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Spent 6 months rendering in 4K until a pro told me to stop
I kept rendering all my digital paintings at 4K resolution, even for social media posts. Files were huge, my laptop sounded like a jet engine, and uploads took forever. A guy at a local art meetup asked why I was doing that when 1080p looks the same on a phone screen. He showed me his workflow where he works at 300 DPI but exports at 72 DPI for web. Tried it on my last piece and cut render time from 45 minutes to 6. Anyone else been overkilling their canvas size for no reason?
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fiona9858d ago
Oh totally, I was just reading about how social media compresses stuff anyway so 4K is kinda pointless. I read somewhere that Instagram actually scales images down to like 1080p max so you're just wasting render time for nothing. Makes sense to save your sanity (and your laptop's fan life) with that 72 DPI trick.
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noahmartin7d ago
Yeah, fiona985, you hit on something real there. That part about Instagram scaling everything down anyway is exactly what finally got me to change my ways too. I spent like a year and a half rendering everything at 4K thinking I was future-proofing my art or something, but honestly my laptop started sounding like it was gonna take off. The 72 DPI trick that guy showed you is a lifesaver. I actually did a test once where I uploaded a 4K version and a 1080p version side by side on different accounts, and on a phone screen you literally cannot tell the difference. It's such a relief to not have to wait forever for every single export anymore. My computer actually runs quiet now and I don't have to plan my uploads around rendering time.
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