How do you make a GIMP image less pixelated?

Question

The Graphic Art project I'm working on requires that I draw on a transparent background, but that there be no stray pixels on a light or dark background. I've found that the only GIMP tool that doesn't leave stray pixels is the pencil tool, but the pencil tool makes the drawing very pixelated. Does anybody know of a way to remedy this? The only editing program I own is GIMP.

Answer 1

To reduce the pixels in gimp you need to start with a bigger image. More pixels means the pixels will be smaller and thus less visible in print outs. Unfortunately this won't help you if you are trying to create the image for display on a screen because all images on screen are rendered at the native resolution of the device they are viewed on - typically 72ppi.



Saving images with transparency can only be done using GIF or PNG image file formats as these are the only ones that support transparency (and that are supported by web browsers). The stray pixels you are talking about is because you saved the image as a gif, but because gifs are a low quality image format with only 256 colours, any semi transparent pixels will be rendered with full opacity - since gifs can only have either fully transparent pixels or pixels with full opacity. You can try to mitigate this problem by applying matting (colouring the stray pixels the same colour as the background they are to appear on) when you save the gif, but ultimately there will be stray pixels in gif formats - it's simply unavoidable. This is a limitation of the GIF format, and nothing to do with GIMP.



However, if you save your image as a png - you won't have this problem at all, then you can use any tool - such as the paint brush - which will create much smoother lines - because the png file format allows many levels of transparency. The pencil tool in GIMP is a hard edged brush basically - so that is why it looks pixelated, so don't use it.

Answer 2

To reduce what I think of as pixelation you would have to increase the resolution/pixel count for the drawing space. Trying to draw in a 200x200 space vs 1200x1200 (for the same printout area) makes a totally different effect on lines that diagonal slightly or curve.

I don't know for GIMP, but in Paint Shop Pro, you can change the coverage/density of the Brush tool and maybe yours is not at 100%

Answer 3

There's only 3 ways to get it done: 1-Vector art (not for this situation :( 2- GIANT picture 3-Use a smaller brush Yeah I'd say it's best to make a GIANT picture, because it's very detailed, like HD :) -And having a huge HD artpiece comes in handy when you wonna show off your image or want to show a large version (because enlergening creates blur). -Lastly, making a huge picture is best in case you ever want to print it onto something, like a car, or door, or wall, solid things, like creating a room with an artistic theme :)

Answer 4

Right here :) this will give you all of your answers and more. Over 10'000'000 users very helpful to make them less pixelated