Okay, so let's talk image resolution...

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

I'm gonna need our guys' help with something, because after 3 years learning how to use Photoshop, I'm still iffy on image resolution, and I need to sort this out.

 

Keeping in mind that I plan on drawing line art by hand and then scanning it in for digital tracing and sprucing up, at what DPI should I scan, what DPI should I set my documents in Paint Tool Sai when I'm working on the images, and does anyone have a program for resizing images without loss of quality, seeing as I have no Photoshop?

[Remi 1,309]

Well, vectors are normally made at outrageosly high resolution, i.e. 1578 by 3840 (width by height). Scanning at a specific resolution does not matter to me, When I get a sketch I scanned onto photoshop, I just open it, copy it, and open a new high resolution image and then paste it in that document. I then increase the size to my liking, and then use the pen tool to create a stroke. For most of my projects I put the dimensions at double the resolution of 1080p on YouTube videos. In other words, I put the dimensions at 3840 by 2160 pixels (Width by height). But those are my preferences. I hope this helped. If you need anymore specifications on this, feel free to ask.

<brohoof>

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

Well, vectors are normally made at outrageosly high resolution, i.e. 1578 by 3840 (width by height). Scanning at a specific resolution does not matter to me, When I get a sketch I scanned onto photoshop, I just open it, copy it, and open a new high resolution image and then paste it in that document. I then increase the size to my liking, and then use the pen tool to create a stroke. For most of my projects I put the dimensions at double the resolution of 1080p on YouTube videos. In other words, I put the dimensions at 3840 by 2160 pixels (Width by height). But those are my preferences. I hope this helped. If you need anymore specifications on this, feel free to ask.

 

<brohoof>

 

Usually, when I scanned art for tracing/whatever, I scanned at 600dpi and worked in a 300dpi document. I shall take your ridiculously high resolution suggestion.

 

But how would I make it smaller for public consumption without losing quality?

[Remi 1,309]

Usually, when I scanned art for tracing/whatever, I scanned at 600dpi and worked in a 300dpi document. I shall take your ridiculously high resolution suggestion.

 

But how would I make it smaller for public consumption without losing quality?

Hrm.   Well, I view this in two ways. 1. I use the outragingly high quality vectors as public consumption already, and I've had no problem reducing them from 3858 x 2580 pixels to 1024 x 920 for example. My signature, the cutie mark used for Rainbow Dash was ridiculosely high resolution, and I scaled it all the way down to a 100 x 600 project, so those  work fine in my opinion. 2. When you scan it, open a new project at dimensions to your liking, then copy the scanned image and paste it in the new document. Then scale it to your liking, then continue to create the stroke/line art. I hope this helped, if you need any more specification on this, feel free to ask. 

 

<brohoof>

[XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 777]

Having a high DPI is nice but after a certain point you'll begin to notice that it doesn't affect your image as much as you'd like. Now bear in mind that I'm in no ways a pro of DPI logistics but this is what I've come to understand. The higher your DPI the nicer your raster image will look, but there will come a point where a DPI of 1000 looks no different from 300 DPI. There is a difference, it's just not noticeable on the surface. I've always stayed at a max of 300 for it's the standard for printing goods. When you're scanning in your goodies it's a good idea to leave it at the default, increasing it can make your scanned image look sharper but I've always found scanned goodies to be plenty big as it is and thus looks fine after adjusting their resolution.

 

If you're doing vectors though it doesn't matter at all until you export the image. When you make a vector the lines are mathematical calculations and no matter how you resize it the vector will automatically adjust. Thus, this is why vector works have 'infinite' scale and is another reason you see giant variants of vector works. This rule doesn't really apply to vector and more for raster but always remember, bigger is always better! You can always downsize the image and retain quality but if you take a small image and bloom it up you'll lose quality no matter what program you use. 

Edited June 13, 2013 by Accellerant

[Gay Bird 420]

Whenever I scan artwork for that purpose, it's always at 300 dpi. That always gives me all the detail I need and doesn't render too large of a file. Also, when you scan the image, make sure you save it as a png (or other lossless file format) so that nothing is lost in the compression.

[Remi 1,309]

Now I know what I'm talking about. 300/100 DPI is optimal for printing/scanning. 72 DPI is optimal for creating documents in a digital art software.