Resolution Budget for a Multi-Platform Illustration
A designer is producing a single hero illustration for a product launch. It will be used as a 3000-pixel-wide desktop banner, a 1200-pixel-wide tablet layout, and a 600-pixel-wide mobile card. The client also wants a 210 mm x 297 mm poster at 300 ppi for a trade show. The designer plans to build everything at 72 ppi in a raster editor and scale as needed, reasoning that screen images are measured in pixels anyway. A colleague warns that the poster will look soft. The illustration contains fine line work and small text labels. The team has limited time and wants one master file that can serve all outputs without visible quality loss. Storage and export time are concerns because the poster file could become very large.
1. Evaluate the 72 ppi plan. Will it meet the requirements for each output, and what resolution should the master actually be?
Read the worked answer
The 72 ppi plan confuses ppi with pixel dimensions. For screens, what matters is pixel count, not ppi: the desktop banner needs at least 3000 px wide, the tablet 1200 px, and the mobile 600 px. Building at 72 ppi and scaling up loses detail because raster upsampling interpolates, softening fine lines and text. For the poster, 210 x 297 mm at 300 ppi requires roughly 2480 x 3508 px (about 8.27 x 11.69 in times 300). So the master must be at least as large as the most demanding output: the poster at about 2480 x 3508 px, or the 3000 px banner width if that is wider. The correct approach is to build the master at the highest required pixel dimensions and downsample for smaller outputs. Downsampling preserves quality; upsampling does not. The 72 ppi assumption would fail the poster and likely the banner.
2. Recommend how to structure the master file and exports to balance quality against storage and export time.
Read the worked answer
Build the master at the largest needed pixel dimensions, about 3000 px wide by the proportional height, which covers the banner and exceeds the poster's 2480 px width. If the poster's aspect ratio differs, keep a master sized to the largest dimension per axis rather than forcing one canvas. Keep fine line work and text as vector layers or live text where possible so they re-render crisply at any size; rasterize only where necessary. Use layers and smart objects so a single editable source drives all exports. Export downsampled derivatives at exact target pixel sizes (3000, 1200, 600) with appropriate sharpening for each scale. For storage, save a compressed layered master plus flattened exports, and archive the poster as a press-ready PDF rather than a giant raster. This controls file size while preserving quality, since vector elements and downsizing avoid the softness and bloat of a single oversized raster.