100% 72dpi is too small on Mac Retina Display

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 11, 2020
4 replies
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hi, I'm working with a retina display macbook pro 13inc. I'm noticing that when I zoom in at 100%, I'm actually getting a 50% view. How do I adjust the screen view for retina displays?

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Conrad_C

Community Expert

What you are seeing as a “50% view” is actually 100% as defined in Photoshop and other photo editors, where 100% means 1:1, or one image pixel to one screen pixel. 100% does not mean 100% real world magnification.

Over the last 30 years, 100% or 1:1 size slowly got smaller and smaller as screens went from 72 ppi in the 1980s, to over 100 ppi by the 2000s. Then, when Mac Retina displays (and HiDPI displays in Windows) came out, the resolution of computer displays suddenly went over 200 ppi. That resulted in 100% magnification suddenly looking around 50% smaller than before. But that is not wrong, as long as 100% means 1 display pixel to 1 image pixel. It’s just that the display pixels got a lot smaller, in fact about 50% smaller.

If you believe this is done incorrectly, unfortunately, if you decide to switch to just about any other Mac photo editor out there like Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, etc., you will find that they treat magnification exactly the same way Photoshop does. So one solution is to understand what 100% magnification really means: When 100% means 1:1 image to screen pixels, 100% will always depend on the ppi of the display, and will always look smaller on higher resolution displays.

Sure, it’s annoying. What I did for my 13" MacBook Pro is, in Photoshop, open Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, find the menu item View > 200%, and assign the Command-1 shortcut to that.

If you want 100% magnification to mean “actual size” as in the real world (which is a totally different 100% definition that is traditionally used in photo editors), reply and we’ll go over how to do that in Photoshop.

Also, note that an image you edit in Photoshop at 1:1 on a Retina/HiDPI display may look 50% smaller than when uploaded to the web. That is because web browsers typically adjust for Retina/HiDPI displays by enlarging images by 200%. However, this workaround means they are not using the full resolution of the display, while Photoshop is.

Finally, the fact that it’s 72 ppi is not important. If a 72 ppi image and a 300 ppi image have the same pixel dimensions (such as 800 x 400 px), they will be the same apparent size on screen at 100%, because of how 100% is defined as one image pixel to one display pixel.

J

james5C77

Participant

thanks. I get all this and I've been using photoshop for many years but for online advertising and small formats such as 468x60 120x600 etc photoshop at 100% preview on my imac is so small it's unworkable unless I design at double the pixel size and then resize down. This seems insane as before retina display it was never an issue. The problem is on some graphic content that's detailed and fine you can't really trust what you're producing regarding web preview

please advise

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Sure, so double the size. Retina was INVENTED so people like photographers would have fine detail shown in tiny pixels. That's why it is made and sold. Photoshop lets you work at that level of detail, and we sure would be flooded with complaints if it didn't show the detail people had paid for.

Again and again, we see people who seem outraged that they need to go to 200% to match the other apps that just double sizes. What's the big deal?

davescm

Community Expert

Nancy is spot on.

Photoshop is a professional pixel editor. 100% zoom does not refer to any physical size but refers to 1 image pixel mapped to 1 screen pixel. That way no scaling artifacts are introduced.

Other applications do scale up the image.

Dave

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

"I'm actually getting a 50% view."

No you're not. Photoshop is a raster image editor and thus renders pixel for pixel 1:1. It makes no adjustments for your hi-DPI device. You must do that yourself through your OS settings. See HiDPI and Retina Display Support FAQ below.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/hidpi-retina.html

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert