Do you draw big and shrink, or draw at Tapas size (940pix)?

[ThunderChicken]

After a conversation with @2DLenzy in her Friar Chicken fanart thread, I got to wondering. One thing that bugs me about Tapas is that it limits images to 940 pixels wide. This is 2023, not 1998, nobody is using 1024X768 resolution anymore, and I find 940 pixels to be simply too narrow.

When I create an image it is usually much larger than 940 pixels wide (often they're started at 3500 pixels wide or even more - some have hot 10k pixels wide). I find it easier to work with a big canvas. I first got back into drawing on a Surface Pro 8 with a screen resolution of 2880X1920, even though it was only a 13" screen. I loved the fact that I could not see individual pixels - anti-aliasing is hardly even required with such a fine pixel pitch. Now I'm using a Dell Inspiron 7630, which has an OLED display pumping 3880X2400 pixels into a 16" screen, and I love it. My drawings are "actual sized", requiring very little scrolling around to different parts, which gives me a nice WYSIWYG feeling, plus it's easier on my eyes. If I tried to draw at 940 pixels wide I'd have to zoom up to almost 400% to fill my screen, which looks like poo.

Here's what I'm talking about. This is a recent image, drawn at 4275 pixels wide. This image itself isn't that big (this forum will shrink it to 690 pixels wide), but note how nicely it fills the drawing area in Krita. This is actually zoomed out to 69% or so.

Now the same image, shrunken down to Tapas-friendly 940 pixels wide. Again, this is not a full sized image, I had to shrink it to fit the forum, but look at how little real estate it takes up in the canvas area in Krita at 100% zoom!

In order to bring it back up to fill the screen I have to zoom it in to 375%. I did not screenshot that, but I did cut a small piece out of each size (the original 4275 and the 940 pix versions) so I can show the degradation. These two images occupy the exact same amount of canvass space on my desktop. One is at 69% zoom, one is at 375% zoom. Just look at the loss of quality of the 375% zoom one!

4275 pix version:

940 pix version:

See the loss?

I mean, I realize that I'm going to lose detail when I resize for Tapas, but I just find it easier to have a huge canvas. If I could afford it I'd have one of those 4K 27" drawing monitors, Am I crazy?

[joannekwan]

I usually draw at a standard size paper dimension at 300 dpi for print, in case I ever want to print the piece.
But I definitely don't mind sizing down for Tapas since it prevents bad actors from stealing my images and using it for whatever they want. The smaller size also helps the servers to load things faster.

The same goes for posting anything online. I always shrink down to no more than 900 pixels at 72 dpi for the very same purpose. I'd hate to have my art stolen.

[BoomerZ]

Couple things. The reason for the px max is its for phones. Almost all phones have a max px of around 900ish wide. To answer your question, I draw at 3 times the size, then export at 33% of original and keep the original Clip file full size. I do it for all projects including webbased stuff.

[ThunderChicken]

I can certainly see how one would want to prevent image theft.

What would the pixel dimensions of a letter-sized image be at 300dpi? Is it a simple matter of multiplying the dpi by the inches, so, say, 2550x3300 for an 8.5”x11” page?

[BoomerZ]

yes. (jibberish . to make this 20 characters.)

[joannekwan]

Yep, that's right

[allisoncandraw]

I draw my individual panels at 1080x1080 (I do 4 panel gag strips so they're just square panels) and reduce it to Tapas size.

I get the frustration at the loss of quality though...smth that helped me is increasing the DPI rather than the size. I might suggest using a smaller canvas at a higher DPI so you won't have to shrink as much. Or just increasing the DPI I'm general (I use 500dpi cuz I feel it looks crunchy otherwise lmao)

[thepenmonster]

Do you draw big and shrink, or draw at Tapas size (940pix)?

I draw 5000 x 4000 for comics and 6000 x 6000 for illustrations. 300dpi just in case Hell freezes over and I sell prints. Once everything is done I reduce the final image to TAPAS' 940 width in PNG format... though that's just a placeholder size while I consider my other hosting options.

But even back in the day comics were draw far larger than the final print size. First due to the limitations of the printing process (IIRC), but later due to it being easier to work at big sizes and it made your lines look nice when reduced. I draw big for the same reasons.

If it's good enough for The King...

I just did a quick search and your screen resolution seems to be an outlier. Phones are about 360 x 800 so that 970px is gonna be looking good for quite some time for the only audience that counts now: People born with a device in their hand.

[AmysGames]

So I'm apparently unusual in this regard, but:

My comic is a webcomic. I draw with the intention of it being viewed on a computer screen, and therefore at its final export size—which in my case is the Webtoon maximum width of 800px. I don't care enough about those extra 140px to make a 940px version for Tapas, so I don't.

That being said, my comic is all vector art, which can be upscaled losslessly to pretty much any size I need. Good news if I ever decide to print.

[BoomerZ]

Ok, I have said this before and will repeat it. DPI has zero effect on a digital artwork if you are uploading to a digital platform. DPI is a print term. If the picture is 1080X1080, there is not difference in quality of the image whether its 75 dpi or 1200 dpi. The picture is literally only 1080 pix across. you can't hide quality inside of the max pixels. The difference in dpi is for print. So if you do a 1080X1080 pix picture and print it at 300 dpi, the print will be just under 4 inches square, if you print at 1200 dpi, the picture will print to under 1 inch square. The overall number of pixels doesn't change, they just get bigger or smaller. So if you print at 75 dpi, the picture will be a lot bigger, but will look like a mosaic with huge tile like pixels. You literally can ignore the dpi of any digital work you do as it has no effect on it. Just make the original large enough that you can print later (usually 3X is good enough for a standard comic page) if you so choose. If you want to do very large prints (posters) you either can go X10 or more, or go to vector which is math based (not pixel) which can be scaled up to the size of a building with no problems. That is why logos are vector.

[RedLenai]

I mostly work at 16000 x 30000 at 200dpi when it comes to webcomics, fitting around 5-10 panels depending on the arrangement and size of each one of 'em.
Then once everything is finished I resize to Tapas, Webtoon and Webcomics's formats.

Then when it comes to old fashioned comic format, I work on 1546 x 2220 at 200dpi. It's a decent size for PC view and its nice for printing if I were to make A5 fanzines.

[Lensing]

I draw DINA4 size (standard comic page size in europe) in 600 dpi
and then resize it

When I work traditionally I draw twice as big as the final print and
then reduce the size

My Tapas comic is DINA4 size, 600 dpi and cut out and resized to fit
the webtoon format. It would be faster to work in the webtoon format
from the start but I like to work in classic page formats when I create the
story

[simonitropunk]

Usually, I draw big for other sites and whenever I want to upload it on Tapas, I shrink it to 940. Usually, it is fine but I wish there's an option the double pagers... spreading across two pages especially for the action moments like:

This was my first attempt on a double pager that I want to keep it as massive as the original size but can't do that. I mean, THE ACTION IS TOO INTENSE I CAN'T CONTAIN IT IN ONE PAGE RRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRR!!!!!!

Anyway, sorry for my silliness... wonder if in the future the dpi uploads would increase for certain situations.