Image size

[Shepherdboy]

Why does an image shrink to less than a third of its size when being copied and pasted?

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Shepherdboy

I am not sure I will describe this well, yet when pasting an image into an existing image in PS, the pixels are preserved as is (no scaling), and the size of the image being pasted adopts the pixels per inch of the image into which you are pasting.
Example

If you image in PS into which you are pasting is 3000 pixels on a side and is 300 pixels per inch, it will measure as a 10x10 square image.

If the image you are going to paste is 1000 pixels on a side and is at 100 pixels per inch, it too would measure as 10 inches by itself. Yet when being pasted into the image in PS, the pixels per inch is ignored, and the pasted image would fit in 1/3 the height and 1/3 the width of the image into which you are pasting, since 1000 pixels is 1/3 the 3000 pixels of the image into which you are pasting. The pasted image effectively adopts the pixels per inch of the receiving image of 300 ppi, so the pasted image (with preserved pixels) would be 3 1/3 inches by 3 1/3 inches.

If you want to preserve the inches of both images, they both need to start with the same resolution (PPI) before you do the pasting.
That is my understanding of what is going on.
I hope this helps you.

John Wheeler