Bad resolution in Af Photo? (Sometimes)

[Thomahawk]

Sometimes, when I resize or distort part of an image, the result has a very bad resolution - it looks like something reduced to a 20x20 pixel resolution and then zoomed up again. Here I pasted in a plate-design with typography on it. I placed a pixel image 1200x1200 pixel, sharp and clean, then resized it with distort tool and ended up with this clunky representation. One can see, the surrounding image has a much better resolution (plate and background are both pixel images, marked as such in layers palette). Makes no difference if "move whole pixels" and "force pixel position" in top tool bar are on or off).

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Thomahawk said:

I placed a pixel image 1200x1200 pixel, sharp and clean, then resized it with distort tool and ended up with this clunky representation. One can see, the surrounding image has a much better resolution (plate and background are both pixel images, marked as such in layers palette). Makes no difference if "move whole pixels" and "force pixel position" in top tool bar are on or off).

I'm not sure exactly what you've done from that limited screenshot. It would help to have the complete screen, including the layers panel, I think.

You say you "placed" a pixel image, and you say that it shows as (Pixel) in the Layers panel. That must mean, I think that you also did a Rasterize operation, as Placing something should give you an (Image) layer.

You also mention using the "distort tool". There is no tool with that name in English as far as I know. A screenshot might be useful to see what tool you used. Perhaps a recording would be useful, too, if you can do one.

Note: When snapping, you will generally want "Move by whole pixels" Off, not on. You will want "Force pixel alignment" On.

[Thomahawk]

Like I said. They are placed as PIXEL layers, not (image). Makes no difference to use any distort tool or simply resize the 1200x1200 pixel (sharp and clean) pasted smaller image. The result is unusable  because of low resolution.

[walt.farrell]

How are you placing them? Normally a Placed (or pasted) image will become an (Image) layer. So it would help to understand what you did that gave you a (Pixel) layer.

Also, if they were 1200 x 1200 when you placed them, what dimensions did you reduce them to when you resized them? And how did you resize them?

What is the DPI of the document you placed them into? And what is the DPI of the image you're placing?

If you select the image you placed using the Move tool, and look in the Transform panel, what are its X and Y origins, in px units, with 3 decimal places?