Working with Images¶

Computers work with files and equally a painting program, Krita works with images every bit the blazon of file information technology creates and manipulates.

What do Images Contain?¶

If yous have a text document, it of form contains letters, strung in the right order, so the computer loads them equally coherent sentences.

Raster Data¶

This is the principal information on the paint layers you lot make. So these are the strokes with the paint brush and wait pixelated upwardly close. A multi-layer file will incorporate several of such layers, that become overlaid on top of each other so make the terminal image.

A unmarried layer file will usually just contain raster data.

Vector Information¶

These are mathematical operations that tell the calculator to draw pixels on a spot. This makes them much more scalable, because you only tell the operation to make the coordinates 4 times bigger to scale information technology up. Due to this vector data is much more editable, lighter, just at the same time it's also much more CPU intensive.

Operation Information¶

Stuff like the filter layers, that tells Krita to change the colors of a layer, but also transparency masks, group layer and transformation masks are saved to multi-layer files. Existence able to load these depend on the software that initially made the file. So Krita can load and save groups, transparency masks and layer furnishings from PSD, just not load or relieve transform masks.

Metadata¶

Metadata is information like the creation engagement, author, clarification and as well information like DPI.

Image size¶

The paradigm size is the dimension and resolution of the canvas. Paradigm size has directly effect file size of the Krita document. The more pixels that need to be remembered and the college the bit depth of the color, the heavier the resulting file will be.

DPI/PPI¶

DPI stands for Dots per Inch, PPI stands for Pixels per Inch. In printing industry, suppose if your printer prints at 300 DPI . It ways it is actually putting 300 dots of colors in an area equal to an Inch. This ways the number of pixels your artwork has in a relative area of an inch.

DPI is the concern of the printer, and artists while creating artwork should keep PPI in mind. According to the PPI y'all have prepare, the printers tin decide how large your prototype should be on a piece of newspaper.

Some standards:

72 PPI

This is the default PPI of monitors every bit assumed past all programs. It is non fully correct, as most monitors these days accept 125 PPI or fifty-fifty 300 PPI for the retina devices. Nonetheless, when making an image for computer consumption, this is the default.

120 PPI

This is often used equally a standard for depression-quality posters.

300 PPI

This is the minimum you should employ for quality prints.

600 PPI

The quality used for line art for comics.

Color depth¶

We went over color depth in the Color Management page. What you need to understand is that Krita has paradigm color spaces, and layer color spaces, the latter which tin salve memory if used right. For example, having a line fine art layer in grayscale can half the retentivity costs.

Image colour infinite vs layer color infinite vs conversion.¶

Considering there's a difference between image colour space and layer colour space, you tin can change but the image color space in which will get out the layers alone. But if you want to alter the color space of the file including all the layers you tin can exercise it by going to this will convert all the layers color space equally well.

Author and Description¶

../_images/document_information_screen.png

Krita volition automatically save who created the image into your image's metadata. Forth with the other information such as time and date of cosmos and modification, Krita besides shows editing time of a certificate in the document information dialog, useful for professional person illustrators, speed-painters to keep rails of the time they worked on artwork for billing purposes. Information technology detects when you haven't performed actions for a while, and has a precision of ±60 seconds. You lot can empty it in the document info dialog and of course by unzipping you lot .kra file and editing the metadata there.

These things tin can exist edited in , and for the author's information . Profiles tin be switched nether .

Setting the canvass background color¶

You can set up the sheet background color via menu item. This allows you to turn the groundwork colour not-transparent and to alter the color. This is also useful for certain file formats which force a background colour instead of transparency. PNG and JPG export use this color as the default colour to fill in transparency if you do not want to export transparency.

If you come in from a plan like Paint Tool SAI, and so using this selection, or using As canvas colour radio button at Background: section in the new file options, will permit y'all to work in a slightly more than comfy environment, where transparency isn't depicted with checkered boxes.

Bones transforms¶

There are some basic transforms bachelor in the Image bill of fare.

Shear Image…

This volition allow you to skew the whole image and its layers.

Rotate

This show a submenu that will allow you to rotate the image and all its layers quickly.

Mirror Image Horizontally/Vertically

This will allow you to mirror the whole paradigm with all its layers.

But there are more options than that…

Cropping and resizing the canvas¶

Y'all tin can crop and image with the Crop Tool, to cut abroad extra space and ameliorate the composition.

Trimming¶

Using , Krita resizes the image to the dimensions of the layer selected. Useful for when you paste a too big image into the layer and desire to resize the canvas to the extent of this layer.

is a faster cousin to the ingather tool. This helps us to resize the canvass to the dimension of any active option. This is especially useful with right-clicking the layer on the layer stack and choosing Select Opaque. will then crop the sheet to the pick bounding box.

is actually for layers, and volition trim all layers to the size of the image, making your files lighter by getting rid of invisible information.

Resizing the canvas¶

Yous can as well resize the sheet via (or the Ctrl + Alt + C shortcut). The dialog box is shown below.

../_images/Resize_Canvas.png

In this, Constrain proportions checkbox volition brand sure the meridian and width stay in proportion to each other every bit yous change them. Get-go indicates where the new sail space is added effectually the electric current epitome. You basically make up one's mind where the current epitome goes (if you press the left-push, it'll go to the center left, and the new canvas space will be added to the right of the image).

Another way to resize the canvas according to the need while cartoon is when you scroll away from the finish of the canvas, y'all tin run into a strip with an arrow announced. Clicking this will extend the sheet in that direction. You can see the arrow marked in red in the example below:

../_images/Infinite-canvas.png

Resizing the image¶

Scale Image to New Size… allows you to resize the whole image. Besides, chiefly, this is where y'all can alter the resolution or upres your prototype. And then for instance, if y'all were initially working at 72 PPI to block in large shapes and colors, images, etc… And now yous want to really go far and practice some detail work at 300 or 400 PPI this is where you would brand the change.

Like all other dialogs where a chain link appears, when the chain is linked the attribute ratio is maintained. To disconnect the concatenation, just click on the link and the 2 halves will split up.

../_images/Scale_Image_to_New_Size.png

Separating Images¶

../_images/Separate_Image.png

This powerful paradigm manipulation feature lets you carve up an epitome into its different components or channels.

This is useful for people working in print, or people manipulating game textures. There's no combine functionality, but what y'all can do, if using colored output, is to fix two of the channels to the addition Blending Modes.

For grayscale images in the RGB space, you tin employ the Re-create Red, Copy Green and Copy Blueish blending modes, with using the ruddy one for the cherry-red channel paradigm, etc.

Saving, Exporting and Opening Files¶

When Krita creates or opens a file, it has a copy of the file in retention, that it edits. This is role of the way how computers work: They brand a re-create of their file in the RAM. Thus, when saving, Krita takes its copy and copies information technology over the existing file. There'south a couple of tricks y'all can practice with saving.

Salve

Krita saves the electric current image in its memory to a divers place on the difficult-drive. If the image hadn't been saved before, Krita will enquire you where to save it.

Save Every bit…

Make a copy of your current file past saving it with a different name. Krita will switch to the newly made file as its agile document.

Open…

Open a saved file. Fairly straightforward.

Consign…

Save a file to a new location without actively opening it. Useful for when you are working on a layered file, simply only demand to salvage a flattened version of it to a sure location.

Open up Existing Document as Untitled Document…

This is a flake of an odd one, but it opens a file, and forgets where you lot saved information technology to, so that when pressing 'save' it asks you where to relieve it. This is also called 'import' in other programs.

Create Copy from Current Paradigm

Makes a new re-create of the current image. Like to , but then with already opened files.

Save Incremental Version

Saves the current image as filename_XXX.kra and switches the current certificate to information technology.

Save Incremental Backup

Copies and renames the last saved version of your file to a fill-in file and saves your certificate under the original name.

Note

Since Krita'south file format is compressed data file, in case of a corrupt or cleaved file you can open it with archive managers and extract the contents of the layers. This volition help you lot to recover every bit much equally possible data from the file. On Windows, yous will demand to rename it to filename.aught to open it.