# Resolution and image size



## Willow (Jan 3, 2014)

It's me again with another question. Or questions rather. 

I've been using SAI for quite a bit now and can navigate it at least well enough to draw on it, but whenever I start an image I of course have to put in what size I want and what the resolution is. No real problem there right? Well..

Two things. 

I often find myself crowding pictures and I'm not sure if it's just because I'm working on a laptop and therefore the smaller screen is a hindrance or I zoom in too much and that's the problem but it just feels like I never have enough space. 

The other problem I run into is that I'm not entirely sure how to properly set resolution in accordance to the image size itself. I usually leave it at the default 72 though. 

So yeah, any solutions?


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## soak (Jan 4, 2014)

Well, in SAI, you can adjust the canvas size even after you've been working on the drawing.
Canvas -> Change size

If I ever find that I'm being crowded for space, I just make the canvas bigger.


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## Willow (Jan 4, 2014)

soak said:


> Well, in SAI, you can adjust the canvas size even after you've been working on the drawing.
> Canvas -> Change size
> 
> If I ever find that I'm being crowded for space, I just make the canvas bigger.


That's usually what I do, or I draw the body and then shrink it down to fit but then there's the risk of distorting it a little.


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## teacupdolly (Jan 4, 2014)

Well you may feel crowded due to the resolution! 
I work anywhere between 300 and 600 [when I'm detail oriented] and it expands my canvas accordingly. 
The higher the resolution, the more your canvas expands. 

Play around with it and see if that helps ^^
Sorry I am terrible at explaining resolution.

What image size do you usually work with?


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## Socks the Fox (Jan 4, 2014)

The problem is, there's two different terms relating to images that are both called 'resolution:' Image size and DPI. Granted, they're related (a higher DPI means more pixels, which mapped 1:1 on a lower DPI screen means a bigger picture) so that doesn't help.

DPI literally means 'dots per inch' and is supposed to be a physical representation of how detailed your image is. 72 is used for historical purposes (1 dot ends up being about 1 point (the measurement unit) in size). Off the top of my head, many normal screens are 96 DPI, the iPhone 4S is 276 or something, 300 is okay printer quality, 600 is sweet printer quality, and 1200 DPI is pro printer quality. Finding out how many actual pixels this is is stupid simple: the dots per inch you want your work to be at times the size in inches you want it to be = total dots (which in this case is pixels), for both width and height. Some file formats and printers let you print in different DPIs for width and height, but honestly I can't think of many reasons to do that in the modern day.

Now, if you're only working with screens, and have no intent to print these and don't care how big they end up physically because every screen has a different physical DPI, then the DPI is pointless and you can ignore it and instead use raw image dimensions. At that point, it depends entirely on what you want to do. Desktop backgrounds? Wikipedia has a sweet list of resolutions, though most likely you're going to aim for 1920x1080 (a.k.a 1080p) for the final result. Just about anything else either has set requirements (must be no bigger than XYZ) or entirely freeform in which case just slap your hand against the numpad and go with whatever that causes. Or go with 2250x3300, which is US letter at 300 DPI and gives a nice big space to work with.


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## Tica (Jan 4, 2014)

Willow said:


> It's me again with another question. Or questions rather.
> 
> I've been using SAI for quite a bit now and can navigate it at least well enough to draw on it, but whenever I start an image I of course have to put in what size I want and what the resolution is. No real problem there right? Well..
> 
> ...



If you ever want to print your art, you should be working at at least 300 dpi. 72 dpi is great on the web, but will print tiny/pixellated.

I usually make my canvas 8.5 x 11 as a default because it's the most common print size, and I got used to using that size when drawing traditionally. I make sizes according what I want to print: badges are 5x5 and under, bookmarks/postcards/comic pages are according to proper dimensions. I sometimes work at twice the size I want to finish at and then scale down.

if you don't intend to print, I say make a much bigger canvas than you need and just crop it when you're finished.


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## Willow (Jan 5, 2014)

Socks the Fox said:


> The problem is, there's two different terms relating to images that are both called 'resolution:' Image size and DPI. Granted, they're related (a higher DPI means more pixels, which mapped 1:1 on a lower DPI screen means a bigger picture) so that doesn't help.
> 
> DPI literally means 'dots per inch' and is supposed to be a physical representation of how detailed your image is. 72 is used for historical purposes (1 dot ends up being about 1 point (the measurement unit) in size). Off the top of my head, many normal screens are 96 DPI, the iPhone 4S is 276 or something, 300 is okay printer quality, 600 is sweet printer quality, and 1200 DPI is pro printer quality. Finding out how many actual pixels this is is stupid simple: the dots per inch you want your work to be at times the size in inches you want it to be = total dots (which in this case is pixels), for both width and height. Some file formats and printers let you print in different DPIs for width and height, but honestly I can't think of many reasons to do that in the modern day.
> 
> Now, if you're only working with screens, and have no intent to print these and don't care how big they end up physically because every screen has a different physical DPI, then the DPI is pointless and you can ignore it and instead use raw image dimensions. At that point, it depends entirely on what you want to do. Desktop backgrounds? Wikipedia has a sweet list of resolutions, though most likely you're going to aim for 1920x1080 (a.k.a 1080p) for the final result. Just about anything else either has set requirements (must be no bigger than XYZ) or entirely freeform in which case just slap your hand against the numpad and go with whatever that causes. Or go with 2250x3300, which is US letter at 300 DPI and gives a nice big space to work with.


Currently I really have no intentions of making prints unless the picture I made incidentally looks like it would make a cool print or design. In which case, I wouldn't really know what to do. I made a Society6 account some time ago just in case though. But again, me making a decent print would be more of a happy accident. This is just more about how it looks on the screen and when I'm working on it. 

And this is still really helpful. I think SAI's is referring to DPI because it gives the option to switch between pixels/inch and pixels/cm. So I'll keep that in mind. 


Tica said:


> if you don't intend to print, I say make a much bigger canvas than you need and just crop it when you're finished.


Sounds like a plan.


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## Sammacha (Jan 5, 2014)

The info which has already been posted here is great but just to add my opinion, its better to work in a larger and higher dpi if you can. This way if it is something you would like to print you wont have to worry about resizing and changing. Sometimes when that happens your pic is way too small and cant be enlarged to the correct size which means... Start again....
anyways in all honesty it depends on what its for, practice sketching etc - small. Graphics - often small
high details, posting and printing - big

a lot of places which do prints also offer a recommended pixel sizing chart so that could give you an idea of what size something would be in real life compared to a screen.


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