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vanmall โ How to save pixel art
Published: 2009-05-11 10:22:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 62042; Favourites: 410; Downloads: 2694
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Comments How to save pixel art
In this tutorial I will show you how to save pixel art. Saving is definitely one of the most important things and I have seen how someone messes up his work by just saving to wrong format a lot. So, I hope this tutorial will help you all.
Contact If you think that you didn't understand this tutorial fully then you can always send me a note and I will answer to you.
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Vanmall Pixel Art Tutorial Series Guide 
Pixel Art Basics
How to start with pixel art Difference between isometric and non-isometric pixel art How to dither in pixel art How to make shadows and light sources in pixel art How to add textures to pixel art How to make a pixel transparency How to save pixel art How to make round objects in pixel art How to use reference in pixel art How to replace colors easily (MS Paint) Pixel Art Exterior How to make a victorian house? How to make a pixel tree How to make a pixel roof How to make a pixel house 1 How to make a pixel house 2 Pixel Art Interior How to make a pixel bed How to make a pixel chair How to make a pixel table How to make a pixel couch How to make a pixel tile How to make a pixel countertop How to make a pixel refrigerator How to make a pixel bar stool How to make a pixel stove How to make a pixel flowerpot How to make a pixel lamp How to make a pixel nightstand How to make a pixel aquarium How to make a pixel fireplace How to make a pixel cupboard How to make a pixel carpet How to make pixel curtains How to make a pixel kitchen How to make a pixel bedroom How to make a pixel living room Pixel Art Characters How to make a pixel eminem 1 How to make a pixel eminem 2 How to make a small pixel character/sprite Pixel Art Text How to make pixel text Pixel Art Objects How to make a pixel gemstone How to make a pixel flower Pixel Art Premium Basics of Pixel Art Pixel Art Tutorial Series is currently the most popular thing on my page. The idea behind this is to take suggestions from the community and try to make a tutorial out of these things, helping out fellow deviants along the way. You can also find my pixel art tutorials in groups like #TutorialsForYou , #TutorialsClub and #PixelCommunity .
Here is a list of tutorials in my Pixel Art Tutorial Series, tutorials which are underlined and bold are already ready tutorials that you can read, other tutorials without the underline are tutorials that will be posted in deviantART in near future.
You can also suggest new pixel art tutorial series by commenting on my profile page, on these tutorials or by sending me a note.
Enjoy!
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Comments: 116
Oh, wait, I do know how to save it as a diff. file... Oops! :3
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Also .TIFF files work well too to save pixel art 
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Oh, haven't tried it.
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Good to know. You made a mistake in your Tutorial. ยซ[...] will always TOO that.ยป
I enjoy all your work, keep on.
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Oh, ok. Thank you for telling me.
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I used MS Paint before but for the last 2 weeks I have been using GraphicsGale.
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Hi, I have a question.
OK, imagine I've already painted my pixel art (I'M using PS) and saved it while painting as a .psd file. Now I want to use it as an ID photo for let's say facebook (so, I need a much higher resolution) but I still want the individual pixel-steps to be visible (but no jpeg artifacts, of course). What would be the right way to increase the resolution of my image, and what would be the right file format to save in? PNG? I guess the question is essentially, how did you increase the size of your "box" in this tutorial to make it more visible (without forcing people to touch the screen with their noses 
I'm sorry if this is a nooby question, but I've only done two pixel images so far - and that was years ago
Thanks in advance!
Murdock49
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I cheated, that's how I did it.
All my pixel art lines are usually 1x1 pixel and not more, so they are really tiny. However I need to show a bigger image if I want to make a tutorial. So I just zoom my pixel art picture in and take a screenshot or print screen, however you want to call it. I open the screenshot and cut out the part I want to show to others. So basically the line that was originally 1x1 pixels is now much bigger, for example 10x10 pixels. I guess that this is the only real way how you can make the resolution bigger because simply changing the image size in photoshop would mess things up.
And yes, I would take .png.
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Ah I see, thank you very much
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Hi, I've found a way to increase the size of a pixel graphic that retains the pixelated appearance (and the correct proportions):
Let's say you have a pixel image sized 100x100px (3,53x3,53cm) at 72ppi. You want to triple the size, so in the image-size dialogue you type in 10,59cm and check the box at "keep proportions" (or sth. similar - I have the German version, so I don't know the exact term) and you choose "pixel repetition" as a mode of interpolation. Make sure the resolution is still 72ppi.
As a result, your former 1x1 pixel should now be represented by 3x3 pixels.
By the way, I've particpated in the 8-Bit Design Challenge. I would be very glad if you could vote for my image: [link]
Thank you!
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Oh, that's awesome. I'm glad you informed me about this, makes a lot of things easier for me.
And I voted for you as well.
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no problem 
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so that's how we keep the pictures smooth and not blurry THX
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It really depends on if you're willing to save it as a 24 BMP, 16 BMP, 256 BMP. But otherwise, PNG is the best.
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Yeah, bmp makes it way to big imo and if I remember correctly then bmp also had some problems with older versions of MS paint. I saved as bmp and next time when I opened it had changed some colors on my picture. But it was fixed on newer versions.
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Yeah. It really depends on how big the picture is in general.
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I learned the hard way that .PNG is the best choice
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Well, at least you know now.
I hope it didn't mess up anything big.
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So that's why, Now I know. Thank you!
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I found the saving thing very helpful, thanks very much! ^^
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Thanx a lot!! XD
I just started getting into pixel art and your series is very helpful!
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I save files as .GIF. Is that bad for my draws ?
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If you are doing it with ms paint, then yes it is. But if you do it with photoshop then you won't notice is it so much but it would be still better to save as .jpeg or .png.
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I use Paint too, but when I accidentally save it as a .bmp it never does that. Hm.
Do you know if there's a setting to make Paint save files as .PNGs by default? It's not a big deal, but it would make life a lot easier. xD
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I think there isn't a way to do it but as you said it isn't a big deal.
I guess it also depends of what colours you use in your pictures.
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Hm, maybe.
All right, thanks!
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Thank you for your tuts... really helped me.
The only thing I was missing a bit was some information about ratio and dimensions, especially for the cube tutorial.
But great nevertheless... am starting to explore pixel art at the mom!
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Thank you for your feedback. I'll try to fix it in my future tutorials.
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Is there a big difference when using photoshop to save in PNG? For some reason when I use photoshop to save in PNG the transparency doesn't work properly
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I have no idea about photoshop to be honest because I use ms paint to make my pixel art picture. I use photoshop to do other things. But there shouldn't be a big difference in transparency. I haven't tried myself.
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Ah, it's okay, I figured it out now. DA doesn't allow pixel art over 150 by 150 dimensions without a preview
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wow i always wondered why when i saved it to JPG it sucked. now i know better. *hugs* thank you so much. now i have to fix all my submitted art... darn -.- but its worth it
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Then you have to have .png picture somewhere because if you save .jpg to .png then it still stays like .jpg because .png don't know how to bring colors back.
And your welcome.
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i have them saved as bmp and when i upload them they turn into jpg. if i save them as png it uploads like png.
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the problem with .gif is that once you save it as a .gif you have a limited color palette. and that seriously will screw up your work.
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omg, you're really moving strong on this
...what about .gif?
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Because .gif is so bad that I even don't want to show it in my tutorial.
Ok, if you want to know then there it is: [link]
Yeah, I try to move as fast as I can.
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