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Known Participant
September 20, 2012
Open for Voting

P: Shades of grey for different selection states are not different enough

  • September 20, 2012
  • 34 replies
  • 4020 views

Lightroom has three different levels of selection (not selected, selected, most selected) and represents this state with different colors of grey. This is a poor choice, because they are very difficult to differentiate.

For instance, it's very difficult to identify the beginning or the end of a long selection when scrolling, because everything is just grey.

Please make the colors customizable, or at least set them to easily distinguishable colors.

34 replies

Participant
August 7, 2025

Damnit Adobe - This is an easy change to make and it would be meaningful. Get off your arse and make change. 

Participant
April 5, 2025

Hi all,

I find it always hard to see which thumbnail (photo) is actually selected, espacially when working with lots of labels and multiple selections. It would be good to enhance the border to 100% red or a custom colour.

Thanks
Thilo

GoldingD
Legend
November 23, 2024

Your example looks like images in the import screen that LrC thinks have already been imported, as such are grayed.

 

Known Participant
November 23, 2024

How am I supposed to know whether I want to select it or not? Why on god's green earth does this damn software use an incredibly heavy vignette on unselected images in the import software?

How am I supposed to select it IF I CAN'T SEE IT?
My thumbnail size is maxed out. I am constantly clicking "select" and "unselect" just to see the glimpse of my own image. Stop it.

 

Stop it. Do something else. Just throw a stupid ring around the file or the thumbnail instead, make it red. Leave unselected items normal and bright, and make selected items EVEN MORE OBVIOUS.

This is god awful.

 

Known Participant
November 23, 2024

The actual snip snapshot I just added into the actual post above is miles bigger than the max thumbnail size of Lightroom Import by the way.

Participant
October 4, 2024

Idea: Requesting an enhancement to the way a photo is highlighted in the film stip, so when it is highlighted it is more easily spotted.

 

Problem: When editing a large volume of photos and using multiple monitors and plug ins etc, I find that the highlight box around a selected photo in the film strip is not done so with enough contrast.  It becomes difficult to spot the photo you are currently working on, especially after a lot of editing/screen eyes with tired eyes.

 

It would be great if it were possible to designate a specific color to highlight the selected photo with, like you can do with the identity plate.  Or even to match the color of the identity plate.  I would personally like to use a bright green color or something very obvious so when I am focussed in an edit I can quickly glance at the frame I have selected in the film strip.

 

Screen shots examples attached -

 

As you will see in the film strip, the contrast between selected and unselected frame is quite minimal.  I inquired with technical support asking if it was currently possible to adjust how it highlights and they said it was not.

 

Sometimes I sit with clients and edit so a highlighted frame matching the color of the identity plate would visually look cool and professional as well.

 

Thank you for the sondieration and let me know if you need any further details!

 

Sean

 

GoldingD
Legend
October 5, 2024

at least one existing idea exists on this.  Do not be surprised if a moderator merges your idea.

 

The above existing idea has been in the community for several years. I suspect similar posts have been merged into it. All we can do is keep requesting.

 

 

 

Known Participant
August 27, 2024

Very sad. Can someone suggest an LRc alternative ? This is the only Adobe software I use.

Pentax K-1 II . Panasonic Lumix GX85.i7-5820k OC 4.3 GHz32GB DDR4-26668x1 TB striped SSDnVidia GTX 9602 x 32UHD59-B 32" 4K displays1 x Asus PB238Q HD display10Gbe Ethernet112TB NAS
Known Participant
August 25, 2024

I suffer from a rare for a non age-related macular degeneration called PPS maculopathy. The biggest problem with this condition is the inability to see contract between dark colors. The problem now stops me from driving at night because I can no longer distinguish things like curbs and dividers from the road itself. Everything is still fine during the day as there is plenty of light.

 

Unfortunately, this condition also impacts my ability to use Lightroom CC due to the various gray colors that Adobe has chosen to use for the menus and various windows in Lightroom classic for Windows.

I have checked the Edit / Preferences / Interfaces menu and I believe I tried every possible option. I also tried the Windows Hihgh contrast (white) option, as well as other Windows themes. None had any effect on the Lightroom classic user interface as far as I could tell.

 

Did I miss something ? Is there a way to make the user interface elements in LRc use bright colors instead of dark ?

 

Pentax K-1 II . Panasonic Lumix GX85.i7-5820k OC 4.3 GHz32GB DDR4-26668x1 TB striped SSDnVidia GTX 9602 x 32UHD59-B 32" 4K displays1 x Asus PB238Q HD display10Gbe Ethernet112TB NAS
johnrellis
Legend
August 26, 2024

"Did I miss something ? Is there a way to make the user interface elements in LRc use bright colors instead of dark ?"

 

Unfortunately not. Many have asked for that over the years.

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 25, 2024

@ocroquette 

 

You can unfollow thread by selecting the 'Unfollow' option at the bottom of your original post. See attached screenshot. 

 

Known Participant
August 25, 2024

It is been a while since I moved away from Lightroom to ART (https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home), but I still get notifications about this thread, which I opened 12 years ago now!

I just realized ART solves the issue differently. It simply uses colored corners.

Participant
August 10, 2024

When multiple images are selected in the filmstrip, the selected images are highlighted with a white border and the "most selected" image is highlighted with a very slightly brighter border. 

 

 

Can you see the unselected, selected, and most selected photos?

 

My complaint is that the most selected photo is not differentiated enough from the other selected photos. It makes it hard to quickly know which photo is selected. It gives me a headache to look for this very slight difference in white highlight. 

 

Please either give us a control of customizing these highlights (brightness or color) OR make the "most selected" highlight MUCH MUCH more disctinct from the other selected images. 

 

Sometimes I am culling a burst of very similar images and it drives me crazy trying to navigate the film strip, trying to know which image I have selected. Looking at the top line in the screenshot below. Can you easily tell which one is the "most selected" image? Maybe, yes in this one example, I suppose you can, but could it be easier? Could it be made MORE OBVIOUS so that I do not have to strain my eyes to see it? Yes, yes it could!

 

Please look at this, I have thought this would be a usefull improvement for years now. I cant be the only one!

 

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 14, 2024

This issue has been reported and various suggestions to fix since Lightroom was first released in 2007. So, don't be surprised if your post is merged with the existing Feature Request.