How can I save pictures so that they don't look ''pixelated'' when zoomed in

[Maria29826941gwwo]

Hi all, I have very limited experience with Photoshop and I couldn't find the answer to this so here it goes:

I need pictures in the 970x300 size format. What I'm doing is I'm opening a doc in that size, uploading a stock image to photoshop and adding a couple more pics to it. However, when I save the image and I zoom in, even if it's just a little bit, it looks pixelated. Even before saving it, when I zoom in on PS it still looks blurry. I know it's not the stock image because when I zoom in on my computer it does not look bad. It's after I've uploaded it to PS.

I have tried exporting it with 1000 pixels by inch, then by 300 pixels by inch and nothing. I have saved it as Save as, but it still looks bad when zoomed in. 

I've used photoshop other times to edit my own pictures and they look great when I zoom in. So I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. 

I'm attaching an example below.

I'd appretiate any help provided, and thanks in advance!

[D Fosse]

Images are made of pixels. Zoom enough in, and those pixels start to become visible. In your case you only have 970 x 300 of them.

Show screenshots from Photoshop, at View > 100%. 100% is a significant number. It means one image pixel is represented by exactly one physical screen pixel.

[Maria29826941gwwo]

Thank you for your reply. It was very helpful!

[headTrix Training]

Hi

This is all due to resolution. You can change an images DPI, but that in essence is scaling the image.... and bitmaps (all photos are bitmap based (made up of pixels) so they are NOT scaleable. You can scale them of course but they lose quality as you scale them.... so you can't really change the DPI (or PPI - Pixels per Inch) since it manipulates the image. You can lower it, but you can't increase it. And once an image is optimized as a GIF, JPEG, or PNG it is 72 dpi. 

So unless an image has a high resoultion with a LOT of pixels.... zoooming in will always show pixels and will probably look blurry. So whatever size you need will look good at its ACTUAL size. So export to the size you need, knowing you should be starting off with the highest resolution possible - (you can scale DOWN, but you can;t scale UP without pixelating or losing quality in your image) and then just make sure you present it, post it or view it in actual size.

Hope this helps!
mark

Hope this helps!

[Maria29826941gwwo]

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for your reply. It makes all the sense looking at it from that perspective. 

[headTrix Training]

You are welcome! Glad I could help! Good luck with your project!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

I need pictures in the 970x300 size format…I've used photoshop other times to edit my own pictures and they look great when I zoom in. So I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

By @Maria29826941gwwo

When you edited your own pictures and they looked great when zoomed in, what were the pixel dimensions of those photos? If their pixel dimensions were significantly larger than 970 x 300 px, then that is the reason they look better. But of course for this job, you can’t go higher than 970 x 300 px.

The main question is, are these 970 x 300 px photos intended for final display on the web or in a mobile app? If so, that would mean they are never expected to be magnified, only required to look good at 1:1 (100%), and therefore zooming in on them is not a realistic way to evaluate them. Just make it look good at 1:1, and it’s good.

Another way to look at it: Find a great-looking image of roughly 970 x 300 px (more or less) on any web site, download it, and look at it in Photoshop. Does it look any better than yours when magnificed? If not, then you are already doing the best you can. Another example: Do the icons on your desktop look sharp? Many of them are even smaller, like 256 x 256 px. Magnify one, and it looks terribly blocky. But we think they look sharp, because icons are not normally magnified.

The goal is to make it look good at the size it will be displayed on screen, not at some magnification it will never be seen at.

[Maria29826941gwwo]

Hi Conrad, 

Thanks so much for your reply. As a matter of fact you are right, the picture is intended for web and mobile display which means they only need to look good at 1:1. It looks a tiny bit distorted when looking at it from a computer vs. a phone, but I guess that's normal since the screens are different. 

Thank you again!

[Per Berntsen]

I have tried exporting it with 1000 pixels by inch, then by 300 pixels by inch and nothing. I have saved it as Save as, but it still looks bad when zoomed in. 

By @Maria29826941gwwo

PPI (Pixels Per Inch) is optional metadata used for printing.

Pixel dimensions divided by PPI = Printed dimensions in inches.

Digital images don't have physical dimensions, and the PPI value tells the printer driver how to distribute the pixels on paper.

For screen viewing, PPI is irrelevant, and images will display according to their pixel dimensions.

It doesn't matter what the PPI value is, it can be 1 or 1000, or missing altogether, the image will display the same.

If your screen resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels, an image with those pixel dimensions will fill the screen (in full screen mode, where there are no interface elements), and you'll be viewing it at 100% – which means that one image pixel is represented by one screen pixel.

As others have pointed out, viewing an image at higher magnification than 100% will lead to pixelation.

At 200% view, 75 % of the pixels have to be invented (interpolation), and Photoshop (or whatever application you're using to view the image) has to guess what they should look like, resulting in blur and pixelation.

To assess image quality, always view at 100%.

[Maria29826941gwwo]

Thank you so much for your reply Per. Everything makes sense now.