Fuzzy view in Elements Organizer HELP

[MelAOlsen]

I have used Elements for years and never experienced the problem I am not having. After edit my picture is sharp as a tack...after I save and view in the Organizer the image isn't as sharp and appears fuzzy...even my watermark which is 100% sharp is now fuzzy and blurry. Again the image is sharp in Editor. I use a high end Dell 4G monitor so I don't think it is that. HELP

[MichelBParis]

The 4G display is most probably a part of the explanation.

The organizer has been optimized twenty years ago to display very quickly a whole page of thumbnails to browse very rapidly accross thousands of images in the catalog. Those thumbnail files are stored in the catalog in 360 x240 pixels only. If you set your thumbnail slider for a single image in the browsing space, immediately your thumbnail is enlarged to fill that space, which looks fuzzy; then the image itself is opened and displayed full resolution like in the editor. So, the question is if it takes too long to display the real image after the thumbnail. If you right click and choose 'Update thumbnail", do the selected thumbnails display ok rapidly?

The F11 key shortcut opens full screen and full res images. This mode displays the images with all edit settings already applied. That takes more time to browse than with thumbnails especially for raw edits. When you browse in this mode, the organizer anticipate the display of adjoining files in your folders or selections, so that if you take the time to appraise an image, the next one is already ready for display.

I don't like much the F11 view, especially because it takes time to initiate. Generally I find it's faster to click 'Open in editor' to view a single image full res. (I always have both organizer and editor open at the same time).

[MelAOlsen]

Thank you Michel! Your answer is what I suspected but it is nice to have a great confirmation. I will just have to get used to it as I am to in love with this 4G monitor that going back would be a disappointment. Thank you again, and I have a blessed day!

[Greg_S.]

Just to add to Michel's response (and I don't know whether it will make any difference with a 4k monitor), it is possible to increase the resolution of the thumbnails.  Go to Edit>Preferences>Files:

While a larger thumbnail may take a little longer to draw, there should be no significant difference on a more recent computer.

Added:  On second thoughts, I may be wrong about this.  Michel, does this setting only apply to offline files?

[MichelBParis]

Yes, Greg.

This only applies to 'offline' files.

It's a feature which was important when external storage was mainly made on many CDs and DVDs. The idea was to keep reduced sized copies on the computer to allow organizing when the CD/DVDs were not connected. The 'proxy' was the catalog folder itself. The thumbnails are not stored as jpeg files, they are stored as 'binary objects' in the thumb.5.cache, which is another sqlite datatabase. Today, we tend to use only external conventional USB drives which are not considered as external media, or thumbdrives or cards, which you can consider as internal or external (you import either 'from camera or card reader' or directly from 'files or folders'.)

While most users love 4k displays, I would never use those for my long editing session. They are fine as displays even for many viewers and 4k is excellent for small displays on smartphones and tablets. However, for ergonomic viewing when photo editing, the ideal conditions are for 24 to 27" at a reasonable viewing distance. Even if my vision is correct for my age, I can't really distinguish the difference between HD and 4K in practical situations where I have to zoom and scroll frequently from 100% pixel view or more to full view (highly compressed even with 4k). I prefer a more affordable color calibrated display which does not require high end hardware. Also don't forget the issues which Windows users have with the display of fonts and icons on relatively small 4K laptop displays.

[Greg_S.]

Thanks, Michel.  In reasearching this issue, I came across a very old tutorial for an early version which suggested that the size of connected thumbnails could be changed.  The UI was different back then, but I think the tutorial was wrong.