Poor quality on Lightroom slideshow

[evikne71]

I have tried to create a slideshow in the Slideshow module, but the quality is very poor. I'm not talking about the images themselves, they look fine, but everything else, such as text and borders, is rendered very poorly. The text is barely legible, even with a fairly large font size, and there are strange lines around the borders that shouldn't be there. I have selected High Quality, but I can't see any difference from Draft or Standard quality. The ready-made templates are no better either. They all look like drafts. Am I the only one experiencing this? I haven't tried exporting the slideshow, but am just showing it directly from Lightroom.

I use LR v. 15.0 and a MacBook Pro M5.

[evikne71]

…

[evikne71]

Just upgraded to v. 15.1 and still no improvement. It is very frustrating that the text is not legible unless it is very large and in bold letters.

The text has an outline stroke around it that is aligned either on the inside or in the middle around the letters and “eats” into them, making them almost unreadable, especially on thin parts of the letters. The stroke should be aligned on the outside so as not to impair readability.

Choosing a different font style (bold, italic, etc.) does not work either; only the standard style is displayed regardless.

Sadly, I get the feeling that the Slideshow module is a low-priority part of Lightroom Classic.

[Ian Lyons]

I use the Slideshow module a lot and don't recongnise the issues you describe when using various MacBooks or Desktops with M3 and M4.

Some screenshots demonstrating your issues along with the associated panel configurations would be useful. Likewise, a short video.

[evikne71]

Thanks! Here is a screenshot from LR Slideshow module. I have created several different slideshow templates, here is just one example. The text overlay is crisp and sharp:

And here's from the live slideshow. The text quality is clearly much worse. This is particularly noticeable in the smaller text on the second line:

[Ian Lyons]

Can you share your slideshow template? It can be exported by right mouse clicking on template name, then choosing Export.

[evikne71]

I have exported the template, but I can't find a way to share it here. I have also compressed it to a zip file, but the forum doesn't accept it.

Edit:

Now it looks like I managed to upload it, but when I try to save the changes, it's gone.

[Earth Oliver]

Did you look to see what resolution the export is? And how are you viewing those exports?

[evikne71]

I am just using the impromptu slideshow, from various (smart) collections. 

Edit: I just tried to export some slides as a 4K video, and the result was very sharp! But unfortunately this is not the way I usually use the slideshows, it would be too cumbersome and time consuming. 

[evikne71]

So this apparently only occurs on impromptu slideshows. Is this how they are supposed to work (lower quality than exported slideshows)?

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @evikne71,

Thanks for confirming and for narrowing this down to impromptu slideshows. That distinction helps a lot. To help us understand this better, could you try the following and let us know the results?

• Change the slideshow background color to black and set the text color to white, then run the impromptu slideshow again and check if text clarity improves

• Share your slideshow template by uploading it to a file-sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, or OneDrive, and post the public download link here so others (including the team) can check it

Once we have reviewed the template or confirmed behavior across setups, we can proceed further with the product team if needed.

Thanks for taking the time to document this so clearly.

Best regards,

Anshul Saini

[evikne71]

Thank you! I changed the background color to black and text to white. The behavior is the same. It is also the same regardless of colors and fonts, but of course more visible on small text with thin strokes. 

Here is an example template:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xmmxkvysoognfr4ff52w2/Example-Template.lrtemplate.zip?rlkey=cx5sstxbj...

[Anshul_Saini]

Thanks for sharing the template, @evikne71, and for testing those variations; that really helped clarify things.

I can see what you’re describing on my side as well. In impromptu slideshows, the text and UI elements do appear noticeably softer and slightly fuzzy, especially with smaller or thinner fonts. When exporting the same slideshow as a 4K video, the output is crisp and looks correct, which confirms the source assets and template are fine.

Based on this, it appears to be how impromptu slideshows are rendered, rather than a template or font issue. I’m going to raise this with the product team so they can review whether this behavior is expected or something that can be improved.

Thanks for taking the time to document this so clearly.

Best regards,

Anshul Saini

[Anshul_Saini]

Thanks for your patience. I checked this with the product team and wanted to clarify where things stand.

• In Lightroom Classic, impromptu slideshows use a different on-screen rendering path than exported slideshows

• Text and borders shown live on screen are rendered at display resolution and can appear softer, especially with thin fonts

• Exported slideshows, including 4K video, use a higher-quality render pipeline, which is why those results look crisp

• So the quality difference you’re seeing is expected behavior, not a template or font issue

That said, the team agrees the readability gap in impromptu slideshows is noticeable, and they’re reviewing how much of this can be improved in the future.

Thanks again for documenting this so clearly and for working through the testing.

Best regards,

Anshul Saini