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soraya97
Known Participant
July 20, 2020
Question

Quality loss after resizing, even with Smart Object

  • July 20, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 4693 views

I have a big high-quality image (sailor illustration) that I wanna paste on top of a smaller image (A playing card). When I paste the sailor in that file, it's huge (but great quality, not blurry). I then turn in into a smart object, and scale it down to fit the playing card. But when I then zoom in on the sailor's face, it gets blurry pretty quickly. How do I solve this?

 

I added two images to this post. One image is the pasted sailor before resizing. The other image is the sailor's quality when zoomed in after resizing.

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2 replies

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 20, 2020

»But when I then zoom in on the sailor's face, it gets blurry pretty quickly.«

Do you understand the meaning of the word »blurry« compared to the meaning of the word »pixelated«? 

 

One of the screenshots was taken at 300% magnification, so noticable pixels seem unsurprising and can apparently also be seen in the spade for example. 

Please post screenshots taken at View > 100%. 

    S
    soraya97Author
    Known Participant
    July 20, 2020

    The whole issue is that when I zoom in on the big one it doesn't get blurry so I don't get why it'd get pixelated on the small one. Surely if you can make an image big and it's not pixelated, why would it be pixelated faster when it's smaller.

    Kevin Stohlmeyer
    Community Expert
    Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2020

    I'm afraid that at this point that might go beyond my Photoshop skills. I already had to look up tutorials on youtube for smart objects lol. I don't even know what Shape Layers or Type Layers are.

     

    As for the ultimate output requirements... I don't know? I'm working on a custom deck of playing cards, and the company that makes them sent me the template you see about (the 300% zoomed in one), so everything I do needs to fit in that file. Which I don't really get cause the J and Spades look pixelated as well..


    It all has to do with the size of your file. A larger file dimension will of course look better when compared to a smaller dimension (your printer file). This is the reality and limitation of the file size, not the software.

    If you look close up at a 20 ft poster and then look at the same poster only 2 ft - one is going to look different than the other - less detail, etc.

      Kevin Stohlmeyer
      Community Expert
      Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 20, 2020

      I'm looking at your document sizes in the supplied screen shots.

      This really is not that big of a file so I'm not surprised that it looks pixelated when zooming in.

      The doc is only 3.47 x 4.47 in at 300 ppi.

       

      The original size of the sailor doesn't matter once its placed in the smaller playing card document - the destination document specs are what matters.

      Once placed in the playing card file it will honor those settings, so even though your sailor doc was huge, its not now.

      S
      soraya97Author
      Known Participant
      July 20, 2020

      So would the issue be fixed if I remade the empty card and just made it bigger?

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