The numbers this route keeps in agreement
Downsampling is a decision about which source samples can survive in a smaller grid. The engine reduces large ratios in stages before its final reconstruction pass so a high-frequency pattern is averaged rather than merely skipped.
Upsampling asks a different question: what values should sit between the samples already present. Those values can make edges smoother and dimensions compliant, but they are estimates. The result remains bounded by the information and defects in the source.
What cannot be solved by changing a field
- A two-hundred-percent file has four times as many pixels and often much more than four times the encoded cost.
- Repeated resize cycles compound rounding and filtering. Return to the original when a second target is needed.
Questions about scale and density
What does resampling an image mean?
Computing a new grid of pixels from the old one. Going down, the kernel decides how source pixels are averaged together; going up, it decides what values sit between them. Either way the pixel count changes, unlike a DPI edit, which leaves the pixels alone.
Which resampling method is best?
Lanczos for photographs going down, bicubic going up, nearest for pixel art at whole-number factors, bilinear when the result should match how a browser scales. The automatic choice follows that rule; the kernel strip shows every kernel on a patch of your own picture so you can judge.
Does resampling to a higher resolution add detail?
No. Interpolation fills between existing samples. A larger grid can meet a pixel requirement, but it records nothing the source did not.
Is the preview the same as the export?
At 100% and above, yes: the zoomed views are rendered by the same function as the export, with the same kernel and options, so what you inspect is what you save. The Fit view is a screen-sized preview.
What is linear light?
Filtering on light values rather than on the gamma-encoded numbers in the file. It keeps fine bright detail on a dark ground from greying out when a picture is reduced, and costs a little time.
