Having problems with resolution of exported png files

[jiminkscape]

Hi,

I have been struggling with this for a while now and thought it was time I sought some help from the forum- common problem for newbies I think, I have drawn some fairly detailed line art section drawings and plans (archaeological) and don't know how to export them as png files without having blurred or enormous images that have to be zoomed in on to see the same clarity. I have tried rescaling and dpi combinations but think I am missing something. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, happy to forward on the svg files if anyone is willing to take a look.

Thanks all

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Scaling (resizing) or zooming any raster image (PNG is a raster format, as is JPG or GIF, among others) will cause pixelation (distortion or blurring) of the image.  It's because of the basic, inherent nature of raster images.  And the ability to scale or zoom vector images without pixelation is one of the great benefits of vector graphics.

Vector and raster images each have their own specific uses, along with pros and cons.  So the decision on whether to use raster or vector graphics should be one of the first decisions a user makes, before starting on their drawing. 

If you set the DPI, in the Export PNG dialog, at 96.0, the image will come out exactly the size you intend.  Changing the dpi will end up making the image larger or smaller, in Inkscape.  (Although technically, as we were just discussing in another topic, while the image gets larger, the page size stays the same.)  So if you intend to export to PNG in Inkscape, it's best to draw the image at the size you want in the end.  If you expect the image to later be scaled or zoomed, it's probably better to use vector graphics.

(Also just a note.  If you change the DPI in the Export PNG dialog, it will stay at that value, until you change it again.  And I've found that just changing the value in the dialog doesn't reset it.  I have to change it, and export a PNG with that value, to make the change stick.)

Does any of that help?

[flamingolady]

I export pngs a lot.  I find that for it to not get blurry that I need to export at around 200 - 300 dpi.  Be sure you size your design to the size you want it to be in the end, then export at between 200 - 300 dpi, and see if that works, if not, you can up it, but the file gets large.
Also, you can take a look at the thread started by chrisj.

Brynn, I think we use diff terms to say the same thing, I'm not great with the technical terms.  But in the end, the file size gets bigger, the dpi is bigger (in this case) but the actual size of the design remains the same.

[Moini]

How do you export? File > Export PNG image?