Copy & Paste issues

[Wilschne]

When I am copying an image from one document to another in Photoshop CC the pasted image is not mainting it's size.  For example I have a document at is 2.25 inches square. I select all and choose Copy Merged.  I paste it into another document that is 8.5x11 inches with the same resolution. The copied image comes in much large than the original image. Screen shot shows the image pasted in behind three others I had pasted in and resized. 

I have checked and unchecked Resize Image During Place (General Preferences) and restarted PS each time with the same result. 

[JJMack]

Photoshop is a pixel editor copy and  paste copy and paste selected pixels.   Pixels are printed  the size the document Print resolution is set to the Image will have the same pixels in both documents.  However the image print size will be different if the document have a different Print PPI resolution. Copy and paste does not scale images. Place may scale images. 

Both your image  have the same print  resolution.  So your small 2.25x2.25 image will fill  a 5.0625 square inches  in your  8.5x11 image  93.5 square inch canvas.  If you paste your 8.5x11 into your 2.25 x2.25 document it will be clipped by its canvas size only a square  that is 5.0615 square inch of its 93.5 square inch area will be visible. 

The screen capture you posted show nothing.  There no layers palette, no history palette there is no information at all as what you have done what document were like that you used what scaling you may have done. On myWindows 10 PC I do not see problems with Copy and Paste in Photoshop.  CS2, CS3, CS6, CC 2014, CC 2018, CC 2019, PS 2020 or PS 2021.  PS 2021 has issues but not with Copy/Paste

[Wilschne]

I think I am following you but something changed recently. I never had this problem before.  I create documents at 300dpi all the time. They are different sizes depending on what I need them for.  I use the 8.5x11 inch document to print from so I place as many things into it I can.  

For example I have a template that is 9x4.25 inches. When I copy that into the same 8.5x11 document it comes in at the right size.  I created a new 2.25x2.25 inch document, also at 300dpi. When I copy and past into the 8.5x11 inch document it comes in much larger as I showed in my screen shot. I had to size it down. 

All three are created the same way as far as I can tell. However, the 2.25 inch one is new, the other two are copies of files that were created a a couple of years ago and saved with new names. I am going to test a few things by creating some new documents and see if they size differently when copy and pasted. 

[D Fosse]

Photoshop works with pixels only. Stop thinking in terms of sizes, and start thinking in terms of pixels. 

You paste into the existing pixel grid, pixel for pixel. If you paste 100 x 100 pixels into a 200 x 200 pixel base document, it will be quarter size.

Size is a derived secondary unit, a function of the pixels per inch number. That's how you translate a given number of pixels into a print size.

[Wilschne]

Got it. What I don't understand is why a file I made with PS CC 2019 at the same resolution has a different number of pixels than a file I make now with PS CC 2021. 

I made some new files to confirm. I made a new 8.5x11 300dpi file and the new 2.25x2.25 inch 300dpi file pasted in the correct size.  I pasted in the 9x4.25 300dpi file I used before and it was smaller in measurement.  

Why are the number of pixels so different between files I made with PS CC 2020 and PS CC 2021? I have changed nothing in the way I create my templates. 

[Bojan Živković]

"Why are the number of pixels so different between files I made with PS CC 2020 and PS CC 2021? I have changed nothing in the way I create my templates. "

They are not, everything is the same, same instructions are in both versions, perhaps you need to reset preferences what is general advice for all things weird in Photoshop.

[Wilschne]

I've tried everything.  The files that I made in 2019/2020 definitely have a lower pixel size than the ones I make now in  2021 even though I did the same thing - File/New - XxX Inches at 300dpi.  It was making me crazy copying and pasting between documents and ending up with some the right size and some too large or too small.  Now that I realize the number of pixels is different I need to know why and how to correct it. If I can't find an answer I am going to have to make all new design files and I'm not looking forward to that. 

[Bojan Živković]

So far I understand that you are copying after creating selection and using Copy Merged, is that right?

In meantime, can you provide us with two sample documents? If you can please upload them somewhere to check on our machines.

[D Fosse]

Again, forget "x" inches at "y" ppi for a second.

How many pixels? Give us pixel numbers, please.

[JJMack]

We keep telling you its Pixels. 300 px is 1" or 30' the length depends on the PPI used 300 pixels per inch,   1 pixel per foot.  Print Resolution is Pixel size. The density pixels are printed at.

[Wilschne]

I figured it out. Previously I was creating files in inches and setting them at 300dpi/inch.  PS CC 2021 default changed and sets it to 300dpi/cm which is 762dpi/inch.  Just a simple change made in the default settings that I missed.

Thank you all for your help. 

[Andreas Leou]

Edit / Preferences / General / Uncheck "Resize image during Place".

Back to normal  😉

[Jade73]

You are 100% right that something has changed with the latest Photoshop.  I have been having the same issue but have been too busy to look into it until now.  If I use copy merge to copy several layers of an image and I do a paste into a new document - Photoshop does not keep the same image dimensions but just creates a document to place it in that is the same size as my most recent document that I opened (i.e. NOT the size of the copy merge I just created). This is a NEW problem.  Additionally, I can no longer copy and paste from other applications into Photoshop like I used to be able to. I used to be able to copy an image right off the web or from 'preview' or other pdf editor and then paste it into Photoshop. That is no longer possible.  This bug causes a LOT Of waste time trying to remember file sizes so I can create the right size to  paste into for merged or having to download images and then opening them instead of just doing simple copy and paste. Lot's of little bugs in this Photoshop version. 

[D Fosse]

Nothing has changed and there is no bug. In a copy/paste, there is no "size". The pixel grid in the pasted file aligns with the pixel grid in the base document, pixel for pixel. That's all that happens.

The base document's physical print size is determined by whatever pixels per inch number you assign. Pixels per inch. That's the size.

[Jade73]

I am pasting from one document that has the same pixels per inch as the other.  As a user of Photoshop for over 20+ years using the same functionality day in and day out I can say with certainty that it is definitely behaving differently than it used to with this latest update. 

[Jade73]

I am on a Mac BTW, so maybe that is part of the problem. I am seeing a lot of people on these discussions who are Mac users having copy and paste issues.  

[Bojan Živković]

Perhaps Mac is problem, testing on Windows and everything works fine. Photoshop 24.7.0 Release.

[D Fosse]

Still entirely normal. I'm guessing you have a retina screen, and you're pasting from outside Photoshop?

All consumer-oriented applications, including all the native Mac apps, scale up 2x when they detect a high density screen. What happens is that one image pixel is represented on-screen by four screen pixels.

This has been the industry standard workaround ever since retina/high-resolution screens came on the market. This ensures that the same material can be used whatever screen technology the user happens to have. Without this scaling, images that appear at a certain screen size on a standard screen, would be tiny on a retina screen since the high pixel count means each physical screen pixel is that much smaller.  In effect, we'd need two separate internets.

Photoshop, as a critical image editor, obviously can't do that. Photoshop displays correctly: one image pixel represented by exactly one physical screen pixel.

That's what you're seeing.