How can I clip this raster and preserve original resampling/prevent loss/distortion? Image Analysis

[BrianPalus1]

I have some high quality paper maps that were scanned and georeferenced. I am trying to clip portions of the map using a shapefile while preserving the quality of the scan and converting to RGB.  The easy way I have found to do this is by using Image Analysis, where I convert to RGB then clip. From here I create a layer file or export. However, when I view the export or reopen the layer file in a new ArcMap I get a bit of distortion of the data which affects the quality. Is there another way I can go about this?

Attached is an example of the differences. Original on left, right gets a little blurry. It isn't much, but the customer doesn't like it.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

what other settings are associated with the file? and what is the file type? (ie png's are cleaner than jpg files for instance)

[BrianPalus1]

Resampling method is Bilinear and they are .TIF files.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

try nearest neighbor so you don't get interpolated values which may muddy the edges.  You have nominal scale data (ie. classes, not 'real' numeric values)