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Whenever I view an image or graphic in Illustrator it is crisp and really sharp (because Illustrator is vector based, I know that). But when I save the image in a JPEG, GIF or PNG the quality dramatically decreases. How can I improve that?

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  • As for jpeg... I LOVE JPEG!! JPEG! JPEG!
    – Arjan
    Aug 5, 2015 at 7:57
  • This is difficult to answer without example images and an explanation of what your export settings are.
    – JohnB
    Sep 27, 2015 at 15:22

3 Answers 3

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Format

You could save your graphics in a vector based format e.g. .svg. This means there is no quality loss.

Size

If you want to stay on .jpeg/.png or any other pixel based format you must save it with an higher resolution, that will make it look crisp, even if you zoom in.

To do so you must click in Illustrator on File -> Export -> Select JPEG -> and change in the upcomming dialog to your desired Resolution (default is 72ppi).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_file_formats

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Export them as vectors and keep using a vector display program to display them, where each drawing objects will be drawn pixel perfect.

Otherwise export the pictures out with the least compression no interlace, no color reductions, and at the exact same resolutions they will be displayed at. This way your vector program does the scaling, and the picture when viewed is not scaled or interpolated in any way. When viewing in the picture viewing program set to 100% zoom, or lock to 100% zoom.

When picture programs do display anything, they can do cheap fast interpolations, or use various matrixes to do the interpolations more visually appealing. Like with bi-linear or bi-cubic filters . Different programs use different methods, some programs you can switch the method used to display the picture, from fast and nasty , to best interpolation and a bit slower. Find a better picture viewer, or one that you can control, especially if the one your using only ever uses the quick cheap methods.

If you do not know the res it will be displayed at, or it will be displayed at multiple resolutions, output the final in a much larger resolution, so as it is interpolated into the display pixels area, there is a lot of original pixels to work with. With more pixels, even if the interpolation method is quick or if it is extensive, it will look much better anytime it is scaled.

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Vector Images have better resolution and quality than Raster Images. You can create a VECTOR image and screen capture the improved resolution of the vector image displayed in a vector-based program (e.g. Inkscape or Illustrator).

Save the screen capture as a RASTER image file (e.g. PNG) and take advantage of the improved resolution and lower pixelation of the vector image.

Here's an example of a Raster screen capture of Vector image:

Raster screen capture of Vector image

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