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Thread: Ideal canvas size for best brush performance

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  1. #1

    Ideal canvas size for best brush performance

    Hi,
    I am wondering what the “ideal” size or size range (pixel count) is for a canvas in order to get the best performance from my brushes. I know that when working on large canvases, the brushes can be too small relative to the scale of the canvas, and some can suffer lag or other issues at larger scales.Too small a canvas will not allow me to get the details I want.

    I quite often work in an 8x10 format, so let’s use that as an example. Knowing that I can work at a lower pixel count, while recording a script that will allow me to render at a higher resolution later on the desktop version, what is the best pixel size to work in? I want an end result of 8x10 @600 ppi, or 4800x6000 pixels.

    On a related question, what is the largest size jump I should attempt when upsizing via script? Will I start to see weird distortion or inaccurate reproduction if I start with too small an image, or attempt to go larger by too big a percentage, or is the process similar to vector-based art in that it will reproduce flawlessly at any scale?

    Thanks,
    Dave

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    New Zealand
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    There isn't really a hard and fast ideal size to work at as it depends upon the resources and speed of your device.

    Basically, if you're looking to recreate the canvas at a larger size via a Script, as long as the aspect of the original painting is the same you shouldn't see any distortion. So in this case you've got 8x10, try creating it at 2400x3000 and if that's fast enough, resizing via a script will give the same overall width/height ratio.

    Script resizing isn't quite as perfect as a vector upscale, because the stroke paths need to be extrapolated upwards and the paint calculations can differ slightly at high sizes, but it does a good job of recreating the image. A 2x upscale should be fine, even 4x is generally okay as well, the only time I expect to see any real issues is if I upscale so far that the tools need to be sized significantly beyond their 100% mark to paint at the same relative scale on the new canvas.

    If you're resizing via a Resize in the Edit Menu rather than scale, the advice I generally give is try to divide the size of the target canvas by 2 or 4. This makes the upscale process more precise. Resizing upwards will always reduce quality slightly (although at high DPI values that may not even be visible as so many pixels are packed in to the inch) but you get better results if the app can just spread pixels apart by even amounts like that.

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