Poor image quality when importing

[Michal Hawrasz]

Hi,

 

when I import my PNG logo it gets pixelated regardless of dimensions I import. The same png logo looks great on my web page and other materials. I also use it in Sketch3 App and it looks great as well. Any Ideas what do I do wrong?

[MEB]

Hi Michal Hawrasz,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

When you open an image in Affinity Photo it fills the available screen space, meaning you are actually seeing it at a higher zoom level that 100%.

To view it at its real pixel size you have to set the zoom to 100% or press cmd + 1.

[TinPianoMan]

I'm interested to hear more on this as I've been having similar issues myself. And, at least in my case, it's not as simple as viewing the image at 100%.

 

Here's a specific example.

 

I have a png - 3000px x 3600px, 200dpi. When I use AP to open it, it's crisp and smooth - see image 1.

 

Now, if I create a new doc, 3000 x 3600px, 200dpi, and use Place to add the same image file, the lines get corrugated - see image 2.

 

This has been driving me nuts, as I'm sure when I first started using AP and AD, this wasn't happening.

 

Now, this may not be what Michal is experiencing, but there's certainly something misbehaving with imported image files.

 

[Oval]

“View Quality” is set to “Nearest Neighbour (Fastest)”?

[TinPianoMan]

Ahah! That could be it. Thanks.

[cwmbrancon]

Hi There,

 

I just moved over from Photoshop and am having similar problems. Seriously considering leaving this programme behind and paying out for the new Photoshop!

 

When I import any file it appears more pixelated than the exact same image in PS. Also this seems to happen on export with a noticeable loss of quality in the exported file regardless of type. I'm just using 'Apple Preview' to view the files.

 

Even if there is an explanation and hopefully solution, this seems a bizarre way of operating! 

 

Thanks in advance

 

C

[Oval]

[…] When I import any file it appears more pixelated than the exact same image in PS. Also this seems to happen on export with a noticeable loss of quality in the exported file regardless of type.

 

One reason could be the wrong “View Quality”. How is it adjusted, cwmbrancon?

 

Hopefully you compare with the same preferences and the same zoom level. Please, some screenshots could help to understand your first issue …

 

Many beginners use/don’t change bilinear resampling. According to the kind of image* they have to decide how to export and prepare. Please try “Lanczos 3 (non-separable). Does this help?

 

*explained in Affinity Help

[TinPianoMan]

This is the setting I eventually tracked down and reset:

 

Affinity Photo > Preferences > Performance > View Quality

 

[cwmbrancon]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for the tips  :)

 

That certainly seemed to help. I haven't trialled fully, but looks good so far  :)

[jmfitamant]

I found this to remove the pixels on my imported images in Affinity Photo

My software in in French, then my translation may be different :

I clic on "DOCUMENT"

The on "RESIZE THE DOCUMENT PIXEL ART..."

Then a window opens and you chose the best rate for you pic.

It gives me good results.

[RogerJohnson]

I have the same issue with loss of quality when importing from Photostream, even though the definition looks fine for the same image in Photos. i have 300gb of free space on my iPad so I doubt it’s that. Opening a photo that has been directly copied to my iPad is fine, but opening Photostream images has terrible resolution. I’ve got a new copy of AF app on my iPad, and as far as I remember haven’t had the same problem with using AF on my Mac.

I can’t find Performance tab under the Preferences menu on the iPad, to make the change suggested by TinPianoMan

 

details:

IPad Pro 4th generation

iOS 14.4.2

free space 300 Gb

[HH at DeM]

I've got images I want to Place that are partly photos and partly line-drawings, and they come up so pixellated. I've tried the tips given above but those don't help. With View Quality at Nearest Neighbour it's even worse! Any suggestions???

 

[MEB]

Hi @HH at DeM,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
What Affinity application are you using and what's the format of the "images"?
Do you mind providing us a couple to see what's going on? I can provide an upload link if you wish to keep them private. Just let me know.

[HH at DeM]

On 11/22/2021 at 4:10 PM, MEB said:

Hi @HH at DeM,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
What Affinity application are you using and what's the format of the "images"?
Do you mind providing us a couple to see what's going on? I can provide an upload link if you wish to keep them private. Just let me know.

Hi! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'm working with Affinity Photo (using the most recent version) and they are JPeG images. Here's an example ...

The first one is the original. As you can see I have already Placed several images and text on that.

But I have to Place that whole image so that it becomes a size of 776 x 300 pixels. The second shows what happens when I do that - especially bad with the text.

When the original is a screenshot, that's even worse - which I can understand, but is there anything I can do about it? That's the 3rd photo, with no text. 

Any thoughts????

[Old Bruce]

49 minutes ago, HH at DeM said:

The first one is the original. As you can see I have already Placed several images and text on that.

But I have to Place that whole image so that it becomes a size of 776 x 300 pixels. The second shows what happens when I do that - especially bad with the text.

Your original image is 3750 x 1590 pixels.

Just place that one into the document and make that the 776 x 300 pixels. Here is a comparison the top one is the original roughly resized next to the small one.

 

[HH at DeM]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Your original image is 3750 x 1590 pixels.

Just place that one into the document and make that the 776 x 300 pixels. Here is a comparison the top one is the original roughly resized next to the small one.

 

Sorry ... but when I resize the large original to make it roughly the size I want, the extent of the pixellation is not acceptable for an academic website. And I have to do this to other images where the original cannot be so easily reduced to 776 x 300 (the images are for a carousel so they have to be of that size)- unless I Place them on a new background of that shape. Do you see what I mean? How can I get the lettering clearer?

[Old Bruce]

Do not reduce the original image. Place the original image into a 300 DPI document of the correct dimensions.

3 minutes ago, HH at DeM said:

(the images are for a carousel so they have to be of that size)

What is a carousel?

[HH at DeM]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Do not reduce the original image. Place the original image into a 300 DPI document of the correct dimensions.

What is a carousel?

Well that's what I have actually been doing  ... that's the problem. I Placed the original into a 300 DPI document of the correct dimensions ... and the image that appeared was so pixellated! It's happened to all the images I want for the carousel. (A carousel of images is what I am having on the Home Page of my forthcoming website. It rotates the images as you look at the screen - BUT they all have to be of the same size: 776 x 300).

[Old Bruce]

776 x 300 pixels is not a lot of space for text, so the text will be pixelated. Add in the fact that you are using JPEG as an export and you'll wind up with the ugly artifacts. I would try making the document at 776 x 300 (DPI is not important, use 96 DPI) and just placing the various pictures then in the tiny sized document I would play about with different fonts and sizes to find the best looking text. Do all the work at the size the image will be in the webpage.

If this is for the web or a screen only, then DPI is irrelevant. All you need is the pixel as a unit of measurement.

[HH at DeM]

Thanks a lot Bruce (I don't go with the 'Old' bit!). I'll give that a try. Many thanks.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I would try making the document at 776 x 300 (DPI is not important, use 96 DPI) and just placing the various pictures then in the tiny sized document I would play about with different fonts and sizes to find the best looking text.

If you want really good looking text, don't include it in bitmap images at all. Instead, use an app designed to create web pages to add the text as one or more separate text elements, appropriately tagged so web browsers will recognize it as text & render it crisply.

[HH at DeM]

Aah ... now that sounds like a good idea!! I shall investigate!

[cniemi]

Hi

I'm having issues with my preview resolution with native Affinity Photo images. If I open a JPG or PNG file in AP at full resolution it looks great. If I do a "Save As" Affinity Photo, close the document, then reopen it, I get a lo-res preview on my screen. When I export it back to JPG, PNG or TIFF, it looks great again. Also, when I have a native AP file open and I switch personas it clears the image up and I can switch back to the original persona with the higher res preview. I tried some of the things mentioned in this thread but I think my issue has to do with a performance setting  and I can't for the life of me figure out where to go to fix it. 

I am running on two different Mac computers. An iMac and a MacBook pro. Same issue on both machines.  

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, cniemi said:

Hi

I'm having issues with my preview resolution with native Affinity Photo images. If I open a JPG or PNG file in AP at full resolution it looks great. If I do a "Save As" Affinity Photo, close the document, then reopen it, I get a lo-res preview on my screen. When I export it back to JPG, PNG or TIFF, it looks great again. Also, when I have a native AP file open and I switch personas it clears the image up and I can switch back to the original persona with the higher res preview. I tried some of the things mentioned in this thread but I think my issue has to do with a performance setting  and I can't for the life of me figure out where to go to fix it. 

I am running on two different Mac computers. An iMac and a MacBook pro. Same issue on both machines.  

Sounds like this problem, which has been fixed in the current Photo Beta on Windows. You might inquire there about Mac.