Hey there!
Unsure if this belongs in Descussions or Bugs, but I put it in discussins just in case.
I recently got photoshop, since I wanted to test it out and see if it fits my illustration needs a bit more than my previous program Clip Studio Paint. The program is quite bit more complex than CSP and has a different layout than I am used to, but the biggest problem I have been facing is the canvas, or rather my brush strokes looking pixelated. I of course use a high resolution, since my illustrations tend to get quite large. Unfortunately, in Photoshop all of my strokes look incredibly jagged and pixelated. I have used a huge variety of brushes, since I wanted to get my favorite brush pack together consisting of different textures and brush shapes, so I tried out almost every kind of size, shape, texture etc.. I opened numerous new files with different settings, hoping one thing would make my brush strokes less jagged. I did get a couple of canvases where my brush strokes actually looked good, though the problem is that even with the same settings, another file looks completely different!
I will attach screenshots below, hoping that it shows the issue. I have looked everywhere on youtube and on the internet to see if there is a cause to this problem. Be it my pc being too weak, my settings being wrong, photoshop just looking that way or anything like that.
I apologize for the long text!
Maybe as a little note if this is important: its photoshop 2024 and the tablet I am using is the Huion Kamvas 24 plus. Also, my Windows version is Windows 10.
Canvas settings: 3500x4000 pixels ppi: 600
screenshot from photoshop. Top shows textured brush pressing lightly and then hard, bottom shows basic round brush pressing lightly then hard.
screenshot from clip studio paint, exact same resolution and size, textured brush on top, round brush on the bottom
I hope it is clear enough that in Clip studio, it looks much smoother and better.
I really want to know if this is because of my pc, because of my settings or just because this is what it is supposed to look like in Photoshop. Never before have I seen artists have jagged and pixelated looking brush strokes on their canvas in photoshop.
I would be really grateful for any help with this!
1 Correct answer
Is Photoshop > Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor checked?
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Replies
Not quite sure what you mean by options bar, but here are the navigation, toolbar and layers.
Photoshop:
Clip studio paint:
This close, the quality of the photoshop one is much better. Though, I am not always this zoomed in. When I work on a piece I also zoom out and would like to have my lines look clean like they do in clip studio paint. Even zooming further out, the clip studio paint one is completely fine while the one in photoshop is even more jagged and pixelated.
canvas zoomed out to fit the window. Round brush with pixelsizes 5, 10 and 30 plus the previous circle.
zoomed out even more, where the brush strokes look even worse:
exact same thing in clip studio paint:
5 pixel, 10 pixel and 30 pixel + previous circle. Canvas fitted to the window like in photoshop
zoomed out about as much as in photoshop, around 18%
Hope this is what you are asking for!
I asked for screenshots including pertinent Panels for a reason.
As for the Options Bar: Window > Options
And as many users have the Toolbar on the left side including that usually would mean that the document bar that actually indicates the magnification is included in the screenshot.
It says this. Might it solve the problem if I turn graphics processor on?? Though I am unsure where to change that.
I do zoom quite a lot in my art, to draw more intrigate details. So it would be something to get used to.
I guess if nothing helps, I need to stay at the numbers ending in 0 :')
Oh my god, that might have actually solved my problem. It was unchecked. I don't know if that was from the start or if I accidentally clicked it at one point. But now my lines look crisp at any zoom level.
I really hope this is the end of my photoshop troubles. Thank you so much for being so patient and helping me this entire time. I am so sorry for having been so difficult!
I just thought of opening one of my Clip studio paint drawings in photoshop, to see if there is anything off. And here you can see even clearer how jagged and wrong the lines look. This is a png file with the size 3900 x 3000 pixels.
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