What should I save digital art as?
As a baseline, there’s no one-and-only best file type to save digital art. The purpose determines the best file type to save an image as.
If you want to upload your artworks on social media and other art sharing websites like DeviantArt, you will usually choose PNG or JPEG for digital art.
One thing you need to keep in mind though when showcasing your art online is that there’s always a chance that it might get stolen. More often than not it happens that people use images without permission, repost them as their own, or make prints off of them.
To not let that happen to you, I’ve put together a whole guide on how to protect your art online. Feel free to check that out if you’re worried about your works being used in unauthorized ways.
If you’re not planning to upload the image to the web, then the best format for saving digital art depends on whether or not you want to keep your artwork available for future editing.
If you want to create a backup copy of your work that you can modify without losing quality, then you’d use another file type than for saving digital art for web.
And if you want to sell your art in form of high-quality art prints, you’d go for yet another file format.
In this post, I’m gonna help you find the best file type to save digital art – depending on your particular purpose!
So let’s start right away with the most common image formats that you find on the web: PNG vs. JPG.
is JPEG or PNG better for art?
JPEG
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. Its extension can be written as .jpeg or .jpg.
JPEG is the most widely used file format. In fact, it’s the default file type of images on the Internet. The majority of pictures displayed on social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other art sharing websites, are in the .jpg format.
JPEG is also used to send images via email and other messengers.
Due to their DTC compression, JPEG files are relatively small. They don’t take up much storage space and can be downloaded quickly.
The good thing about JPEGs is that they come in different quality levels. When saving an image as .jpg, for example in Photoshop, you can choose between Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Maximum.
The low quality JPEG files are more compressed than the higher versions. They cannot easily be scaled up to obtain good high-resolution images, which you would need to make large prints.
So if you want to prevent your art from being stolen online and printed off without your permission, you would go for a Medium or Low JPG format.
The lower the quality of a .jpg image, the more difficult it is to get good prints off of it.
On the other hand, if you choose a less compressed format (High or Maximum), you obtain an image that is ideal for printing.
Use JPEG when you want to
- upload your digital art on social media, art sharing or personal websites (the small file size is ideal for web usage because the image loads quickly);
- protect your images on the internet (save image in Medium or Low quality to prevent unauthorized prints);
- save images for prints (use Very High or Maximum quality);
- save large pictures in a relatively small file size so they take up less space on your computer or online storage.
PNG
PNG is the acronym for Portable Network Graphics. PNG is a high-standard image format because it preserves both photo quality and details.
Unlike JPEG, PNG is a lossless format. It uses LZW compression – the same compression format as used by TIFFs (more on TIFF later on in this post). That means no matter how often you open, edit and resave a PNG image, you will not sacrifice quality and details of your work!
Moreover, PNGs allow for absolutely vibrant pictures! While PNG-8 features 256 colors, PNG-24 has an impressive color depths of 16.7 million colors.
However, due to their high-quality lossless compression, PNG files take up considerably more storage space than JPEGs.
That’s why PNGs are most often used for smaller images, such as logos, icons, etc.
Another great feature of PNGs is that they allow complete and partial transparency. You can use them for fully transparent background or drop shadow effects. This is another reason why they are so popular for logos and icons!
Use PNG when you want to
- save images with high-quality and detail;
- edit and resave images without losing any quality;
- save images with complete or partial transparency (e.g. logos and icons);
- have enough storage space for large file sizes. 😊
Eventually, choosing between PNG or JPEG for digital art all depends on what you intend to do with the image.
If you want to show (and protect) your art on the web, you would rather go for JPEG. If you want a high-quality image that doesn’t compromise any quality (and have enough storage space available) then PNG is the right choice for you. ✌️
However, there’s yet another file type, which can be your best option to save digital art: TIFF.
TIFF
TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format, and is actually the highest quality image format.
TIFF is mostly used by professional photographers and designers for commercial purposes.
Contrary to JPEG and PNG, you require specific photo software to open a TIFF file.
TIFF is an absolutely lossless format (with an LZW compression option just like PNG). This makes it the best file type to save your digital art for post-processing.
TIFF provides you a lot of flexibility. You can always re-edit and resave your photos as many times as you wish without losing any quality. You can also resave TIFFs as any other file format for different purposes without sacrificing photo quality.
In terms of printing, TIFF is a popular format to make large high-quality prints.
Evidently, TIFFs will take up a lot of storage on your device because they are not compressed at all!
Use TIFF when you want to
- save images without any quality loss;
- re-edit and resave your pictures in the future without diminishing their quality;
- keep your images available to save in other formats without quality loss;
- produce large high-quality prints with great detail and color depth.
What is the best file format for digital art that you want to re-edit in the future?
PSD
PSD stands for Photoshop Document. It’s the best file type for saving digital art in Adobe Photoshop.
PSD allows you to come back to your work and re-edit it whenever you want. Make sure that you don’t merge your layers before you save your work as a PSD file. Otherwise, you’ll lose some of the editing capabilities.
With all the individual layers saved in the PSD file, you have the highest flexibility to modify and touch up your image at any later time.
PSD is the best format for saving your digital art while maintaining the highest editing versatility and image quality!
You can save a PSD file as any other file format, depending on what purpose you want to have it for! PNG, low JPEG for web or high JPEG for print: the quality will always be the best because you save the image from the original version of your digital art file.
As a matter of fact, the size of PSD files is really large because they contain so much information in the different layers. So make there’s enough free space on your hard disk!
Use PSD when you want to
- save digital art in Adobe Photoshop;
- re-edit your work again in the future while maintaining all editing capabilities and image quality;
- save your original work as any other file format, e.g. low JPG for web use or high JPG for print.
what is a good resolution for digital art?
Resolution defines how clear your image is and how much detail it contains.
Digital image resolution is expressed in dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi).
The higher the resolution, the clearer and more detailed your image will be.
The best resolution for digital art depends again on the purpose you want to use it for.
If you want to showcase an image to the web, a resolution of 72 dpi is completely sufficient.
On the other hand, if you want to make prints of your work, the resolution must be higher.
When you create your digital artworks, you should always work on a 300 dpi PSD file. Each side should be around 2500 px to 3000 px, according to the performance of your computer.
Large PSD file sizes can easily overwork the CPU of your device. So make sure to use a size that your computer is able to handle.
What is the best resolution for digital art prints?
The best file format for printing digital art always depends on the desired size of your print.
As a rule of thumb: the bigger the print size, the higher the resolution and the larger the image size (pixels per side) should be.
Extremely low-resolution prints will look pixelated. That means you will rather see colored blocks instead of an image.
The more pixels there are, the better your mind blends the tiny blocks together to form an actual picture.
The resolution you need depends on the size of the print you wish to make. The minimum resolution recommended for small art prints is 90 dpi.
However, if you want to make a large print, the dots per inch and the pixels per side need to be higher. To obtain a good quality poster print, make sure the resolution of your picture is 300 dpi and the shortest side around 6000 pixels!
I hope this post helped you find the best file type to save digital art for your purposes! Feel free to share it with other digital artists, if you found it useful.
Thanks for reading and have a beautiful day, Angie 
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