Rant: My art got blurry when I uploaded it to the showcase site

Maybe it's just me, but compression ruins the details.

3 comments

3 Comments

Compression totally wrecked my last upload too, just flattened all the shadow work. @waderamirez is onto something with the color profile thing, it’s such a hidden trap. I fought with muddy colors for weeks before someone told me my editor was set to ProPhoto. Saved as sRGB like they said and it was a night and day difference on the site. The combo of bad compression and a missing profile will destroy your art every time. You gotta check both the export size and that color space.

john_martinez18h ago

Check what file format you used when you saved your art before uploading. Showcase sites often compress JPEGs really heavily, which smudges all the fine lines and textures. Did you maybe resize the image yourself, or let the site do it? (that auto-scaling can ruin everything). What specific settings did you pick on the export screen?

waderamirez18h ago

Did you check which color profile got stuck in your file? If you saved it with Adobe RGB or something fancy and the site strips the profile, the colors can go totally flat and muddy in some browsers, which kills the depth way more than just compression alone. Try saving a fresh copy with the sRGB color profile baked in before you upload next time.