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FeedbackCommunityMember
Inspiring
May 2, 2014

P: Introducing scale the UI 200% for high-density displays for Windows

  • May 2, 2014
  • 339 replies
  • 4328 views

The Photoshop team welcomes your feedback on this experimental feature. Let us know what you think!
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Photoshop user interface controls may appear small and hard-to-read on high-density displays. Also, on touch-enabled screens, you may have trouble clicking the smaller controls. 200% scaling solves this issue by doubling the size of the user interface.

Since the user interface elements increase in size by 200%, depending on the size and resolution of your display, you may need to adjust the layout of existing workspaces. For example, on a 1080 px screen at 200%, the Tools panel extends off the bottom of the screen. You can change to double-column orientation in order to fit the panel on the screen.

Note: This feature is only for Windows users. HiDPI on Mac has been available for high-density Retina displays since Photoshop CS6.

Caveats

You may encounter some cosmetic issues while using this feature. While many Photoshop dialogs have been reworked so that they fit on the screen at 1080 px, viewing some dialogs (such as Smart Sharpen) completely may require you to collapse sections.

Disable 200% UI scaling

If you need to return to the default 100% scaling, do the following:

1. Select Preferences > Experimental Features.
2. Deselect Scale UI 200% For High-Density Displays (Windows Only).
3. Restart Photoshop.

    339 replies

    Show previous replies
    descender
    descender
    Inspiring
    October 16, 2014
    I just noticed that the 200% does not apply to the Camera Raw filter. Not a complete deal breaker but that does really bring some hardship... As long as someone's working on it I can get by.
    descender
    descender
    Inspiring
    October 16, 2014
    wow, that's great... I typed my comments here before I signed in. Upon clicking the "reply" button, my reply was held while I was given the opportunity to sign in. But when I signed in, since it had been a long time, the site sent a confirmation code to my email address. I went and got that, which only took a few seconds, came back and entered the code. It then successfully logged me in but did not submit my comments, and it lost my text entry. Also my comments were no longer in my system clipboard because I used it to cut and paste the confirmation code. Something in that system of letting the user log in during a suspended reply process is broken and needs some loving attention.

    What I was going to say is that I fully agree with Thomas Carter above (from 9 days ago) -- 175% would be just great on my 3840x2160 Dell Ultrasharp UP2414Q display. 200% is pretty close though, and I'll take it for now.

    It would also be a good idea to go ahead and move the 200% scale option to the Interfaces preference. No one is looking for it under Experimental until after they tear their hair out for an hour or more of filtering through forums full of UI complaints.

    Thank you, Chris and other Photoshop engineers, for listening.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 7, 2014
    200% is too much even at 3840 x 2160, i.e. full 4K. I suggest that options of 125%, 150% 175% and 200% be available for the user to select...
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 3, 2014
    Again, we have been working with Microsoft for quite some time to fix the OS bugs around UI scaling, and to find workarounds for the OS bugs that could not be solved in time. We are continuing to work with Microsoft to make the UI scaling more flexible.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 2, 2014
    This 200% scaling option is a pretty crude workaround, but it works at least. Sort of. I just dropped $2000 on a new work machine with a HiDPI display, and expected Photoshop to work on it (despite what I've read about Windows 8.1's kludgy handling of scaling.) I mean, Adobe made their name in graphics. It's not like they couldn't see this coming.

    Anyway, the 200% scaling option has Photoshop usable on my main screen but utterly unusable on my secondary monitor, which is much larger but of a lower resolution, and as such all the UI elements are childishly gigantic. And I'm sure I'm not the only person out there with a similar setup. Is there any way to apply the 200% scaling to only one monitor?

    If Adobe doesn't get this sorted, and soon, I'm going to drop using their product suite entirely and switch over to open source. This is an unacceptable state of affairs.
    J
    j_bacigalupi
    Participant
    September 30, 2014
    so I changed to 200% and now my desktop of my pc is too small! I did not change screen resolution only experimental features in Photoshop. How is that possible??
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 29, 2014
    Hello,
    This feature works good for me on my surface pro 3, now I hope they can fix the size of the anchor points real quick in Photoshop its mine most used tool. now I still cannot work on it.

    Hope this will be solved soon so I can fully use my surface pro 3.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 29, 2014


    i have a mac laptop with windows 8.1 OS it.. i have downloaded adobe Photoshop cc 2014 on the windows OS.. the problem is that when i open Photoshop cc the size of the whole application is small really small!! and i really need a solution
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 26, 2014
    Having same issue! Little band aid for a big gash!
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 26, 2014
    Not really sure how I feel about this because my workflow involve Bridge and RAW and I still have little menus in those! Which sucks! I do like the larger menus and touchscreen capability! It screws with all my other applications on the laptop. I feel like this is a small band aid for a large gash to be quite honest! Hope you all get it all integrated soon!
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