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A .png image gets fuzzy when I insert it in a slide - how can I keep it sharp?

Anonymous
2016-06-22T04:39:23+00:00

When I insert a simple .png image into a PPT slide, it displays fuzzy. I tried it in Word and Excel, just to see what would happen, and got the same result.

In PPT, I went to the Advanced options, under "Image Size and Quality," and checked 'Do not compress images in file." I also set the default resolution to High Fidelity. Then I inserted the image again, and it was still fuzzy. I even tried linking to the file, rather than inserting it, and still it was fuzzy.

Any ideas on how I can keep the image sharp when I insert it?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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  1. John Korchok 231.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-06-22T15:07:44+00:00

    There could be 2 things going on here.

    • If you're using a picture border, that is a known cause of blurry pictures. Reinsert the picture without a border.
    • You're mostly likely seeing Office's anti-aliasing being applied. This "feature" would have been useful 15 years ago when low-res digital images were more common, but now it just degrades high-res pictures. You can't turn it off, unfortunately. A workaround is to insert higher-resolution pictures, then reduce their display size. This shrinks the blurriness, creating a sharper appearance.

    Here is a resolution test picture:

    Here's how it saves to PDF from PowerPoint. If image compression was in play, this would be blurry, but it's still sharp:

    But here's how it displays in PowerPoint:

    Here's how it saves to PDF if the picture is inserted in a Picture placeholder:

    A picture placeholder antialiases the picture for both display and print, then PowerPoint antialiases the entire slide as well for display. This double antialiasing is why pictures placed in picture placeholders look even worse than regular PowerPoint images.

    I've created a suggestion on the PowerPoint User Voice Forum to make antialiasing optional in PowerPoint. You can vote for this idea here: Make Picture AntiAliasing Optional

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  2. John Korchok 231.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-06-23T15:40:25+00:00

    If the client has a vector (Illustrator EPS) version, you can also export that as an EMF from Illustrator. EMFs don't get antialiased, even in a picture placeholder.

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  3. Steve Rindsberg 99,161 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-06-22T14:41:09+00:00

    First, the obvious question:  is the PNG itself sharp/high resolution?  If you open it in an image viewing program, is it noticeably sharper than what you see in PPT?  What's the resolution of the image (ie, how many pixels wide by high)?

    Try starting PPT, adding a new slide based on the BLANK layout, not one of the layouts with "click here" placeholders.  Choose Insert | Picture and add the picture (don't drag/drop it or paste it from some other program, in other words).  Does that make a difference?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-23T01:39:05+00:00

    John, thanks for the information. The .png file is a small (195 x 33) image made up of a simple 3-color logo and some text, saved with a bit depth of 32. My next step is to see if my client can get me a higher-res version of the logo.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-06-23T01:32:32+00:00

    Thanks for the reply, Steve. The image is sharp when I open it in an image viewing program. It's a small image, 195 x 33, made up of a 3-color logo and text, saved at a bit depth of 32. I've been using Insert > Picture to add it, but I tried your suggestion, inserting it in a Blank layout. That made no difference - the image is still fuzzy.

    One interesting thing: I'm creating an eLearning course using iSpring (which adds eLearning authoring features to PPT).  When I insert the .png file, it looks fuzzy in PPT, and it looks fuzzy when I view the published eLearning in a browser. However, when I preview the course using the iSpring add-in, the logo looks good in the preview window. I don't know if that's at all meaningful, but I thought I'd mention it.

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