Resolution loss while copying image from Excel to Microsoft Paint

4k-resolutionmicrosoft-officemicrosoft-paint

Could somebody explain why there is resolution loss while copying picture from MS Office Applications (Excel/Word/Outlook) to Microsoft Paint?

To explain in details:

  • I took a screenshot in Excel (Insert => Screenshot => Screen Clipping)
  • I copied it to MS Paint
  • I copied it back to MS Excel

The size of the new image (pasted from Paint) (height 2.04", width 4.71") is about half (or even less) the original size (height 5.11", width 11.78"). I have saved the two images in two different files and noticed that the file with the new image is 151 KB, where as the file with the original image is 287 KB.

To pinpoint, the resolution loss is occurring at the time of copying from Excel to Paint.

I am using Windows 10 and MS Office 2016. My laptop screen has 4k resolution.

I suspect this is an existing limitation in MS Paint as same thing doesn't happen if copied from Excel to Paint 3D (or from Excel to Outlook). MS Paint hasn't likely been adapted to the new 4k resolution standard, but there could be a solution to this which I am not aware of.

Also to be noted is that I don't have the same issue on my other laptop with HD screen resolution (instead ok 4K). I am able to copy an image from Excel to MS Paint and back to Excel without any loss in the image size.

Please advise.

Edit: as asked by @harrymc, the original image and the one pasted to MS Paint is attached below:

Original image:
enter image description here

Image after it was pasted to MS Paint:

enter image description here

More examples:

Based on comments, I think adding more examples can make the issue clearer. This time, I kept a smaller default canvas size so that there's no extra white space. If a larger image is pasted, Paint automatically enlarges the canvas size to fit the image.

Original image – size 41 KB – dimension 532 px x 222 px

enter image description here

Image, after pasted to MS Paint – size 8 KB – dimension 217 px x 92 px

enter image description here

Proof of size and dimension
enter image description here

Best Answer

If the problem is image quality :

The posted images are both of type JPEG. If this is the case, then every save in JPEG format will lose resolution. This format is lossy in the sense that every succeeding compression will cause some loss in image quality.

In addition, the two images are not of the same size, the second image actually larger than the first, so that pixel extrapolation will cause some further loss compared to the original.

If you wish for more accuracy, use a more evolved image editor than Paint, for example the free Paint.NET, and use a lossless format such as PNG (with or without compression).

If the problem is image size :

It is impossible that copy/paste changed the image size, so some other explanation is required.

The only explanations I can think of for the result of the above operation by the poster to be too small are:

  1. The screenshot was taken of the image when it was displayed as zoomed-out, so smaller.
  2. The paste was from a low-resolution image into a high-resolution one, which will make it look smaller.

In all cases, my advice is not to use screenshots for copying an image, but rather to export and import the image using the capabilities supplied by the products you are using.

Related Question