Resizing images

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After you adjust your image, you can resize it. It’s important to understand how resizing affects image pixels.

Effect of resizing on image resolution

Pixels have no set physical size. Each pixel represents one sample of a single color. When an image is resized, the number of pixels in the image may be reduced or increased, which causes the image to be resampled. Resampling changes the file size.

Print resolution is defined as the number of pixels per inch (ppi). A higher print resolution creates smaller printed pixels and therefore a smaller printed image. A lower print resolution creates larger printed pixels and a larger printed image. Resizing can be used to do the following

Consider these guidelines when you resize your images:

Resampling methods

The Resample option lets you specify how pixels are changed in an image. The Bicubic method is the slowest method, but it usually produces the best results.

The resampling types available in PaintShop Pro are described in the following table.

 

Resampling type	Description
AI-Powered	Available when you enlarge images (New size is larger than Original), this resampling type uses artificial intelligence (AI) to retain detail. For more information, see Enlarging images by using AI-Powered upsampling
Smart Size	Chooses the best algorithm based on the new pixel dimensions you set
Bicubic	Minimizes the jaggedness that often results from expanded, irregular, or complex images
Bilinear	Uses the two nearest pixels around each existing pixel to determine the appearance of newly created pixels
Pixel Resize	Duplicates or removes pixels to achieve the selected width and height of the image (recommended for hard-edged images and simple graphics)
Weighted Average	Uses a weighted-average color value of neighboring pixels to determine the appearance of newly created pixels (useful for reducing photorealistic, irregular, or complex images)

What happens to pixels when you resample an image?

When you use the Resize command to increase the image dimensions, additional pixels must be interpolated from information in the existing pixels. Imagine that you have an image of 100 × 100 pixels, and that you want to enlarge the image by increasing the number of pixels to 200 × 200. You begin with 10,000 pixels and after resizing end up with 40,000 pixels. Thus, three-fourths of the final pixels are "made up." Most methods of making up pixels involve interpolating the interpixel gaps produced by stretching the image dimensions. The Pixel Resize method copies the color of the nearest pixel. The Bilinear method is based on an average of four neighboring pixels (from a 2 × 2 pixel neighborhood). The Bicubic method is more sophisticated and uses 16 neighboring pixels (from a 4 × 4 pixel neighborhood). This larger neighborhood provides more information about how the color is changing in that particular part of the image and therefore can improve the colors in the made-up pixels.

When you use the Resize command to decrease the image dimensions, the pixel colors are averaged together. Imagine that you want to decrease an image from 100 × 100 pixels to 50 × 50 pixels. The result contains 2,500 pixels, which is one-fourth of the pixels used to represent the original image. The different resampling methods determine how much weight is given to the original pixels when they are averaged together.

Are there other ways to resize an image?

In addition to using the Resize command, you can also change the image size by changing the canvas size, cropping the image, printing at a different size, using the Copy Special command, or using the Save for Office command.

Increasing the canvas size adds pixels at the edge of the image. Decreasing the canvas size hides pixels at the edges of the image (full layer information is kept). For more information, see Resizing the canvas.

Cropping an image deletes the pixels outside the selected crop area. For more information, see Cropping images.

You can resize an image that you add to the Print Layout window by dragging its selection handles. Resizing the image in this way does not change the image file, which is helpful if you want to print the image at various sizes. For more information, see To resize an image in print layout.

The Copy Special command lets you copy the image to the Clipboard in one of three sizes, depending on whether you are copying the image to print professionally, to print from your desktop, or to copy to your computer screen or an e‑mail message. After copying the image to the Clipboard, you can paste the resized image in a file in another application, such as a word processor. For more information, see Copying images into other applications.

The Save for Office command provides resizing options that are similar to those provided by the Copy Special command, except that you can save the file to disk as well as specify image size and resolution. For more information, see To save images for office applications.

To resize an image

 

You can also
Resample image pixels	Mark the Resample using check box, and choose a resampling method. Note: Resampling changes the image’s pixel dimensions and lets you change the resolution setting independently from the width and height settings.
Sharpen the resized image	Mark the Resample using check box, and choose Bicubic from the drop-list. Set the Sharpness control at approximately 100 to shrink an image; or at approximately 50 to enlarge an image. Note: When the Sharpness control is set to 0, the sharpness of the resized image does not change.
Preserve the brightness of the resized image	In the Miscellaneous options of the General Program Preferences dialog box, mark the Preserve image brightness when resizing check box.
Unlock the aspect ratio	Unmark the Lock aspect ratio check box.
Resize only the selected layer	Unmark the Resize all layers check box.

When you unmark the Resample using check box, the Width, Height, and Resolution controls work together — a change to one control causes the other controls to change. When you use this method, the pixel dimensions of the image remains unchanged.

Changing the aspect ratio distorts the image by stretching or contracting it in one dimension more than the other. A lock icon next to the Width and Height boxes indicates if the aspect ratio is locked.

You can preserve the image’s current print size by marking the Maintain original print size check box.