Image Size & Large Images

Image In, SVG Import, and Image Folder size a picture as they bring a file in, and Resize sizes one anywhere in the graph. All four use the same Fit Mode list. This page covers that list, how an SVG is drawn at the size you choose, what changes with very large images, and how Image Folder picks which files of a folder to import.

Custom Size

Image In, SVG Import, and Image Folder each have a Size section. With Custom Size off, every picture comes in at its own size. Turn it on and choose:

• Fit Mode: how the picture meets the size (the table below).
• Width (px) and Height (px): the size. Only the rows the Fit Mode uses are shown.
• Resampling (Image In and Image Folder): Nearest for pixel art, Bilinear (the default) for smooth scaling, Lanczos for the sharpest result when making a picture smaller.

Fit Mode	What comes out
Stretch	Exactly Width x Height, the picture stretched to fill it.
Fit (letterbox)	Exactly Width x Height. The whole picture fits inside, keeping its shape; the rest is transparent.
Fill (crop)	Exactly Width x Height. The picture covers it, keeping its shape; the overflow is cropped from the center.
Width (keep aspect)	Width pixels wide; the height follows the picture’s own shape.
Height (keep aspect)	Height pixels tall; the width follows the picture’s own shape.
Longest Side (keep aspect)	The picture’s longer side is the length you set, portrait or landscape; the other side follows its shape. One slider, Longest Side (px), sets it.

Every side is at most 16384 pixels. A keep-aspect size whose other side would pass that is scaled down as a whole, so the picture keeps its shape.

SVG files are drawn at the size

An SVG has no pixels of its own, so Image In, SVG Import, and Image Folder draw it straight at the chosen size instead of drawing it small and scaling it up. A folder of icons comes out sharp at 16 pixels or at 4096. The Resampling filter does not apply to an SVG; Fit and Fill draw the artwork to cover the size and finish with Lanczos.

Image Folder: one size, each image’s shape

On Image Folder the size applies to every image of the folder. Stretch, Fit, and Fill bring every frame to the same Width and Height. Width, Height, and Longest Side size each image from its own shape: a folder of portrait and landscape photos at Width (keep aspect) 1024 gives frames that are all 1024 pixels wide, each with its own height, and at Longest Side 1024 every frame’s longer side is 1024.

When the frames share one side but not the other, the tooltip on the node’s output pin says which, for example 1024 x mixed.

Resize

Resize has the same six Fit Modes in Exact Size mode. At Longest Side (keep aspect) the Width row reads Longest Side (px) and Height is hidden.

With a Size Reference wired, Match says what to take from it. Width Only and Height Only take that one side and keep the source’s shape. Both Axes takes the reference’s size, and Fit Mode still applies: Stretch, Fit, and Fill meet the reference’s width and height, and Longest Side makes the source’s longer side as long as the reference’s longer side.

Large images

Images can be up to 16384 pixels on a side in every node. A few things change once a picture gets that big:

• Memory readout. Past 8192 pixels on a side, the size rows of Canvas, Resize, and Pad, and the Custom Size rows of Image In, SVG Import, and Image Folder in Stretch, Fit, or Fill, show what one image of that size takes, for example 16384 x 16384 · about 1 GiB per image (4 GiB in a float document). Every node that holds a copy of the picture takes that much again.
• Size sliders move in doublings. Dragging a size slider steps through 512, 1024, 2048, and up to 16384 at an even pace. Typing a number still gives you that exact size. UV Grid and UV Layout also have Size Presets.
• Preview reduced. When a picture is larger than your graphics card can show at once, the Preview draws a smaller copy and its status row says Preview reduced. The color picker, the readouts, and every export still use the full-size pixels.
• Graphics card nodes fall back to the CPU for an image larger than the card allows. The result is the same; it takes longer.
• Some sizes stay at 8192. Sprite Sheet, the sheets Export Batch packs, Paint, Mask Paint, and 3D Render stay at most 8192 pixels on a side. A 3D Render Background plate larger than that is reduced to fit, keeping its shape, and the node says what size it rendered at.
• WebP stops at 16383. For a 16384 pixel image, export PNG, TIFF, PSD, or EXR instead.
• The largest TIFFs are BigTIFF. A TIFF with more than 3 GiB of pixels, such as a 16384 x 16384 float image, is saved as BigTIFF. Smaller TIFFs are saved as before.
• Export Node Graph Image reaches 16384 pixels on a side too.

Choosing files in Image Folder

Two rows in Filter & Sort decide which files of the folder are imported. A file is imported when it passes both.

Name Filter

Click to zoom

Name Filter keeps the images whose names match. Leave it empty to import every name.

• Plain text keeps the names that contain it: tree keeps oak_tree.png and Tree02.jpg.
• * matches any run of characters and ? one character: hero_* keeps the names that start with hero_, *_final the ones that end with _final, and frame_?? keeps frame_01 but not frame_100.
• Separate alternatives with semicolons: hero_*; *_final keeps both.
• The name is read without its extension, unless the text has a dot: *_final and *_final.png both keep poster_final.png, and only the second leaves out poster_final.jpg.
• It is not case sensitive. With Include Subfolders on, it reads each file’s own name, not the folders above it.

While a Name Filter is set, the count under the folder says how many images it keeps, for example 12 of 340 images found. When it keeps none, the line reads No images match the Name Filter (340 in the folder).

When Save As copies a project’s folders, it copies every file File Pattern finds, whatever the Name Filter says, so the copy can change its Name Filter later and still find its files.

File Pattern

File Pattern says which files to import, separated by semicolons. The default lists every format Image Folder reads.

• An extension, with or without its dot or a *. in front (png, .png, *.png), keeps every file of that type.
• A pattern with a wildcard in the name keeps only the names it matches: hero_*.png keeps the PNG files whose names start with hero_, and *tree* keeps every file whose name contains tree.
• * or *.* imports every file in the folder.
• It is not case sensitive.

Opening these documents in earlier versions

A document saved with Custom Size on an Image Folder, or with a Name Filter, opens in ArcBrush 1.7.1 and earlier with every image at its own size and every name imported. A File Pattern such as hero_*.png is read there by its extension alone, so it imports every PNG of the folder.