To this day, "Scaled to Fit/Fill" in Bridge Slideshow Options still does not work!

Report · Apr 19, 2019

How long has this issue been plaguing Bridge?

I've found questions online about this topic going back many years now....with none of those related questions that are posted here on these Forums having any real resolution or answer....

It makes Bridge impossible to use in a group / team setting as an image browser / presenter.

I'm not kidding when I say that this simple, stupid, tiny detailed option is the sole reason I have completely stopped using Bridge in a professional setting.

Both of the other image cataloging / viewing program I have ever used in an office team situation does this simple and very necessary task perfectly!

I'm talking specifically about ThumbsPlus and Extensis Portfolio.

When a folder of images are all of various pixel dimensions, and a user checks "Scaled to Fit" in Slideshow Options and then runs the Slideshow, one can reasonably assume that EVERY IMAGE SHOULD BE FIT TO THE CURRENT SCREEN, PROPORTIONALLY! The remainder of the image should be letterboxed.

But that simply doesn't happen with Bridge. And it never has. On any OS I have tried it on.

One wonders why Adobe engineers wasted the 10 minutes it took to type those options and their respective checkboxes into the Options dialog box at all.

So completely frustrating.

I don't care if the images range from 10,000 x 10,000 pixels down to 10 x 10 pixels.....every single image in a folder should be stretched up to FIT the screen if you check that Slideshow Option.

Has anybody EVER gotten this "feature" to work in Bridge?

Report · Apr 19, 2019

Though Adobe Bridge and Extensis Portfolio are both digital asset management tools, Extensis Portfolio has a server side solution which gives it the ability for collaboration. Adobe Bridge and Adobe Lightroom are standalone asset management tools. They are designed to work with one user. Today Adobe offers collaboration ability through the Adobe Cloud and with Enterprise and Team. Adobe Bridge has never meant to be a collaborative tool. It is a support tool for the Adobe line. I use it with most of my Create Cloud apps.

Report · Apr 20, 2019

Katie, with all due respect, how is this an answer to my question?

If Adobe literally puts an option in their software that says "SCALED TO FIT" and it doesn't work for anyone, that's a PROBLEM.

The solution isn't to say "Well, other software does collaboration and team presentation better" and give Adobe a pass on shoddy software development!

People are PAYING for this software, and its hard-coded feature set doesn't work.

???

Report · Apr 21, 2019

I don't think you are understanding what Katie was saying. You are trying to use Bridge for something it was not designed to be used for. In other words, wrong tool for the job. Bridge is a piece of software to be used for an individual to organize and access all of their files, and facilitate the easy migration of files from one program to another. It's really not a slideshow/presentation tool. It is meant for one person to use. Not for use as a team tool, a presentation tool or anything of the sort. If you want to collaborate with others, do it through the Adobe Cloud. Collaboration, use Team or Enterprise. Here are a few links to learn what you should be doing if you want to collaborate with Adobe software in a group setting...https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/business/teams.html

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/business/teams.html

https://www.adobe.com/enterprise.html

https://spark.adobe.com/make/presentation-maker/

https://helpx.adobe.com/presenter/using/creating-presentations.html

And with all of those, you can use Bridge to facilitate getting your files into any of those Adobe software.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Daniel - I appreciate what both you and Katie are saying. I understand your point about "right tool for the right job."

Here's what I want you to answer, yes or no:

If Adobe places an option checkbox in its Bridge software preferences for Slideshows that says "Scaled to Fit" during playback, is the end user's intent on how they wish to use that feature any excuse for that feature not working?

Yes or no.

That's all I'm saying.

If Bridge is the wrong tool to display slideshows with images Scaled to Fit on a screen, then why did Adobe program that option into its Slideshow view settings? Why include it at all if you don't want users to use it that way? (The wrong way, according to you and Katie...)

Report · Apr 23, 2019

My impression of how Scale to Fit works is if the document at 100% view (actual pixels) is bigger than the screen, then bridge scales the image to fit within the screen. On the other hand, if the 100% view of the document is less than the screen size, then bridge does not try to scale the document to fit the screen, but leaves it a 100% view.

Report · Apr 24, 2019

If that is indeed the feature's behavior, then from a UI perspective, the option's wording doesn't clarify that for the user.....

Nothing on its face about the phrase "Scale to Fit" implies that the feature works in only one direction.....down to the current screen size.

If that was the intent, then the options dialog box for slideshow options should include a secondary sub checkbox under "Scaled to Fit" that says "Do not scale up" and allows the user to prevent stretching low resolution images up to the size of the screen.

Otherwise, if that "Do not scale up" checkbox is left unchecked, ALL images should be "Scaled to Fit".....just like the option says.

Report · Apr 24, 2019

About the only thing i can suggest is filing a feature request over here:

https://adobebridge.uservoice.com/

Report · Apr 24, 2019

Actually after some further research it turns out that Bridge CS2 (the first bridge version) did exactly as you wanted

with respect to Fit to Screen. Pressing H in slideshow mode displays a menu with options including D for Change

Display Mode with the same 3 options all other versions of bridge have under View>Slideshow Options.

Starting with bridge cs3 it appears the change in how Scale to Fit (Scaled to Fit) was made and is still the same in the most

recent bridge.

Test image shown at 100% view in photoshop

Bridge CS2 slideshow Centered option where the image is shown at 100% view

Bridge CS2 Scale to Fit option where the image is stretched beyond 100% view to fit the screen

Bridge CS2 Fill Screen option

Report · Jan 26, 2020

After bumping into this same issue for the umpteenth time, I thought let's check the forum.

I must say I'm amazed by the non-cooparative answers from the first two Adobe people.

Not the tool for the task? It makes me wonder from what experience you are stating that.

Anyway, hopefully it will work in a future update.

Report · Jan 26, 2020

Hi Jojakeem,

First off let me point out that the vast majority of folks here in these forums are not Adobe employees (myself included). We just like to help folks where we can.

As far as the scale to fit, that means that if an image needs to be blown up (say) 80%, it's probably going to look OK. But if the image needs to be blown up (say) 200% it's going to look pretty ugly.

Admittedly, that still might be the users choice and think it's OK for the image to look ugly. If you think that's OK, than if you go to Bridge's UserVoice (link above), I suggest that you add that to any request in this subject. Also, such a request might also include a checkbox to prevent making the image larger than it currently is.

Now there is a curious anecdote to this: If you have a photo selected in Bridge and press the space bar, you will see the image isolated on the screen at 100% or smaller to fit the screen. If you want the photo to display larger you can tap the "=/+" button and it will first show 100%, then 200%, then 400%, then 800%. I mention this because some people expected the image to fill the screen regardless of the original size of the image.

Expectations are sort of like sort of like opinions, everyone has one! ;>) Sometimes expectations are very good expectations and those are the ones that are actually considered in UserVoice.

Good luck!

Report · Jan 29, 2020

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your reply.

Of course smaller images will show pixalated when blown up, but exactly that would be my expectation when ticking the option 'Scale to fit'. Otherwise mayb it should say 'Scale down to fit'.

The issue is actually most present on my 4k laptop screen, were of course relatively more images will not scale to width.

Anyway I also addressed it on the bug report page.

Report · Jun 16, 2020

Although I'm a little bit late to this forum, I totally agree with you with the "Scale to fit" option that should be added. Today, I have updated Bridge with the hope of seeing this feature added to it. But guess what? Nope.

Although I pay for this subscription, I purchased Photo Mechanic and it does exactly what we're asking for and you don't have to click anywhere. I found it to be way faster also than Bridge (especially when viewing RAWs). The only downside is that colour tags are not cross-platform. But that downside is subjective.

Everytime Adobe does a Bridge update, I always wish they added the scale to fit option. I still don't get it why such a big company can't add such a "small" feature.

Report · Jun 29, 2020

I just had the same disappointing experience. My current project has about 60 small AI files, and when I get to a landmark stage, I need to make a set of 60 JPGs. Using Bridge, which does a nice job previewing AI files (something Win10's previewer can only barely do), I thought I'd just make an Export Preset and I could build them all in a jiffy.

Sadly, nope. I can specify everything but the size. The Image Size section offers Constrain to Fit, but not Scale to Fit (which I would take to mean scaling up or down). So all I can do is save JPGs in the original size, which is scaled in Illy to fit the printed page, but which is only 375 pixels wide when it resides in Illy. It's vectors, right? So when they're placed in InDesign, they get printed at 300dpi. Nice. But there's still no way to get reasonably sized JPGs out of the AI files. Other than to have AI open 60 files, one after another, etc., etc.

I was really hoping Bridge could do this now.

Report · Oct 11, 2020

It's the 11th of October in the year 2020, and still to this day, version 10.1.1.166 of Adobe Bridge has an option under View > Slideshow Options > When Presenting Slides, Show Slides > Scaled to Fit, and that option DOES NOT WORK as phrased and as expected from every user of every other software that allows full-screen display of image assets.

To all the non-Adobe-employee Community Professionals who have defended this 'functionality', I would challenge you to:

Name any other major software that offers a "Scale to Fit" option in viewing preferences that does NOT scale the images to the current viewport during full-screen playback, even if the image has to be scaled up to do so.
Explain why the option is phrased "When PRESENTING Slides, Show Slides..." if Adobe Bridge software was NOT intended to be used for PRESENTATIONS of images.
Do any kind of rudimentary user behavior study that shows real business people using Adobe Bridge in a work environment to display a folder of images quickly to co-workers or to clients rather than taking the unnecessary time to lay out a slideshow in InDesign or PowerPoint. Then quantify how many of those users have to adjust the view zoom settings during fullscreen playback to maximize the use of pixels they have on their display (a different setting for each and every image if any are smaller in resolution than the current screen resolution).
Explain how any of this makes sense to users.

Further, the options under "When Presenting, Show Slides" are:

Centered
Scaled to Fit
Scaled to Fill

The 1st of these options is an Alignment option.

The other 2 options are Scaling options.

Why mix these options in a dialog box?

And why, oh why, when choosing Centered, would a user not assume that this option does NOT allow for scaling the image while the other 2 do? If any reasonable user did not want the images scaled UP when played back, they would choose the option that doesn't involve Scaling.

One can only presume there would be another options section with choices like:

Alignment: Centered, Left, Right, Top, Bottom

Scaling: Original, Scaled to Fit, Scaled to Fill, Do Not Scale Up (checkbox)

This is poor UI / UX design, period.

And it still persists in this software after many years.

It is inconceivable that Adobe has ever considered Bridge a "non-collaborative" tool.

Nobody in the world makes software that ignores collaboration today.

It's the entire name of the game now. (Hence Adobe's Cloud services.....its Libraries features......)

To say, " but collaboration is supposed to happen over here in these other software products" is laughable.

And it should be embarrassing enough for Adobe to see users talking about the products this way to evaluate features without being harangued by the very users who are paying for the honor.

Report · Jan 10, 2021

Just chiming in to say I too have wanted the scale-up feature in Bridge for years. I've resorted to batch resizing folders of images to a resolution that will fill my monitor. Very sucky workaround.

Report · Jan 10, 2021

That's your call but Bridge will scale UP TO 100% of the image and then stop scalling.

For those like me who have a 5K monitor, yes, it would be nice to see these images at full size but I'd rather see a smaller image than an image that is blurred out of existance.

The only thing I can suggest for you is to go to:

https://adobebridge.uservoice.com

and make a feature request that there be an OPTION (checkbox ?) to scale images in a slide show to full size during slideshows. I know I would not want that so that's why I suggest you request it as an option.

But I do say good luck! And I do mean that.

Report · Jan 10, 2021

Currently you can zoom in or out of full screen (spacebar) mode with the + and - keys. but it only zooms in increments of 100%, so you can't enlarge the image to fill the monitor proportionally. They could just add another hotkey that would scale the image up once in full screen mode.

But if a bunch of random adobe users online are giving us flak for even suggesting the option, I don't expect the official adobe folks to be any more helpful.

...Thank you though. Maybe I'll submit a feature request if it's still absent in another few years.

Report · Jan 10, 2021

"...Thank you though. Maybe I'll submit a feature request if it's still absent in another few years."

Back in High School if you were waiting for that pretty girl to ask you to the Prom, you'd still be waiting. If you want something, go ahead and ask. What happens if you don't ask though, is that you know the answer is "no."

Go ask for it!