How do I get back those good old pixels in my image?

Question

How do I get back those good old pixels in my image?

At0m 20

ENG:

When I have a lot of empty space on the canvas, the corners of my pixels change color, which makes the image look low-quality; it’s incredibly frustrating to spend hours meticulously placing every single pixel, only to run into this problem.

RUS:

Когда на холсте много пустого пространства, углы пикселей меняют цвет, из-за чего изображение выглядит некачественным; невероятно обидно часами кропотливо расставлять каждый пиксель, чтобы в итоге столкнуться с такой проблемой.

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Answer 1

Gatlin Le (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 560 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @At0m ,

Based on your description, this behavior is most likely related to how the image is being scaled rather than the original pixel colors being changed.

In WinUI, when an Image is displayed at a size different from its source dimensions, the image is scaled according to its layout size and Stretch setting. For pixel art, scaling at a non-integer ratio can blend neighboring pixels, including transparent edge pixels, which can make the corners appear to change color.

As a first check, try displaying the image at its native size, or scale it only by whole-number multiples such as 2×, 3×, or 4×. Also make sure that its parent Canvas is not stretching the Image to a fractional size.

For example:

<Image

    Source="Assets/MyImage.png"

    Width="128"

    Height="128"

    Stretch="Fill"

    UseLayoutRounding="True" />

The width and height above should be exact whole-number multiples of the source image dimensions. UseLayoutRounding can help prevent fractional layout coordinates, but it does not disable image interpolation by itself.

Microsoft’s documentation explains how the Image control scales content through its Stretch property: Images and image brushes

If the image still changes after using an exact integer scale, please share the relevant Image and Canvas XAML, the source image dimensions, and the final displayed dimensions, making sure to remove any personal or sensitive information before posting. This will help us determine whether the remaining issue is related to layout scaling, DPI scaling, or bitmap rendering.

If you found my response helpful or informative, I would greatly appreciate it if you could follow this guidance or provide feedback.

Thank you.

At0m 20 Reputation points

2026-09-16T15:56:46.2533333+00:00

Excuse me, could you clarify? For example, does the image automatically shrink if the pixel size is 50 (or something like that) instead of 32 or 64?
Gatlin Le (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 560 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-17T02:42:53.6133333+00:00
Hi @At0m ,

About your confusion, it isn't that 50 is inherently worse than 32 or 64. What matters is the final ratio between your source pixels and the physical pixels actually drawn on screen.

Two things combine here:

The size you set in XAML is not physical pixels.

XAML lays out in effective pixels (epx), and Windows scales your UI based on the display. Common Windows scale factors are 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%, and higher.

Your image size gets multiplied by that scale factor.

So with a 50 px image displayed at 50 epx:

At 100% → 50 physical px (1:1, clean)

At 125% → 62.5 physical px (fractional, needs resampling)

At 150% → 75 physical px (1.5× per pixel, edges get blended)

And with a 32 px image displayed at 32 epx:

At 125% → 40 physical px

At 150% → 48 physical px

So the image doesn't "shrink" because the size is 50. Rather, when the multiplication lands on a fractional or non-integer-per-pixel result, neighboring pixels, including transparent edge pixels, get blended together, which is likely what you're seeing at the corners.

A useful way to check this: open Settings > System > Display > Scale, note your current scale percentage, and multiply your image size by it. If the result isn't a whole number, that's a strong sign the scaling is involved.

If anything above is still unclear, feel free to ask, I'm happy to go over it with you. And if you found my explanation above was truly helpful or informative to you, I would greatly appreciate it if you could follow this guidance so others with the same issue could benefit as well.
Gatlin Le (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 560 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-22T03:21:00.51+00:00

Hi @At0m ,

Have you seen my answer in this post? If this issue is now resolved on your end, it would be great if you could share with me.

If you still need assistance, please let me know.

Thank you.