Export without quality loss: an export checklist

What ruins quality

Quality is not lost in the editor. It is lost on the way from the file to the viewer. Three things do it: compressing the file again, a sloppy resize, and the algorithms on social media.

Compressing the file again

JPG compresses the picture with loss. You open the file, tweak it, and save again, and the losses stack. After five or six resaves, dirty 8 × 8 pixel blocks show up in flat areas. The rule is simple: edit the layered source file, and make the JPG once, at the end.

Scaling down and scaling up

Scaling a picture down is safe. Scaling it up is not. When you scale down, the editor throws away extra pixels. When you scale up, it invents new ones, and lines go soft. A full size calculation is in the article on resolution and DPI.

Automatic compression on social media

Platforms recompress everything you upload, to save bandwidth. You cannot stop that, but you can prepare the file so the compression lands softly.

• upload the picture at the recommended size, with no extra margin;
• avoid tiny details and thin lines that are 1 pixel wide;
• turn off automatic compression in the app settings;
• for important work, post a PNG if the platform accepts it.

Export it the right way

Export is not the Save button. It is a separate step, with its own settings.

Pick the format for the job

For lines, text, and a transparent background, use PNG. For painting with soft transitions, JPG fits: the file weighs several times less and looks almost the same. WEBP beats both on file size, and every current browser supports it. A full comparison is in the guide to PNG, JPG, and SVG file formats.

JPG quality and file size

The quality slider should almost always sit at 85–90%, not at 100%. The eye cannot tell 90% from 100%, and the file is about half the weight. Below 75%, artifacts start to show around the outlines.

A transparent background

Transparency lives in a separate alpha channel, and only PNG and WEBP carry it. JPG does not support it: the background automatically becomes white.

Check the alpha channel

Before you export, turn off every background layer and look at the canvas. A checkerboard means real transparency. White means a white layer is still in there somewhere. Check the edges too: semi-transparent pixels often leave a dirty rim.

Halos along the edges

A light rim around an object shows up when transparency was blended with a white background back in the editor. Fix it like this:

1. Place a layer of a contrasting color under the object.
2. Zoom to 300% and find the rim.
3. Turn on alpha lock and paint the edges in the color you need.
4. Contract the selection by 1 pixel if the rim is still there.
5. Turn the underlayer off and export to PNG.

Ways to work the edges cleanly are in the article on layer masks.

Prepare it for social media

Every platform has its own sizes and its own compression. A prepared file passes through almost without loss.

Recommended sizes

For a square post, use 1440 × 1440 pixels. For a vertical post, 1440 × 1800. For Stories, 1080 × 1920. A video-platform cover is 1280 × 720. If the work was larger, scale it down once, straight to the size you need, not in several steps.

A little sharpening before you upload

After you scale down, the picture always gets a bit softer. Add light sharpening, 10–20% in an unsharp mask filter. More than that is too much: light outlines and ringing edges will appear on the contours.

Keep the source files

The file is not only the picture. It is your archive of decisions. A year later you will want it for a portfolio or a rework.

The layered file, kept separate

Make a folder for each piece and keep the layered source, the final PNG, and the versions for each platform in it. Name the files so you can read them: date, title, size. Five minutes of order saves an hour of searching, and a tidy archive makes it much easier to build an artist portfolio.

A backup in the cloud

A local drive can die any day, so keep important files in two places. Sync the work folder to the cloud, or copy it to an external drive once a month. Save sketches separately. Later they become a digital sketchbook that shows your progress.

Time to draw, not just read

Theory fades in a couple of days if you never use it. Open the editor and spend 15 minutes on what you just read. That is enough for the skill to stick.

Topics in this guide

• save a drawing without quality loss
• export a drawing
• PNG export settings
• JPG quality
• prepare an image to post

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