Participant

Question

Scaling an inserted image messes it up completely

Forum|Forum|7 days ago
July 23, 2026
6 replies
66 views

When inserting a high resolution image into another one and scaling the former down to a required size, it loses all sharpness and becomes super blurry, why? Also when trying to seize it back up to its original size it remains blurry .

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Factors to consider:

Resampling method
Pixel dimensions and resolution of the placed image before resizing
Pixel dimensions and resolution of the receiving document

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Resampling method

Good point!

@Elizaveta26409616ucas , what is your Photoshop > Settings > General > Image Interpolation setting?

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Another point: While the transformation remains unconfirmed the transformation is previewed and not calculated at full quality. (edited)

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Did you place the image as a Smart Object? (If not then downsampling destroyed detail and upsampling will naturally not recreate it.)

Could you please post a screenshot taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Channels, Options Bar, …) visible?

E

Elizaveta26409616ucasAuthor

Participant

Hello,

yes, it is a smart object, and the original picture is high resolution before i scale it

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

I asked for a screenshot at View > 100% for a reason.

The Smart Object-instance cannot have a different resolution from the containing image (unlike in Illustrator or Indesign where different pixel-elements may have different resolutions); so the pixelation seems as expected when one looks at the background, which is just as pixelated.

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