How To Pick the Right Size/Resolution for your Art - Beginner Illustration Tips

🛑 You may be missing a crucial piece of information when setting up your digital art canvas size!
I get tons of questions about working in Adobe Fresco and digital drawing in general, especially when it comes to image resolution and quality. So, I thought I'd make a quick video to break it down for you because, trust me, there's a lot of info out there, but it can get pretty confusing without the full picture.
You've probably heard that your image must be 300 DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per inch) for it to be high resolution-and while that’s true, it’s only part of the equation.
The reason for this comes down to that pesky "I" in DPI and PPI. That “I” stands for inches. Without inches in the equation, 300dpi/ppi doesn't mean anything.
When you set your image to 300 DPI or PPI, you're saying there are 300 pixels in every inch of your document. But here's the catch - if your image dimensions are small, like 4x6 inches, the math checks out to only 1200 pixels, which isn't that big. It will look pixelated when you zoom in or try to print it any bigger than 4 inches wide. This may no be an issue if it will only be used at that size-however it will make your drawing experience less than ideal.
On a side note, all this only applies to pixel-based artwork. If you're working in vector art, the resolution doesn't really matter because vectors are all about points and math, not pixels. They can be scaled infinitely without losing quality.
In this video I talk about how I get around that and what canvas sizes I typically work with.
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[@m.j.mcintear793]

This is the most confusing thing for artists coming from traditional to digital. It can destroy a lot. It needs to be more courses on this alone seems like because it’s words a paper and pen artist never had to use lol so fun

[@chris-piascik]

Agreed!

[@m.j.mcintear793]

@@chris-piascik My first digital pad I cried because I hadnt drawn in years from being sick. I thought I lost it and it was about to be my first time attempting color. I made the most beautiful woman I could from reference it was perfec. I left after saving, came back and only saw like 4 pixels. I hadnt noticed how small i drew it even though it was so big on my screen. Yeahhh i was hurt

[@nicolegonzalez3074]

Thank you so much Chris! I’ve been having trouble trying to find the reason of why my art was so pixelated but failed to find an actual answer. You breaking down the information in your video was truly is truly helpful! 🎉

[@GoldenWisteria]

This is a topic I was already familiar with, but you explained my professor's entire lecture in several minutes. Plus, it was way easier to understand. 😂 Snaps, Chris! 👏👏👏

[@chris-piascik]

Hah thanks so much!

[@hippopotamusbosch]

You filming on 8 fps? You’re looking like dad Spider-Man.

[@chris-piascik]

Hmm no, but I did record in ecamm. I didn’t really notice an issue. Maybe the compression made it worse. 😳

[@-The-Golden-God-]

Missed opportunity for 'Spider-Dad'

[@madhatyr]

Truly ironic it would happen to you on this video topic specifically lol

[@chris-piascik]

@madhatyr lol I know. I was trying to streamline my process recording through my computer and it got messed up.

[@CaliberDawn]

THIS is the type of info I’ve been searching for, I’m always confused and unsure what dimensions I should be starting at etc.

[@chris-piascik]

Glad I could help!

[@miikkasart]

Thanks Chris! For Vector.. this was a good info as lower DPI in canvas means less heavy document. As it is scalable upwards, no need to over heat your iPad 🤜🤛

[@chris-piascik]

🤓

[@caffeinatedchipmunk7]

This is so insanely helpful, I have always struggled with the resolution of my artwork when I exported it and it always made me super upset cause I had no idea why and struggled to find information on it! Thank you so much!!!

[@chris-piascik]

Happy to help!

[@marks2708]

Awesome video. This addresses a lot of questions. Thanks dude

[@chris-piascik]

Glad it was helpful!

[@carlperkins1812]

I go crazy trying to explain this to people in groups for machines like the Silhouette Vinyl Cutters. Very few people understand it or get past repeating 300 DPI all the time.

[@chris-piascik]

Yeah, it's sorta weird that noone ever thinks about what the DPI stands for.

[@collin1240]

I've spent over 20 years in print and then digital graphic design. A good thing to be aware of is that raster images can be scaled down and they will stay sharp. But if they are scaled up, they will pixellate. The larger up they go, the worse they look. We used to have a mall near us that had huge photographic signs in the entryway and it was clear that the source images were much too small to be printed at those sizes. They looked ok from a distance, but up close when walking in they were bad.

[@chris-piascik]

Thanks!

[@-The-Golden-God-]

This is the most basic info that every single artist should surely know. It doesn't take 20 years in the industry to figure that out 😂 This is why vectors are so powerful.

[@minggegusha]

This is just what I was looking for!! I was getting sooo frustrated with how pixelated my details were looking, going back and forth adjusting the size to get it to how I wanted, but without understanding this basic concept you explained I was really doing so in vain…!

[@chris-piascik]

Glad I could help!

[@hotmonkeyfilms]

Thanks. People don’t talk about best resolution document size for print. Especially if you may enlarge a spot art later for a poster.

[@chris-piascik]

NP! It can be frustrating to work on something and then realize you messed up the resolution and it's too late.

[@Knhuck]

This is was so helpful!! Thanks!

[@chris-piascik]

Cool! Glad to hear!

[@JohnBeauchemin]

Is it my pc, or is the framerate all screwy on this vid?

[@tillray94]

Same. I even lowered the quality. Same thing

[@chris-piascik]

I'm sorry, not sure what happened!

[@radicalthelithuda2043]

this helped me a lot to understand , thank you

[@chris-piascik]

Glad to hear that!

[@heykiddostudio6731]

Hello! Thank you for this. I'm still confused about the size I need to draw on for print. I want to create illustrations that can be printed in various sized from A5-A1 - so what size should I set my Fresco page to please? I think the max on Fresco is A2 size - would that print okay on A1 too? Thanks for your help!

[@hannamunt]

Love these videos !!! I have been asked to do a bunch of poster work coming up. the max size will be A0 for print then down to A3. I wanted to know what to set my document up as because when I go to put the dimensions for A0 the resolution gets capped to around 170dpi. any hints or tips for this

[@jewellhershey]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@chris-piascik]

You're welcome!

[@alaynalime]

Hey Chris! Would you be willing to walk through setting up artboards for screen printing in Fresco?

[@Rita_Johanna]

Thank you so much!

[@chris-piascik]

You're welcome!

[@Lequickreal]

Very helpful video 😊

[@chris-piascik]

Glad to hear!

[@mariiam9312]

Thanks a lot for your explanation! To be sure I understood, if I start working with more than 4000 px, then would you recommend me to set the dpi to 600 dpi instead of 300 dpi? Will that help me if I wish to print it? I got another question too. If I wish to share the same ilustration on social media later on, how can I turn that into 72 dpi for not losing quality? 🙏🏻

[@chris-piascik]

4000 pixels is 4000 pixels regardless of whether it’s 300 or 600dpi. The dpi only matters when you are measuring in inches. So a 10in wide image set at 300dpi would be 3000 pixels wide. If it were set at 600dpi it would be 6000 pixels wide. When saving things for the web don’t worry about dpi, just choose the pixel size you want it to be. But I wouldn’t recommend making your working file web size. I’d scale it down to the pixel size you need afterwards. That said, if I’m just posting on social media I don’t bother making my image smaller.

[@claragomezb.7849]

Thank you SO much. I was loosing my mind trying to understand why my logo would ALWAYS look rough no matter what I did or how much dpi I tried exporting it with! I’m adding it here in case I forget. Crisp Logo = Format in INCHES (NOT pixels) + 300 dpi (or more)

[@chris-piascik]

You're very welcome!

[@CrumbyDoodles]

Thanks, Chris! This was very helpful info 👍 I’m looking to start printing some of my designs onto stuff and trying to figure out best practices for digital drawing to get good print results. 300ppi is pretty meaningless without context, but I see/hear it recommended all the time! I’d love to know your thoughts about choosing the right colours for good print results - I’ve read that I should be designing in CMYK? (I’ve read whole debates/comment arguments about whether this is necessary and I don’t feel any the wiser 🤔) and CMYK isn’t an option in Fresco. I don’t have other (very expensive) Adobe apps like Photoshop or illustrator to convert colour profiles or to “tidy up” hand drawn vector designs ready to print (you talked a bit about this in a previous vid), I just use Fresco and Procreate. Thanks again, your channel is super helpful and has got me drawing again 🙂

[@chris-piascik]

Glad this was helpful! CMYK is mentioned as the standard for printing, but what doesn’t get mentioned is that it’s not really all printing. Typically printing presses are using 4 color process CMYK to print jobs. However most of things that we get printed these days are not using a traditional printing press. They’re using printers that are emulating RGB/etc. Especially print on demand things.

[@CrumbyDoodles]

⁠@@chris-piascikgreat, sounds like I don’t need to worry too much about colour profiles. Thank you for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it 🙂

[@Leroyink]

Thanks Chris. When exporting a piece of vector art in Adobe Fresco, what format should the creation be exported in to maintain vector properties?

[@chris-piascik]

You can export it as a pdf or send it directly to illustrator.

[@Leroyink]

TY

[@collin1240]

One more thing I just thought of. If you are working with raster images, do be aware that if you have a lot of fine lines in your design and you are working in a 4K wide pixel image, if it's going to be printed small you may lose the lines. While they won't blur as you scale downward, they will get thinner. I've run into that problem often with clients and putting their logos on business cards.

[@chris-piascik]

👍

[@maylinjaramillo9180]

Hi Chris, question... is it possible to move or drag a layer from a fresco file to another new fresco file?

[@chris-piascik]

Yep! Just tap on the layer and choose the copy layer option. You can also do this with a selection (and use copy selection).

[@maylinjaramillo9180]

thank u@@chris-piascik i gonna try always help me a lot God Bless u and please keep sharing your awesomeness!!!!

[@maylinjaramillo9180]

It’s work thank you!!!!!!

[@pipskips]

Wait, so can I apply this logic if I work in a large amount of pixels (let’s say 4k) and want to then SHRINK that down and it becomes pixelated? How do I stop that from happening?

[@chris-piascik]

How are you shrinking it down? And how small are you making it?

[@joe2grand]

i dont get it - whats the quatin you need to know ? also my ppi level goes to about 72 or 81=do i need to pay for the full version to get 300 ppi?

[@chris-piascik]

If you don’t have the option for 300 ppi you likely have your pixel dimensions fast the max, I think that’s between 8k and 9k? PPI is pixels per inch, so for it to be relevant you need to be sizing your work in inches. Otherwise the amount of pixels in an inch doesn’t matter if your image isn’t in inches. For example. If you set your image size in pixels at 1000x1000 pixels it’s only going to be 1000x1000 pixels whether it’s 72ppi or 56789ppi. If you set your image size in inches at 10in x 10in at 300dpi your image will be 3000pixels wide. If it’s at 72dpi you’ll only have 720pixels across.

[@joelewis3014]

Hi Chris I just realised all my work on Fresco was set at 72 PPI at A4 size, I have just changed it to 300 but the image is now a lot smaller than the canvas, is this salvageable? Help please!! thanks

[@chris-piascik]

Oh no, once you’ve drawn sometime at a low resolution you really can’t scale it up without losing image quality. There just aren’t enough pixels within the artwork to hold up at a larger size.

[@thehallhive9425]

​@@chris-piascikmaybe one day this fancy ai will be able to handle that. 😂

[@Nerdflipper]

I have 8 years of art and design school, and never once has then spoken on in this length and way.

[@chris-piascik]

Same, a lot of stuff gets missed it seems 🤷‍♂️

[@Conflictproject69]

iv drawn like 30 pages for a manga in 300 FFS total joke but this has helped thank u

[@thehallhive9425]

OK so first, thanks for the link to this! Second, I'm curious.. Do you tend to work in pixels or inches? I guess the main reason I ask this is... Let's say you're working in pixels so dpi/ppi isn't a factor... But later you want to print the file at a decent size... How does that work and make sure it's not going to be pixely? It that a moot point because you were working in pixels and not inches? Obviously I'm talking about raster because vector doesn't matter. Or maybe let's say you are creating something that either isn't for a client (but you might want to print it or create a physical thing with it some day) or maybe you have a client but they don't have a specific size they need... What's your go to just in case? Are you using 4-5,000 pixels or are you opting for inches and setting the dpi so you know printing at x-size would work fine? I'm trying to wrap my brain around which might be wiser if you're randomly creating something with no specific need in mind but also want to make sure you don't screw yourself later.

[@chris-piascik]

When I’m just drawing for fun I tend to work in pixels at a minimum of 4-5k pixels wide. I specify pixels because I know the minimum amount of pixels I prefer for optimal brush control. If I decide I want to print or make something with that drawing it’s almost never an issue because when translated to inches/300dpi it’s over 10” wide.

[@thehallhive9425]

@@chris-piascik thanks a bunch! Last question... If you're at 4-5k px, what brush size do you tend to prefer for your general drawing/outlines?

[@chris-piascik]

@@thehallhive9425 it depends on the brush, but the Classic Inker by RetroSupplyCo is usually around 20.

[@collin1240]

And don't scale down and then save your original raster image, especially if you are working in a destructive program (one that actually tosses out pixel data as an image is reduced in size). If you try to scale it back up after saving it, it will blur/rasterize. Not a problem at all for vector images; as you said, they are infinitely scalable.

[@chris-piascik]

👍

[@dunthor134]

This always confused me when Apple came out with their high rez phones. How did they smash more pixels into the same size screen?

[@chris-piascik]

Oh well that’s a good example of what I’m talking about because they have a physical measurement of the screen size they are referring to. The screens keep getting improved to allow for more pixels per inch (to simplify things a bit). This allows for everything to be much more crisp. Prior to the upgrades in screen quality you could always see actual pixels. Now those pixels are so small we can’t detect them.

[@dianalisarobinson3714]

lol ‘ pee pee eye ‘ 😂 this is why I watch.

[@chris-piascik]

🤣

[@rifqifh]

I got sickness or your videos just like not smooth enough when the camera on you or this is just on purpose?

[@chris-piascik]

I’m sorry about that I’m not sure what happened with this one. It was not intentional.

[@rifqifh]

Its okay since the tips is great for me as beginner, keep create Mr.@@chris-piascik

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

I mean, yes, you still need a good pixel amount. You're not supposed to go "I want to print this out at this size" and then divide the inches by 300 to get your canvas size

[@chris-piascik]

Correct. Isn’t that what I said? I actually used an example where I wouldn’t set my canvas size that way due to the low pixel count for a spot illustration.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

@@chris-piascik Yeah, I mean more like. I don't see why anyone would assume that you should set canvas size based on printout size. But not sure, maybe some do! I don't usually would think of printing my stuff after all.

[@cHATmAI6RE]

nO SiR, YoU'rE 300 PPI...

[@chris-piascik]

[@DesignWho]

Hi LoL 1:05

[@chris-piascik]

[@Seth_Samson]

why is your video so choppy it gives me head ake

[@chris-piascik]

Sorry, not sure what happened!

[@JuanPablo070900]

Man at 10 fps 😂

[@chris-piascik]

Lol not sure what happened…

[@devohicru4443]

I’m not sure if anybody wanna to take an advice by who have an horrible frame rate in video to lecture about 300dpi.. 🤷‍♂️

[@smilleur]

Bro you are doing waaaaaay too much with the text graphic sounds I got so angry the 3rd time I heard the slide whistle or the gross sub bass pop sound when the text slapped. Please don't be annoying

[@chris-piascik]

Sorry bro

[@angelbear_og]

@@chris-piascik Haha, some of us find repetitive themes hilarious! My only peeve on that is when someone uses SYSTEM sounds and I frantically look around for what's wrong with my computer! (Which you didn't do.)

[@chris-piascik]

@@angelbear_og haha yeah! I get that for sure!