How do I resize an image without loosing clarity/quality

[mrsjlowe]

I am needing to resize an image I created in PS. Starting, its 786x696 pixels I need it to be 26x26, 56x56 and 112x112. All of the images other than 26x26 are good. I've tried different resizing, flattened my image, sharpened it etc and no matter what I do you cannot tell what it is at that size =(

I am exporting this for web and have chosen bicubic sharper hoping that would help and it hasn't either.

Suggestions?

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

26x26 pixels is such a low resolution that no down-sampling algorithm will yield a satisfactory result.

You will have to manually clean up the result pixel by pixel, or create one from scratch.

[melissapiccone]

Yep... hardly any room for any detail. What rayek.elfin said...

[mrsjlowe]

The website I am trying to put this image on has guidelines of "clear" images and only those three sizes of the same image need to be uploaded. From faces to any other type of pic throughout their website the images are clear, so despite it being a small image I guess I am having a hard time that all these other users/people are able to have clear 26x26 somehow?

[mrsjlowe]

I apologize its 28x28 they need not 26x26. Its for personalized emoticons

[mrsjlowe]

This is what the site says, "Upload 28 x 28px PNG image with transparent background. Max 25kb"

[melissapiccone]

26, 28... doesn't matter, still tiny. You will have to manually clean it up. I used to design cockpits for flight sims with 16 colors, one pixel at a time... ahhh... the good old days ;P.

[davescm]

The others have said it all regarding retaining image quality at that size - you cannot. But you can pick your image carefully so that it is at least recognisable in shape and form at that size. Lots of tiny detail and low contrast will turn to mush. Clear shape and form will show through.

Dave

[rayek.elfin]

melissapiccone  wrote

 26, 28... doesn't matter, still tiny. You will have to manually clean it up. I used to design cockpits for flight sims with 16 colors, one pixel at a time... ahhh... the good old days ;P. 

Me too! I began doing game "art" on the Commodore 64: 160x200px and 16 colours with a limit of four colours per character on the screen. Sprites were even more limited. Later I switched to the Amiga, and worked on art for games.

[chanaart]

This is a very small file. It is going to be difficult to work with it