92" in large letters, and "You're our 128th member".)
Troubleshooting#
When the image can't be posted, the reason shows in the Bot errors list on your dashboard's main Dashboard page.
No image is posted#
- Check a Welcome image channel is selected and saved.
- Channel not found: the channel was deleted or Buddy can't see it. Pick another channel.
- Missing Permissions: … Attach Files: give Buddy View Channel, Send Messages and Attach Files in that channel.
- Unable to create welcome image: no layout or background could be loaded. Pick a background in the designer and save again, or re-upload a deleted background.
- Unable to send welcome image: Discord refused the upload. The error shows Discord's reason.
My background isn't used#
- Custom backgrounds need Premium. Check the server's Premium is active.
- Make sure the layout you're editing is the active one (Active (bot uses this)), or switch Bot sends to Active layout only.
- If you picked a built-in background, the bot chooses one at random. Upload the image and select it instead.
The image looks different from the preview#
Check the Font Family. Fonts the bot doesn't have are replaced, which changes sizes and spacing. Long usernames use Font Size — Long Names, so preview a long name by checking that size too.
My changes don't show up#
Click Save changes. The Unsaved changes badge means the layout hasn't been saved yet.