PLEASE FIX Affinity exporting quality image results

[currentuser]

Create a 100x100px artboard at 400dpi and exporting quality result is terribly bad, no matter if set higher or lower dpi, 100x100px exported (.png or .jpeg) file is looking so pixelated. Also exporting 99x99px, 50x50, or lower size at 400dpi or whatever res, make no differense, the same awful result. This occurs on AFFD and AFFP, since ever.

 

Edited May 29 by currentuser

[loukash]

Well, even at 1000000 dpi, a 100×100 px image will still remain a 100×100 px image…  

In other words, if you need more pixels, make your artboard larger.

Also, View→View Mode→Pixels setting is your friend, even before you export.

[Pšenda]

19 hours ago, currentuser said:

no matter if set higher or lower dpi

Of course, in the case of a raster image defined in pixels, DPI is completely irrelevant. It will only make sense if you use length units (cm, inch) as the document unit.

[currentuser]

On 5/29/2025 at 4:59 PM, loukash said:

Well, even at 1000000 dpi, a 100×100 px image will still remain a 100×100 px image…  

In other words, if you need more pixels, make your artboard larger.

Also, View→View Mode→Pixels setting is your friend, even before you export.

What you explain is obvious, 100x100px.jpg always 100x100px.jpg. I think you don't read or understood the idea. 

Why 100x100px.jpg, exported inside 90x90px (smaller size) artboard to 300dpi 90x90px .jpeg file, results in bad quality render? Original 100x100px.jpg is never oversized.

Thank you.

[Old Bruce]

100 pixels on a 400 dpi document is 1/4 inch, or just over 6 mm. That is actually quite small. So there will not be very many pixels to contain all of the information.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, currentuser said:

Why 100x100px.jpg, exported inside 90x90px (smaller size) artboard to 300dpi 90x90px .jpeg file, results in bad quality render? Original 100x100px.jpg is never oversized.

What do you mean by “exported inside“? If you put a 100px by 100px image on a 90px by 90px artboard, it will be clipped to the artboard so that only 81% of it is visible. If you output it (e.g. by printing) at 300ppi it will be minuscule.

[loukash]

@currentuser, some recommended reading on the topic:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=understanding+dpi+ppi+lpi+resolution

[Oufti]

On 5/29/2025 at 10:17 PM, currentuser said:

Create a 100x100px artboard at 400dpi

Consider that 400 dpi = 400 pixels per inch, what it is indeed.

You'll then understand more easily that your image will not be pixelated if you print it at a size of 1/4". But if you print or look at it at a bigger size (say above 1/2"), you'll end up with less pixels than needed, and the pixels will become visible at normal viewing distance. 

[-iain-]

Hello there, key thing to know here is that the output is being stretched due to the image dimensions containing fewer pixels than you expected.

The bottom figure is being shown at 136% which is over 1/3rd more pixels than it contains, so they are being manufactured artificially; Your computer is guessing at what they ought to be.

You need to think about what your actually destination is, as this will change your requirements considerably, then set up your image for that.

For example, the DPI is a metric used in printing, the density of dots per inch; You will need more DPI than pixels. You can't easily judge the DPI without seeing the printed result not from the screen as it is quite different from printer to printer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch

However, if your final destination is a screen, screens use PPI or pixel density, which is another metric entirely. It is often simpler to just work in pixels and consider multiples of your sizes for the different resolutions, although PPI is the appropriate term, regardless; It is simpler to just look, you can see what your output will look like on screen in advance by using either of the following settings:

• [View -> View Mode -> Pixels]
• [View -> View Mode -> Split View]

The first will change your screen to show you directly the rendered output, the second will split your screen, to give you the vector image on one side and the rasterised image on the other; Both give a preview of your output before you export to file.

As a rule of thumb, your export percentage should be at or under 100% on the export screen, but even this is just a guide, some screens have much higher resolutions than others and for those you will need even more pixels and for the image to render smoothly at a greater percentage, if your screens resolution is lower. And printer DPI requirements vary wildly; So you must always be thinking about your specific destination.

It is a complicated subject that takes quite a bit of thinking about to get used to, it does take quite some time to get used to it. This is one of the real benefits to the vector format, you can let the device decide how to rasterize the image, when it displays it.

[Pyanepsion]

Hi, @currentuser,

I think there's a confusion (which we've all made at one time or another). A 400 × 400 px image gives 160,000 pixels. If you export it at 100 × 100 pixels, it will contain 10,000 pixels. Put another way, you've lost 150,000 pixels of information. And vice versa.

[currentuser]

On 6/30/2025 at 3:37 PM, Alfred said:

What do you mean by “exported inside“? If you put a 100px by 100px image on a 90px by 90px artboard, it will be clipped to the artboard so that only 81% of it is visible. If you output it (e.g. by printing) at 300ppi it will be minuscule.

It is for testing purposes, obviously 100px (with "good" resolution) image must be shrinked or fitted into 90x artboard, just to proof good image (correct size and res proportion) is ruined by AFD 😆

[Alfred]

17 minutes ago, currentuser said:

It is for testing purposes, obviously 100px (with "good" resolution) image must be shrinked or fitted into 90x artboard, just to proof good image (correct size and res proportion) is ruined by AFD 😆

This seems a rather pointless test! It’s obvious that a “good” 100 px square image can be ruined when it’s shrunk to fit into a 90 px square space, because (as I mentioned earlier) you’re only retaining 81% of the information. That applies to any image editing software that you might choose to test.

[bbrother]

On 6/30/2025 at 10:14 PM, currentuser said:

Why 100x100px.jpg, exported inside 90x90px (smaller size) artboard to 300dpi 90x90px .jpeg file, results in bad quality render? Original 100x100px.jpg is never oversized.

Because resampling still occurs, and that’s where quality loss happens — not due to oversizing, but due to scaling and rasterization during export. Here's what’s going on under the hood:

🔍 Step-by-step breakdown:

1. The original 100×100px.jpg is placed into a 90×90px artboard.

   • To fit, it’s scaled down by 10% in both dimensions.

   • This scaling is non-destructive in the document — the image is still linked or embedded at full resolution, but visually transformed.

2. At export, Affinity rasterizes the entire artboard.

   • Even if the export size matches the artboard (90×90px), Affinity must rasterize the scaled image to flatten it into the final JPEG.

   • This is where resampling happens, and the chosen algorithm (e.g. bilinear, bicubic, Lanczos) determines how pixel data is interpolated.

3. JPEG compression adds another layer of degradation.

   • JPEG is a lossy format — even at high quality settings, it introduces artifacts, especially around edges and gradients.

4. Scaling down ≠ perfect quality.

   • While scaling down is generally better than scaling up (because you’re reducing data, not inventing it), it still involves discarding pixels.

   • Even with an excellent resampling algorithm, fine detail can soften slightly.

 

✅ How to improve the result:

• ✅ You're already using Lanczos 3 (non-separable) — a great choice, as it preserves sharpness better than bilinear or bicubic. So no changes needed here.

• 🟢 Consider exporting to PNG instead of JPEG if you want to avoid compression artifacts entirely.

• 🟢 Avoid unnecessary transformations in the artboard itself. If possible, match the artboard size to the image or vice versa — this eliminates the need for resampling altogether.

• 🟢 Alternatively, rasterize manually before export if you want precise control over scaling — though note that Affinity uses a simpler algorithm (usually bilinear) when rasterizing this way.

 

🖥️ A quick note on DPI:

Even though your export is set to 400 DPI, keep in mind that DPI has no effect on how the image appears on screen. It’s just metadata used for print. What truly determines visual quality on digital displays is the pixel resolution — in this case, 90×90 px. So whether you export at 72, 300, or 400 DPI, the image will look the same on a monitor or in a browser. DPI only matters when the image is printed, as it defines how densely those pixels are packed per inch on paper.

And trust me — I’ve been working with raster graphics and export pipelines for over a decade. This stuff still surprises people.