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motivated_helper0D45
Participant
July 16, 2021
Answered

Blend modes - Hard Mix - exporting gives different results - what seems to be the problem?

  • July 16, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 2428 views

Hi all,

 

Am creating an artwork for my music track, am facing export issues with blending modes in Photoshop CC after exporting it.

 

I have one layer with a dull blue color with noise on it, and above it i have imported the line art i have created in illustrator and placed it in photoshop layer, just outlines in white and without fills, now i started playing with modes, and the one liked the most is Hard Mix mode which looks cool with the layer below it.

 

But when i export am getting a different preview output and not happy with it .... What can be done here? I have attached the preview here.

Correct answer Mylenium

You are not viewing your art at 100% zoom and the different antialaiasing from the tiling and hardware acceleration gives you a wrong impression of the actual result. It's a limitation with such fine lines. you have to adapt your workflow and work at 100%.

 

Mylenium

1 reply

Mylenium
MyleniumCorrect answer
Legend
July 16, 2021

You are not viewing your art at 100% zoom and the different antialaiasing from the tiling and hardware acceleration gives you a wrong impression of the actual result. It's a limitation with such fine lines. you have to adapt your workflow and work at 100%.

 

Mylenium

    M
    motivated_helper0D45Author
    Participant
    July 16, 2021

    Hi Mylenium,

     

    Thanks for the reply, I just checked on it at 100% zoom and yes noticed that they are same, even when before and after exporting the artwork. But the screenshot i had taken posted above, that looks exactly as i wanted it to look, but as you mentioned, 'different antialaiasing from the tiling and hardware acceleration', am not understand how that worked!

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 16, 2021

    ".....am not understand how that worked!"

     

    At 100% zoom, the preview you see on the screen is based on every single image pixel being individually blended between layers then displayed on screen. This is also what happens when an image is exported or flattened.

     

    At lesser zoom levels, the image pixels on each layer are averaged together to form a layer at preview size then the layers are blended. So for example at 50% zoom 4 image pixels on each layer are averaged to form a preview pixel  - then these preview layers are blended together. With fine detail, this can result in a different blend to that seen when individual pixels in each layer are used. In addition, at zoom elevels of less than 66.7% previews are 8 bits/channel even when the document is 16 bits/channel. 

    All this is done for speed - can you imagine how long it would take to redraw a 1Gpixel image, shown as fit on screen,  if every pixel on every layer had to be recalculated individually before display.

     

    Hence the advice - always check your image blend at 100% zoom.

     

    Dave

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