Overheard someone at a gallery saying they "just use the default canvas size"

I was at the New Media Art Show in Portland last weekend and this artist was telling her friend she always works in 72 DPI at 500x500 pixels because "it doesn't matter." My jaw dropped. She had no idea that defaults can actually mess up how your piece looks on different screens or prints. Has anyone else run into artists who don't mess with their canvas settings?

2 comments

2 Comments

river1824h ago

Honestly, did she even consider how that looks scaled up on a gallery wall?

hugo_ellis3h ago

Double down on what river182 said about scaling, because that 500x500 square is gonna look like a postage stamp on a 4 foot wall display. It gets even worse when you project digital art on a bigger screen and the pixels are so chunky they look like they're from a retro game. Defaults are fine for thumbnails or social media stories, but gallery work needs some basic planning around the actual viewing space.