How to Make Pixel Art 2x Without Lowering Quality Paint
Need to resize pixel art? Learn how to enlarge your artwork and keep those blocky shapes looking well-baked and sharp with Photoshop!
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to get great results when resizing pixel art in Photoshop! Pixel art is different from standard images and presents unique challenges when resizing it. Normally when enlarging an image and calculation more than pixels, Photoshop tries to preclude the consequence from looking blocky and pixelated by blending the pixels together and smoothing everything out.
But "blocky and pixelated" is the whole point of pixel art! So to resize pixel fine art, nosotros demand a way for Photoshop to only add more pixels, and that's it. Instead of smoothing things out, nosotros need to go along the shapes and the edges of the artwork looking well-baked and sharp. In this lesson, I'll show you exactly how to practice it.
Along with resizing pixel art, I also use this same technique for resizing screenshots used in my tutorials. And you can employ information technology to resize any graphic where you demand to maintain abrupt, hard edges or readable text. To get the best results with this lesson, y'all'll desire to exist using Photoshop CC, simply any version of Photoshop will work.
I'll use this piddling pixel fine art character that I downloaded from Adobe Stock:
Our pixel art hero. Credit: Adobe Stock.
This is lesson 7 in my Resizing Images in Photoshop serial.
Allow's get started!
How to enlarge pixel fine art in Photoshop
Here's the character open in Photoshop. And equally you tin see, he's looking pretty pocket-size:
The pixel art at its original size.
Stride 1: Open up the Image Size dialog box
The all-time way to enlarge pixel art is past using Photoshop's Image Size dialog box. To open it, go up to the Epitome carte du jour in the Bill of fare Bar and cull Image Size:
Going to Image > Image Size.
In Photoshop CC, the dialog box includes a handy preview window on the left, along with the image size options on the right:
The Prototype Size dialog box in Photoshop CC.
Viewing the electric current image size
The current size of the image is establish at the elevation. Next to the word Dimensions, we run into that my artwork is pretty pocket-sized, with a width and acme of just 500 pixels:
The current pixel dimensions of the artwork.
Footstep 2: Plough on the Resample option
Let's say I need to brand my graphic symbol much bigger. Peradventure I want to apply him in a poster or as a desktop background. To do that, I'll demand to overstate the artwork by calculation more pixels.
First, brand sure that the Resample option in the dialog box in turned on. With Resample off, the pixel dimensions are locked and all we can change is the print size. To add or remove pixels, Resample needs to be on:
Resample should be on.
Step iii: Enter a percentage into the Width and Height boxes
Rather than upsampling pixel art to a specific size, the all-time way to enlarge it is past using percentages. And to avoid distortions and keep each block in the artwork perfectly square, y'all'll want to stick to percentages that are multiples of 100 (then 200%, 300%, 400%, and so on). I'll overstate the paradigm by setting both the Width and Acme to 400 Percent:
Upsampling the width and height by 400 percent.
This volition increase the pixel dimensions from 500 px by 500 px up to 2000 px by 2000 px:
The new pixel dimensions after resizing the artwork.
Resizing the preview window
Notice that, by making the width and height 4 times larger, the artwork is now as well large to fit within the modest preview window. To make the preview window bigger, I'll brand the Image Size dialog box itself bigger by dragging the bottom right corner outward. Then, I'll click and drag inside the preview window to middle the artwork inside it:
Resizing the Image Size dialog box for a larger preview.
Learn more: Photoshop CC's Image Size dialog box - Features and Tips
The trouble with resizing pixel art
And so far so good. Or is it? If nosotros look at the artwork in the preview window, we see that information technology doesn't look right. Instead of the edges around the shapes looking well-baked and sharp, they're looking a chip soft and blurry:
The edges look too soft after enlarging the artwork.
And if we look closer, we tin run into halos around the shapes, especially in higher contrast areas. I'll zoom in on the artwork using the zoom buttons at the bottom of the preview window. And here, at a zoom level of 400%, nosotros tin can clearly see the halos, specially around the character's eyes:
Enlarging the pixel art blurred the shapes and added halos around them.
Notice, though, that if you click and hold on the artwork in the preview window, the halos disappear and the edges look very sharp, which is exactly what we want:
The pixel art looks great when you click and agree.
Simply as before long as you release your mouse button, yous're back to seeing the halos:
The softness and halos return when the mouse button is released.
The image interpolation method
The reason is that when you click and hold in the preview window, you're seeing the upsampled artwork before Photoshop applies any image interpolation. Interpolation is how Photoshop averages the pixels together and smooths out the event. When you release your mouse button, you encounter the artwork with the interpolation applied. And it's the interpolation method that's causing the problems and creating that halo effect.
The Interpolation option is constitute to the right of the Resample option. And by default, it's set to Automated:
The paradigm interpolation selection.
Usually, the Automated setting is fine considering it lets Photoshop cull the best method for the chore. But the problem here is that Photoshop assumes nosotros're resizing a standard image with lots of fine detail. And so information technology'south choosing a method that would make a standard prototype look practiced. But that aforementioned method makes pixel art, and similar types of graphics, look bad. And so when upsampling pixel art, we need to cull a different interpolation method ourselves.
Step iv: Gear up the interpolation method to Nearest Neighbor
To do that, click on the Interpolation selection to open a list of the methods nosotros can choose from. If you're using Photoshop CC, then the interpolation method Photoshop chooses for upsampling images is Preserve Details. And in Photoshop CS6, information technology chooses Bicubic Smoother. Just neither of them work well with pixel art:
Photoshop's interpolation methods.
To upsample your artwork without averaging the pixels, the interpolation method yous demand is Nearest Neighbor:
Choosing Nearest Neighbor.
As soon as you choose Nearest Neighbor, the artwork in the preview window looks crisp and sharp! And if you lot click and agree in the preview window, and and so release your mouse button, yous'll come across that this fourth dimension, zip happens. The artwork looks simply as abrupt earlier and after the interpolation method is applied.
That's because it's now the aforementioned interpolation method both times. Photoshop always adds the pixels initially using Nearest Neighbor. Just now that we've chosen Nearest Neighbour ourselves, information technology's not using anything else that would crusade the pixel art to look worse:
Nearest Neighbour is perfect for upsampling pixel art.
Pace five: Click OK
When yous're gear up to upsample the artwork, click OK to take your settings and close the Paradigm Size dialog box:
Clicking OK to enlarge the pixel fine art and close the Paradigm Size dialog box.
And at present, my fiddling pixel art hero looks a whole lot bigger, withal he even so maintains the same blocky, pixelated look that we'd await:
The upsampled pixel art.
How to enlarge pixel fine art - Quick summary
Earlier we become any further, let'southward quickly summarize the steps for getting the best results when enlarging pixel fine art in Photoshop.
- 1. Open the Image Size dialog box (Image > Image Size).
- ii. Gear up the Width and Height to Per centum, and so for best results, choose a percent that's a multiple of 100 (200%, 300%, 400%, and and then on).
- iii. Change the interpolation method to Nearest Neighbour.
- iv. Click OK.
How to resize pixel fine art to an exact size
Then far, we've learned that the best manner to overstate pixel art is past upsampling it using a percentage that'southward a multiple of 100. Merely what if you need to enlarge it to specific pixel dimensions, and you lot can't get there using one of those percentages?
For example, by upsampling my artwork past 400%, I've enlarged the width and peak from 500 pixels up to 2000 pixels:
The dimensions of the upsampled artwork.
But what if I needed the width and peak to be something a chip smaller, like 1600 pixels? If I had upsampled my 500 px 10 500 px image by 300%, it would accept fabricated the width and height simply 1500 pixels, leaving it still as well small. And upsampling it by 400% made it as well big. What I actually needed was something in between. In that example, what you lot'll desire to do is resize the artwork in two steps.
Footstep ane: Upsample the pixel art as a per centum
First, upsample the pixel art using a percentage, and a multiple of 100, that will make it larger than you demand. In my case, I've already done that by upsampling information technology by 400%, and so the get-go step is done.
Pace two: Re-open the Image Size dialog box
So, resize it a second fourth dimension, this time to downsample it to the exact pixel dimensions. To do that, open the Image Size dialog box over again by going up to the Paradigm menu and choosing Image Size:
Going to Image > Paradigm Size.
Step 3: Leave the Resample option turned on
Make certain the Resample choice is still on so y'all tin can change the number of pixels:
Leaving the Resample option checked.
Step 4: Ready the Width and Height, in pixels
Enter the exact size you need, in pixels, into the Width and Height fields. I'll fix them both to 1600 pixels:
Entering the new pixel dimensions.
Step 5: Set the interpolation method to Automatic
And finally, while the Nearest Neighbor interpolation method works bang-up for upsampling pixel fine art, you lot don't want to use it when downsampling. Instead, for the sharpest results, change the interpolation method back to Automatic. This will hand control dorsum to Photoshop, and when downsampling images, it will automatically choose Bicubic Sharper:
Setting the interpolation method dorsum to Automated.
When you're ready to resize the artwork to the verbal size, click OK to close the dialog box, and you're done:
Clicking OK to downsample the pixel fine art.
And at that place we have information technology! That's how to become the best results when resizing pixel fine art, screenshots, or similar graphics, in Photoshop! In the next and final lesson in this series, we'll look at the all-time way to overstate images in Photoshop using a brand new feature known equally Preserve Details 2.0!
You can jump to whatever of the other lessons in this Resizing Images in Photoshop chapter. Or visit our Photoshop Basics section for more than topics!
Source: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/how-to-resize-pixel-art-in-photoshop/
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