How to Stop Quality Loss When Resizing in Procreate

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If you notice substantial quality loss while scaling your drawing/image, it is possible that your Interpolation is set to Nearest Neighbor.

To make changes, select the Transform tool (the arrow) from the top toolbar, then Interpolation from the bottom toolbar, and then Bicubic or Bilinear. 

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Check your DPI in Settings > Canvas > Canvas Information by going to Settings > Canvas > Canvas Information.

Your work will appear pixelated if your DPI is low and you scale the canvas to a lower size.

If your DPI is low and you resize the canvas to a smaller size, you will notice that your work will appear pixelated when you zoom in (or stretch it to fit the screen).

In a similar vein, if you increase the size of a canvas while also enabling resampling, ProCreate will grow your work in proportion to the increased size of the canvas.

This prevents your work from being expanded and pixelated as a result of resampling being disabled.

For example, if your work is 1000×1000 pixels and you increase the canvas to 2000×2000 pixels, your work will stay 1000×1000 pixels and will leave empty areas surrounding the canvas.

Well, let’s First Understand How to resize an Image in Procreate.

Scaling image size? Is that Possible in Procreate

Yes! Absolutely. I was able to sort things out! To change the resolution, select “Crop and Resize” from the Actions menu and remember to toggle “resample” before making the change. Simple!

This blog will explain step-by-step processes for the same. Hope that helps!

Pro Note:

When resizing pictures using the "Transform" tool, set the Interpolation to Bicubic or Bilinear. 

As Procreate is not a vector programme, canvas size and DPI are quite important. 
So, make sure while working on a canvas, choose a larger-than-expected size. 

Personally, I believe 300 DPI should be the bare least; I've used it and it works wonderfully.

How to resize an image in Procreate and why it’s a secret feature.

Using Procreate, you can make a wide range of common edits to your images.

Resizing an image is one method of altering it. Procreate’s ability to resize an image can be a bit confusing at first glance.

As previously stated, this is due to the fact that it has been grouped in with another feature and given a different name as a result. In this tutorial, I’ll be providing some clarity and guiding you through the process.

Resizing an image with Procreate is as simple as selecting Canvas.

Tap on Wrench Tool then in the  Actions menu select Crop and Resize. In order to resize your image, you will need to open the settings and enable the Resize Canvas option.

This can be a bit perplexing, especially if you’re used to working in other design programs.

It’s not clear why the ability to resize an image is included in the cropping feature in Procreate, but it’s there.

Pro Note:

Nearest-Neighbour Interpolation requires the least amount of time, followed by Bilinear and Bicubic. Even with interpolation, there would be a slight decrease in quality each time. 

Try not to often resize your Objects The Nearest-Neighbor Interpolation method is not optimal. Bilinear might yield superior outcomes than this. And Bicubic may be up your alley.

How to Resize Image in ProCreate

1. First, open a new document and select your picture to edit.

2. Step 2: Select “Crop and Resize” from the menu that appears.

To find Crop & Resize Menu, enter the Actions menu by tapping the wrench icon in the top-left corner of your screen. Then, right below the “Actions” label, tap on “Canvas” and choose Crop and Resize, which should be the first option on the list:

3. Step 3: Navigate to the “Settings” menu and check the box next to “Resample Canvas” to complete this step.

This is where things get a bit confusing, because “resize” in this tool isn’t labeled as such.

By tapping on the label in the top-right corner of the Crop and Resize menu, you may access the Settings menu:

Set the Image size to Min 300DPI

The following controls can be found in the Settings menu:

Width and height: Left and right, respectively, are represented by the two integer numbers at the top of the list.

Width and height: Left and right, respectively, are represented by the two integer numbers at the top of the list.  “Dots per inch” is the abbreviation for “dots per inch.” This is only relevant when printing documents and can be ignored for the purposes of this tutorial.

Canvas resample: This is how Procreate allows you to resize an image. This must be enabled if you want to resize your image and the canvas at the same time.

Snapping: When cropping an image, the edges of your canvas will snap to the contents of your document.

Rotation: This feature enables you to rotate your image.

Pro Note: Make sure the Resample Canvas option is turned on. You’ll be able to resize your image this way.

Once enabled, the width and height fields should turn blue, and the lock icon between them should be activated, indicating that your image’s aspect ratio will be retained.

4. Step 4: Enter the numerical value that you want your image to be resized 

It’s here that the magic happens! ( Do not Resize by dragging with Pen or your hand)

Simply tap on the width or height numerical values to change the size of your image. You’ll be asked to select a number value for resizing your image:

Pixels will be the default measurement unit. If you want to resize your image in a different unit of measurement, use the options in the menu that appears when you enter the new width and height values.

There are a variety of measurement units to pick from, including:

• Millimeters
• Centimeters
• Inches
• Pixels

To save your changes, tap the Done button once you’ve input a numerical value.

The width and height of your image will be adjusted in proportion to each other in order to maintain the aspect ratio, and your image will be shrunk.

5. Step 5: Export your image after it has been Resized

If you’re resizing an image in Procreate, you probably want to reuse it. Let’s save the enlarged image from Procreate to a workable format.

Exporting a scaled image saves it. To export your work, go to the Actions menu, pick Share, and under “Share Image” choose a file format.

If it’s a photo, choose JPEG; if it has transparent sections, use PNG. After selecting a format, you’re done. Now utilize your resized image.

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Pro Tip:

When you resample a picture, Procreate uses bicubic interpolation to increase or reduce it. When resampling enlarges a digital image, it generates additional data from the pixels that already exist. This may have unexpected outcomes.

Resolution loss when scaling/Resizing objects/Images- Why this happens in procreate

That is how the majority of On the go programs As procreate operate.

As Procreate is not a vector program, you can typically get away with making it tiny and simple.

If you resize it, part of the quality will be lost, however, there may be a setting to compensate for this.

Pixels are referred to as raster images. What happens when you boost the quality of pixels?

So, Quality suffers as a result.

This is something that all raster software does; your problem isn’t caused by program changes, but rather by the consequences of your activities.

(This is not your fault, by the way.) This is how the raster works.

The differences between “Resolution” and “DPI?”

Simply put, when the resolution increases, so does the DPI, and vice versa. Procreate is neither a vector-based nor raster-based application. You would obtain the benefits of Adobe Illustrator. Vectors are composed of pathways, whereas raster-based programs grow as you zoom in. Eventually, a tremendous number of pixels will be seen.

Lost quality after resizing – Can I fix that?

Unfortunately, the resize command is a harmful operation. This implies that when you do so, you will lose picture data.

So, sure, the visual difficulties you were experiencing were quite typical.

Unfortunately, when you depart to the gallery, Procreate deletes your undo stack, which is a huge disappointment. Crashes serve as a means of exiting the gallery.

It’s for this reason that I like to advise against resizing in Procreate, and if you absolutely must, do so on a duplicate canvas.

Preferably a duplicate that has also been backed up to a cloud-based storage provider (such as Dropbox).

As you have seen, it is all too simple for a crash or a mistake to completely demolish your hard work.

In the event that you have any previously saved JPEG or PNG images from earlier, you can utilise those to retrieve your data.

It’s a sloppy backup that wipes out all of your layers, but it’s also quite quick.

A time-lapse photograph is the next best option, but it will most likely be of lesser quality, so it may not be of much use to you in this situation.

Pro Tip:

The name given to it is also confusing, as the average user may not recognize it. Let’s take a closer look at this.

Procreate: Image Resizing Made Easy

Note: Before increasing the image size you need t increase the canvas size. Step 1 : ( Increase the size of Canvas): Click on the "Wrench" Icon  >> "Canvas"  >> Crop & Resize. Drag the Corner to get the required size of the Canvas Only.

Step 2 ( Resize Image): Tap the “Arrow” Icon, Your image will be selected. Tap & Hold the corner of the selection to resize an image.

About New Canvas Size:

Click on +  Procreate Home screen, Tap on + Sign on the right-hand corner of your Screen, and a Popup would appear with Pre-Defined Canvas Sizes. To Create a Custom size canvas, tap on Folder Icon, in the next screen width & Height of your Canvas along with other parameters.

Resources:

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Resizing a layer, quality loss- Can I fix this?

If you use transform to move the contents of a layer, the transform will raster the pixels to suit the new place on the fixed grid that is the screen.

This has a minor Aliasing effect.

A pixel that had solid color before it was shifted, now falls anywhere between two screen pixels because of the arithmetic.

Algorithms try to figure out which of these two pixels has to be darker and which should be lighter in order to retain the layer’s geometry.

A single pixel-wide line may be created by employing the “straight lines are easy” method.

Zoom in till you can see the line as thick as Procreate would let you see it

Transform the line gently across the screen by clicking and dragging it slowly across the screen.

In the beginning, you will witness the line become a Double line of a less opaque color, altering opacity from one to the other, and then see it come back together when your movement of the single-pixel line once again corresponds with the fixed pixel grid of the canvas.’

Interference effect’ between the pixel grid and the single pixel line that is being shifted).

When you increase the opacity of a layer, you are essentially working with an image that has already been aliased ( most brushes do not simply turn pixels full on or full off…

They leave some partial opacity around the edges of detail.)

Additionally, your data is being distributed over an area with predetermined pixel sizes.

As a result, the Transform tool must add more pixel information to achieve this bigger size while attempting to retain the original’s geometrical structure.

In other words, it will do everything it can to maintain the aliased edges as much as possible…

This means that, in addition to the usual aliasing that occurs when shifting pixels about on a fixed grid, you are also increasing the number of aliased pixels.

All all, the image appears to have been “softened” a little. However, even sophisticated tools like Photoshop produce essentially the same outcomes. They may, however, be a tad more proficient.

It is possible to alleviate this in many ways.

The first thing to consider is the original canvas size. At the pixel level, the amount of blurring is fixed…

Because the pixels on very high-resolution canvases are so tiny in comparison to the picture, they exhibit less aliasing during transform operations.

To produce better results when scaling lineart, make many copies of the line art layer, then merge them together before scaling…

Only partly opaque pixels will become more opaque as a result of this change. The layer appears to be getting darker…

On the other hand, all you’re doing is eradicating pixel color transparency.

The aliased edge of the lineart will be reduced as a result, and the number of aliased pixels will be reduced as a result.

In order to get a scaled-up layer that looks as aliased as the original layer, you’ll have to deal with the interference effect on the scaled-up line art.

You may also eliminate aliasing by using the sharpening tool both before and after scaling.

Additionally, if you’d want a proportionate scale, you may zoom out a bit and use the Magnet constraint in the sidebar while in Transform mode before dragging the corner handle diagonally to scale the layer.

Transform is locked to a proportionate scale effect if you see a blue diagonal line across the image.

Procreate Drawing Guide

For those of you who are familiar with the use of Drawing Guides in Procreate, you can skip step 5 if you choose; otherwise, please follow along.

• To access the settings menu, select the ‘Settings icon.
• Choose the Canvas icon from the drop-down menu.
• Toggle the ‘Drawing Guides’ toggle switch on.
• Select ‘Edit Drawing Guide’ from the drop-down menu.
• Choose the Symmetry to Mirror guide type from the drop-down menu.
• Make your selections for Opacity and Thickness.
• To mirror, press the Done button.

Wrapping Up Note

When you have a broad foundation as well as personal experience, it may be quite disheartening to observe a reduction in quality. I really hope that the material was helpful to you!

Since artists are already concerned about a wide variety of issues (as if I need to add more), a decline in quality should not be added.

Without a certain, the raster-based application would have a difficult time with it. But don’t you think you could cut it down Continue to experiment and be creative in the meanwhile.