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Question

Help! Moved from a PC to Mac and photoshop images are TINY at 100%.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 14, 2020
4 replies
12332 views

So I recently moved to a 13in Macbook and use Photoshop to make images. These images are 1105 pixels wide, which is fairly wide (it's a banner for a proboards page). Yet, when I have it open on Photoshop, at 100% zoom, it's INCREDIBLY small. Probably close to 1/4 the size. I can blow it up to 200% but that doesn't quite fix the problem as then some PNGs that I'm using seem pixelated due to being so big.

Is this just how Photoshop is on a Mac or it being a smaller screen (I recently had a 16in PC laptop and it never looked like this). Attached are screenshots of what the banner looks like at size on a site and then how small it is in photoshop.

Thanks for any help.

This topic has been closed for replies.

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

@trumarvel On a Mac you can change the. interface scaling in Settings / Displays - see my screenshot, I do this for my second connected screen a Samsung LS27A70 because its 4K & the interface is very small if I leave it set to "more space" as it uses the full 4K

You can see the blue "selected" indicator on mine here which is one "step" to the right of Default scaling.

You wrote: These images are 1105 pixels wide, which is fairly wide (it's a banner for a proboards page)

Note that on an increasingly common 4K screen, at 3840 x 2160 pixels, 1105 pixels will not be very wide unless scaled up. Your image will appear same size on all 4 K screens set to standard display unless scaled.

The 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, released in late 2012, has a native resolution of 2560x1600 pixels - as its 2560px wide the 1105px image will fill less than half the screen width. In the modern world of high rez screens 1105 px wide is not a large image

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
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S

Suhas24624195pxa8

Participant

Hi,

hope this video link helps you, as it helped me -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_vn_fDqgQ

The video explains how to set the view settings based on the screen display densities, so that at 100% view (if physical dimensions have been attributed) it shows actual print size.

But mainly it helps visualising for High density display screens.

Thanks.

Derek Cross

Community Expert

The Apple term for a high resolution screen is Retina Display.

FrostDeLayne

Participant

Fun Fact: Apple's Retina doesn't factor in the resolution at all. It factors in pixel density. If you view the screen at an average viewing distance, the pixel density is enough that you can't perceive pixels. The image is supposed to look as crisp as real life. The first Retina screen was on the iPhone 4 which only had a 640 resolution, where 1080p is the norm for considering something HD or high resolution. Granted, the MacBooks and iMacs with Retina screens do have a ridiculously high resolution, but Retina is really about pixel density and not resolution.

davescm

Community Expert

For a monitor, pixel density and monitor resolution are the same thing. Both are expressed in pixels/inch (or pixels/cm in some parts of the world). Sometimes you will see the inverse number, pixel pitch, stated which is the distance between each pixel centre.

A couple of years ago, I went on a call with Eizo where they did not recommend using too high a pixel density for photography. For critical image adjustment we need to see the pixels. That way we can judge noise and sharpness correctly. They suggested a sweet spot of around 100-130ppi.

Dave

davescm

Community Expert

Hi

Not a Mac issue, but a result of using a high pixel density screen.

100% zoom in Photoshop is not a physical size. It means 1 image pixel is mapped onto 1 screen pixel. That means no scaling and, in turn, no scaling artefacts. The more screen pixels in a given area then the smaller the image.

Dave

T

trumarvelAuthor

Participant

After doing some more research I sort of get what you're saying. My screen has a bunch of pixels and that's what Photoshop uses. Got that part.

The trick is, outside of zooming to 200% (because that's still not a 1:1 sizing compared to how it looks on websites), what's the best adjsutment? Just making the image at 200% and hoping for the best when I upload it to the internet? I've seen some people talk about opening PS in "low resolution mode" but that mode seems to have been taken out at some point, or at least getting to it is different than they talked about a few years ago in threads.

EDIT: I did find the "low resolution mode" for PS and that actually did the trick. It sizes a lot more closely to what would be seen on the internet, it's just the rest of the software looks poor (the text for layers is a little blurry). So, a somewhat fix.

davescm

Community Expert

That's a silly answer "just accept it". Just accept that there's a scaling issue when using different programs? The answer is, the one I answered myself, where using low res mode will scale the image more correctly to a browser, but you have to sacrifice some quality of the program. The image itself looks fine and looks exactly what it looks like in a browser, any browser. It's just the rest of the software looks a little poor.

So, for website making purposes, low res mode works great. If I want to edit an image that isn't for it, then I can turn it off.

No it is not silly. Re-read what I said.

Just accept that 100% zoom is 1 to 1 mapping. It has nothing to do with physical size.

Then if you want a specific physical size on screen either use 200% zoom (which will match most browser scaling) or use the workaround with print size. That way you retain the benefits of Photoshop in that you can critically assess and prepare images with no scaling and therefore no scaling artifacts, whilst at the same time being able to view a preview at "browser size". Best practice for web use says you should be preparing images at more than one size, so assessing the image at 100% is still critical.

Low res mode just throws away all the benefits of your high pixel density screen and introduces scaling on all images making it impossible to critically assess the image, sharpness settings etc. A poor compromise, but if it works for you...........

Dave

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