How to Scale Artwork Without Compromising Quality When Printing Large Formats?

When you want to have prints of your artworks, you want to have different size options. Being able to make your prints in different sizes gives you flexibility when displaying your artwork, so it's important to avoid loss of quality with large prints. But what do you need to do to preserve the quality of your images? In this article, we'll explain what to consider when scaling your artwork and how to rescale your images with minimal quality loss

What is the Right File Format?

As a first step, choosing the right file format is very important. Some file formats are better than others for resizing images without losing quality. Therefore, we need to know the file formats and choose the right one for our needs.

JPEG

The file format you probably come across most often is JPEG or JPG. Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), it's a file format particularly suitable for thumbnails. This format is commonly used on websites and digital devices and is a standard file format favored by many smartphones and DSLR cameras.

JPEG is widely preferred for its fast uploading capability for online use, but it is a file format that results in a loss of quality. Each time a JPEG file is opened or saved, information is lost and unnecessary details are permanently deleted as compression is applied.

While the JPEG format is suitable for storing images and for internet use, it is less suitable for high quality printing. If you intend to print a JPEG image at a large size, you should use a version with a resolution of at least 300 DPI.

TIFF

If you're looking for a lossless file format, the TIFF option is just what you need. TIFF, short for Tagged Image File Format, is supported by almost every type of software, from Illustrator to Photoshop, Microsoft Word to text editors. TIFF is also a file format with no loss of detail, making it ideal for storing large files such as your photos and artwork.

The ability to store data without loss of detail means that you can open and save these files as many times as you like and the quality will never degrade. You can also use TIFF format images as layers in your projects. TIFF files use RGB and CMYK color spaces, so they are an excellent choice for high-resolution printing. However, the high quality of TIFF files requires more storage space.

Image Resolution

Image resolution is the cornerstone of achieving superior quality prints. Resolution determines the clarity of the printed image. Low resolution images present a pixelated appearance when scaled or printed at large sizes. Professional printing services recommend using images with a resolution of at least 300dpi for best results. This high resolution makes scaling and printing at large sizes seamless.

Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry standard for photo editing. Photoshop is the ideal application for editing your images easily and with minimal loss of quality.

To resize your image in Photoshop:

1. Open your image in Photoshop.
2. Select Image > Image Size.
3. If your photo is at 300 DPI, just check that your dimensions are how you like.
1. If your image is not in a high resolution, go to the ‘Resample’ drop-down menu
2. select ‘Preserve Details (enlargement)‘ and change your DPI to approximately 300.
4. Check your image for signs of pixelation.
5. If you see small pixelated squares, you have enlarged your image too much. Adjust the sizing again to get the best quality.

GIMP

If you're looking for a free photo editing app to Photoshop, GIMP is a good alternative. Just like Photoshop, GIMP can enlarge images with minimal loss of quality, but it doesn't produce results as good as other paid software.

To resize your image in GIMP:

1. Open your image in Gimp.
2. Select Image > Scale Image.
3. Enter the desired dimensions.
4. In the Quality section, select Sinc (Lanczos3) from the drop-down menu as the Interpolation method.
5. Press the Scale Image button.