What is "Photoshop Default Size" ?

[Guest]

File > New.

The first preset option is: "Default Photoshop Size"

I'm curious to know what's the basis of the specification for this? I get a really odd size of 454 x 340 pixels.

[Jeff Arola]

It might depend on the localized version of photoshop, but on the us english versions (since photoshop 7) the default photoshop size is 504 pixels x 360 pixels or 7 x 5 inches at a resolution of 72.

[Guest]

I could understand 7x5@72.

but 454 x 340 px? That doesn't seem to make sense at any resolution or unit of measurement I can think of .

I'm still curious...

[station_two]

That works out to 16 cm x 12 cm @ 72 dpi.   Go figure...

[Guest]

It does. Maybe it's the size of Thomas Knoll's right hand, or something...

[Jeff Arola]

What version of photoshop and language?

[Guest]

International English, but it's not a recent thing - I have CS5.1 and CS6 installed - it's the same in both.

As a follow up question:

Does anyone know how the size and specs can be changed?

I'm aware of the "Default New Doc Sizes.txt" file that determines the specs for the general presets, but I don't see the 'default size' specs listed, so I assume it must be stored elsewhere.

[Noel Carboni]

Since you have to choose it from the presets list anyway, why not make one of your own named presets?

-Noel

[station_two]

Viewbyte wrote:

It does. Maybe it's the size of Thomas Knoll's right hand, or something...

Remember that Photoshop and/or its predecessor started out as a Macintosh application.  At the time, the venerable Macintosh Plus and previous Macs had a 9-inch 512×384 pixel monochrome display with a resolution of 72 PPI. That ratio works out to 1.33:1.

"Photoshop Default", at 454 x 340 px, also maintains a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and it  sounds like a good window size to fit in such a display comfortably, with some room left over for other window components and tools (menu bar, scroll bars, etc.).

Coincidence?

[Guest]

station_two,

I think that's a pretty good hypotheses. It wouldn't surprise me if it were true at all. Although it's rather scary to think that in 2012 we are still using a preset devised in the mid 80's.

While I don't remember the Plus, I go back far enough that I owned a number of SE's and SE/30's - so I remember those 9" mono screens. In fact I remember designing spot colour flyers on them - in greyscale!

It would be great if Chris Cox or colleague could let us know if you're right!

[Noel Carboni]

Viewbyte wrote:

I think that's a pretty good hypotheses. It wouldn't surprise me if it were true at all. Although it's rather scary to think that in 2012 we are still using a preset devised in the mid 80's.

How many people would complain if it were arbitrarily changed?  Some folks might depend on it being as it is.

One of Photoshop's strengths is that generally speaking things are not arbitrarily changed between versions, making most of the time and effort we've invested in learning it remain applicable.

-Noel

[mjmetz182]

My PhotoShop CC 2017 defaults to 300ppi, so I have 1890x1417 but monitors were 72 ppi, so thats where 454x340 comes from. I'm just looking at the shape/ratio of the canvas, not the exact pixels. Given the other answers, and knowing that the ratio is 4:3 (1.33333...)  I would expect that it was the format for digital (not for print) photos and art. 4:3 was everywhere until the mid 2000-2010 decade. Think TV's, video game title screens, CRT monitors (using the images as backgrounds, would be a bit pixelated since it's smaller than the screen), and would fit in the internet browser window nicely (if the aspect ratio of the window wasn't changed). It's basically the same as using 16:9 for digital art now.