best canvas size?

[nikia]

This might be a dumb question, but what size canvas does everyone use in painter 8? Do you just blow it up to fit the whole screen? I'm new at using painter and keep running out of room while sketching. What's the best size for posting to concept? Thanks.

[Jin]

That's at least a couple of questions.

How large your Painter Canvas is (dimensions in pixels or inches) and what Resolution you use (pixels per inch), depends on several things:

How the image will be used (on the Web or printed),

Your system resources,

Whether or not you choose to work with smaller dimensions and lower resolution, resize upward increasing resolution, then resize upward again to the final dimensions and resolution.

Personal preference in general.

When you plan to print the image, or think you may want to print it sometime in the future, it will need a high enough resolution (number of pixels per inch) to ensure good visual quality when it's printed. This will vary depending on the kind of image it is and how it will be used after it's printed. For instance, and image done with watercolors may not need such high resolution (high number of pixels per inch) as it's soft and doesn't contain sharp detail. An image that contains text and other fine details may need a higher number of pixels per inch to print nicely.

Images created to be used only on the Web don't need to have such high resolution as the screen only displays something like 72 or 96 pixels per inch anyway.

If you want to use your image for both the Web and for printing, you'll need to work with a high enough number of pixels per inch for printing, then save the image again as a .JPG or .GIF with a lower number of pixels per inch to use on the Web (in order to lower file size and save server space while also speeding up loading time).

The folks here at ConceptArt.org will have to tell you their displayed image dimension and file size limits, if any.

Just remember that people usually don't like to have to view an image using scroll bars unless it's a larger version and they can see a smaller version entirely on their screen, just viewing the large version to see detail. Also think about how long it takes for your image to load. If it takes too long, a lot of people won't want to wait.

Hope that helps a little. Others will be able to give you more info on how they work.

[nikia]

Thanks Jin, the second question was more a clarification of the first. I'm more concerned with posting to concept. I've run across the large pictures on here, find you don't usually get a good feel for them if you can't see the whole picture in one shot. By the same token, I'm running out of room for what I want to put on a canvas. So I guess you're saying I can use a large canvas and downsize later when I go to post it?

[Jin]

Hi,

Yep, that's what most people do when they work with large images, or even medium sized images that will be too large to view all at once.

It's also unnecessary to post an image at it's original ppi since that makes the file size much larger than it needs to be for viewing on the Web.

Keeping a displayed image at or below 100 kb is what we require at TutorAlley Forums and no larger than 650 x 650 pixels (though we may increase the dimension limit a little since most people are using larger monitors these days than the old 17" monitors).

That way, it's pretty easy to keep the file size down. In Painter, if you save the image as a High Quality JPG instead of an Excellent Quality JPG, it will decrease the file size considerably without noticeable loss of visual quality.

Always save your original file first in RIFF format, then in PSD and/or TIFF if you want.

Only after making sure your original is safely saved so you can continue working on it again, print it, or whatever.... save your Web version in JPG format at the appropriate dimensions and resolution (ppi).

[nikia]

Thanks Jin, this should help a great deal. Much appreciated.