Photoshop CC, no icons

[Kurt Lang]

Just installed as many of the CC apps as I could in Snow Leopard, 10.6.8. Photoshop CC will not save desktop icons for any file type. I left Photoshop CS6 on the drive and it still works perfectly to local drives and our server. I have the preferences for CC exactly the same as CS6, but CC never saves an icon. Anyone else seeing this?

[scamper-beckon]

Here’s something interesting.

I’m presently running a CC trial at work, and, sure enough, white icons with white borders. I tried all the suggestions on this thread, to no avail.

But, watching a new file write to the Finder, I noticed something that hasn’t been mentioned here: the icon would briefly display with the correct thumbnail before turning white. It was as if the OS were overwriting the PSD icon. (Flat files, like TIFFs, work just fine.) So, just out of curiosity I went to the Finder’s View Options (Command-J) and dragged the Icon Size slider. I always have my icons set to 192x192, but as soon as I hit 188x188 or smaller, they draw correctly. Just as they did in CS6, that is. In other words, without changing any other Photoshop preferences, I got my icons to look as they should be making the Finder icons smaller. At least for now.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to blame Adobe when it comes to gripes. They lost me as a customer (at home) when they went to a subscription model, and I won’t be coming back. But in this case ChrisCox may be right in pointing the finger at Apple. If I changed an OS X setting to get things working, then, logically, I have to point the finger at OS X in this case.

(Granted, other people may be having other issues, and I don’t want to take away from those experiences. But do try futzing with your icon sizes... it may work for you as it has for me.)

[johnrellis]

I noticed something that hasn’t been mentioned here: the icon would briefly display with the correct thumbnail before turning white. It was as if the OS were overwriting the PSD icon. (Flat files, like TIFFs, work just fine.) So, just out of curiosity I went to the Finder’s View Options (Command-J) and dragged the Icon Size slider. I always have my icons set to 192x192, but as soon as I hit 188x188 or smaller, they draw correctly.

Here's why that is happening: PSDs embed tiny JPEG thumbnails with a maximum dimension of 160 pixels. Quick Look will use those thumbnails for Finder thumbnail sizes of about 192 or 196 or smaller (on my machine it's 196).  When the Finder requests larger thumbnails, Quick Look will read the composite image provided by the Maximize Compatibility option.  If the composite image isn't present (because the option was unchecked and the image has more than one layer), then Quick Look will generate a white thumbnail.

Sometimes you see the tiny thumbnail quickly replaced by the white thumbnail.  This is an artifact of Quick Look's progressive rendering of thumbnails.  When you first visit a folder, Quick Look will display whatever thumbnails it has in its cache.  If those thumbnails are too small, it will then start generating higher-resolution thumbnails by reading the composite image data, and as each such thumbnail is generated, the Finder displays it.  Since reading the composite image data can take a relatively long time for large PSDs, it can take several seconds or more for a folder of large PSDs to replace the low-resolution thumbnails with higher-resolution ones.

[scamper-beckon]

John R. Ellis wrote:

PSDs embed tiny JPEG thumbnails with a maximum dimension of 160 pixels.

But isn’t the solution in that very fact? If we can somehow coax Adobe to save the thumbnails at larger dimensions, then we get our proper preview icons. Isn’t this what we’ve been asking for? I’ve merely worked around the present limitation by setting my Finder icons at 188x188, and they’re not nearly as sharp as the CS6 icons (still!) are.

(I still use CS6 at home, because I hate Adobe’s CC scheme, and it’s always nice to see proper full-resolution icons there, next to CC’s shoddy ones.)

[johnrellis]

Storing higher-resolution thumbnails/previews would improve the situation.  There are at least two somewhat separable issues on Mac OS: Thumbnails and previews for PSB files, and thumbnails and previews for PSDs and PSBs that don't have Maximize Compatibility selected.  I'll follow up soon with details about how to address both issues at low cost.

[kythuatmang_net]

Yes, it seem to be the good solution!

[johnrellis]

Since Adobe and Apple each refuse to implement PSB thumbnails and previews for Mac Finder, I've implemented a Quick Look plugin that provides them. The plugin handles both PSBs and PSDs, and compared to the default Mac previews, it is up to ten time faster on very large PSDs. The plugin also shows low-quality previews and thumbnails for files saved without the Maximize Compatibility option (as compared to the default Mac previews, which are blank).

The plugin is currently in beta, and you can try it for free:

http://www.johnrellis.com/photoshop/psbquicklook.htm

I'm not an expert Mac programmer, so the plugin very possibly has bugs at this stage. (I'd greatly prefer that Adobe or Apple, who do have expert programmers, provide this functionality.)

[Kurt Lang]

That is a great start, John! You almost had me plunking down $9.95 right away. The only thing stopping me was when I bring the non Max Comp files into Media Pro, I get blank icons there. PSD and PSB images do work in the Finder with your plugin active, but doesn't help the cataloging software (drat!). Would have been nice to start drastically cutting down the size of these file types again by eliminating the hidden flattened layer.

[johnrellis]

PSD and PSB images do work in the Finder with your plugin active, but doesn't help the cataloging software (drat!).

I'm not familiar with Media Pro, but I'd guess they use their own code, rather than relying on OS X Quick Look, for producing thumbnails and previews.

Would have been nice to start drastically cutting down the size of these file types again by eliminating the hidden flattened layer.

In a few days, I'll post a technical proposal for what Adobe could do to improve this at very low cost.

[johnrellis]

Here is a detailed proposal for how Adobe can provide thumbnails and previews for the OS X Finder and open/save dialogs, at low engineering cost:

Providing PSB/PSD thumbnails and previews for OS X

[Kurt Lang]

Nice work on the outline, John!

I truly hope Adobe implements it.

[gener7]

Works just fine on Yosemite. You have a customer.

PSDs always worked on my Mac, but PSBs has been elusive.

Gene

[bellevue scott]

Thanks John. I'll give it a try. I'm happy to pay for a plugin like this because this silly thumbnailing issue has plagued us for years now, across several versions of PS and several MAC OS versions. It's absurd.