Affinity Photo: Copied Graphic Reduced in Quality from 300 DPI to 96 DPI

[andren]

I'm experiencing a very frustrating problem with Affinity Photo. I've been working with PNG graphics, which are high in DPI (300 DPI or more). Since each PNG has multiple graphics in it, I've been using the lasso tool to separate each one by copying it and then selecting the "New From Clipboard" option to create a new file from it. It's the fastest way to do it and I didn't think there would be any issue with it. I've been doing this for a while, but I only noticed this problem with it recently. My image was 800 DPI, but the graphic that I copied from it and opened in a new canvas by using the "New From Clipboard" option turned out to be only 96 DPI, which is below print quality.

I'm frustrated by this because I've been doing this for a while. I put a lot of work into it by selecting each graphic individually with the lasso tool, and I've been doing this with many images already. Now it doesn't seem like I can use them for printing purposes anymore. I didn't think something like this was possible because my images had a really high DPI, and I couldn't have expected that the DPI would be changed into something much lower without me knowing about it.

Is there a way I can correct this problem, so that I can still use these images for print? Or is it too late now and these images can never be print quality? I need to work with 300 DPI.

Is there a way I can prevent this problem from happening in the future? I want to make sure that the images I extract from large documents and save as a new document using the "New From Clipboard" option will be at least 300 DPI.

(I'm using the Mac OS version btw.)

Thank you!

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, andren said:

Is there a way I can correct this problem, so that I can still use these images for print? Or is it too late now and these images can never be print quality? I need to work with 300 DPI.

The DPI is just metadata that helps indicate what size the image would print at. Though it's true that "New from Clipboard" will give you 96 DPI, all the pictures are there. All you need to do is Resize the document and specify the DPI you want, making sure that you do not Resample during the operation 

1 hour ago, andren said:

Is there a way I can prevent this problem from happening in the future?

As far as I know, no; that's just how "New from Clipboard" works.

You could perhaps create a new empty document with the DPI you want, then Paste your copied image into it, then Crop.

[PaoloT]

I would very much like an option to choose if Copy from Clipboard should default at 96 or 72 dpi. The former being traditionally a PC thing, and the latter a Mac one. This makes one step more when dealing with screenshots.

Paolo

 

[thomaso]

38 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

an option to choose if Copy from Clipboard should default at 96 or 72 dpi.

Why these two in particular? – Instead of an additional dialog window (to choose DPI) I would rather expect / prefer the DPI from the original document would be used for the new document, too, and thus avoid for instance differing font size or stroke width in the new document. – Possibly also the document's unit could be transferred.

[Old Bruce]

18 hours ago, andren said:

My image was 800 DPI, but the graphic that I copied from it and opened in a new canvas by using the "New From Clipboard" option turned out to be only 96 DPI, which is below print quality.

You will notice that all the original pixels will still be in the new 96 DPI document. If you copy a 1 inch square from the 800 DPI document and make a new from clipboard document your new document should be more than eight inches square, assuming the new one is 96DPI. If you must change the DPI (I don't think it is necessary due to all the pixels being present) go to Document > Resize Document and uncheck Resample and just enter in 800 in the DPI. All the same pixels will still be there and the size in inches will now be 1 x 1 again.

[John Rostron]

You could try using my macros to change dpi here. the advantage of a macro is that you can use a batch job to change the dpi of a folder full of images, applying the macro to each.

John.

[andren]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:40 PM, walt.farrell said:

The DPI is just metadata that helps indicate what size the image would print at. Though it's true that "New from Clipboard" will give you 96 DPI, all the pictures are there. All you need to do is Resize the document and specify the DPI you want, making sure that you do not Resample during the operation 

As far as I know, no; that's just how "New from Clipboard" works.

You could perhaps create a new empty document with the DPI you want, then Paste your copied image into it, then Crop.

Thank you! I will adjust the DPI to 300, while having Resample unchecked. Hopefully, this won't cause any issues with printing.

I could create a new document but "New from Clipboard" works much faster. It's not as efficient to create a new document each time. But then again, I'm already going to have to spend a lot of time finding the files whose DPI was lowered to 96 and try to convert them to 300 DPI one by one. So, I guess I'd rather avoid this problem in the first place, and maybe I'll have no choice but to paste these images in a new document to avoid the DPI being automatically lowered.

[andren]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:50 PM, PaoloT said:

I would very much like an option to choose if Copy from Clipboard should default at 96 or 72 dpi. The former being traditionally a PC thing, and the latter a Mac one. This makes one step more when dealing with screenshots.

Paolo

 

Options are a good thing. Personally, I don't want the default to be less than 300 DPI, because it makes the document no longer suitable for printing.

[andren]

On 8/5/2022 at 7:43 PM, thomaso said:

Why these two in particular? – Instead of an additional dialog window (to choose DPI) I would rather expect / prefer the DPI from the original document would be used for the new document, too, and thus avoid for instance differing font size or stroke width in the new document. – Possibly also the document's unit could be transferred.

I would also really like to maintain the DPI of the original document in the new document when I'm using the "New From Clipboard" option.

[andren]

On 8/6/2022 at 11:29 AM, Old Bruce said:

You will notice that all the original pixels will still be in the new 96 DPI document. If you copy a 1 inch square from the 800 DPI document and make a new from clipboard document your new document should be more than eight inches square, assuming the new one is 96DPI. If you must change the DPI (I don't think it is necessary due to all the pixels being present) go to Document > Resize Document and uncheck Resample and just enter in 800 in the DPI. All the same pixels will still be there and the size in inches will now be 1 x 1 again.

I will resize them to 300 DPI to be on the safe side because I want to avoid problems with printing.

[andren]

On 8/7/2022 at 6:53 AM, John Rostron said:

You could try using my macros to change dpi here. the advantage of a macro is that you can use a batch job to change the dpi of a folder full of images, applying the macro to each.

John.

That's interesting. I've never used macros. It would definitely be helpful if I can turn this into a batch job.

Thank you

[BofG]

3 hours ago, andren said:

I will resize them to 300 DPI to be on the safe side because I want to avoid problems with printing.

Just set the scale when printing to 3.125%.

[PaulEC]

4 hours ago, andren said:

I'm already going to have to spend a lot of time finding the files whose DPI was lowered to 96 and try to convert them to 300 DPI one by one.

Rather than doing them one by one, use a macro and do a batch job.

[PaoloT]

10 hours ago, andren said:

Options are a good thing. Personally, I don't want the default to be less than 300 DPI, because it makes the document no longer suitable for printing.

I’m all for options! In the specific case of screenshots, using for the clipboard a resolution higher than the virtual display resolution wouldn't add any benefit, since in any case the source and the grabbed picture would remain at a lower resolution.

Paolo

 

[thomaso]

On 8/14/2022 at 3:43 PM, PaoloT said:

In the specific case of screenshots, using for the clipboard a resolution higher than the virtual display resolution wouldn't add any benefit, since in any case the source and the grabbed picture would remain at a lower resolution.

As lower the resolution of an image as smaller it gets (auto-)placed. Means a screenshot of 96 DPI gets reduced in its placed size to be displayed in 300 DPI and thus appears differently towards its initial screen size when it got taken.

In the beginning of working with Affinity and its speciality of document resolution it disturbed me a lot that screenshots appear smaller. Meanwhile I prefer its auto-size according to the documents resolution because it ensures a continuos resolution of any placed resource – with the permanent option to resize the placed files if wanted.

[BugRgirl]

This was exactly what I was looking for. This issue caught me by surprise too! I copied an artboard @300dpi, new from clipboard, and it copied at 96dpi. I work between procreate and AD. I create my own graphics for my final artworks & use artboards for the creation of series of works. Anyway, this was a bit jarring. I either have to manually increase the resolution, keep them in artboards, or copy whole groups/layers into another document.

Just thought I'd say, I feel your frustration. Best of luck.