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100% 72dpi is too small on Mac Retina Display

New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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hi, I'm working with a retina display macbook pro 13inc. I'm noticing that when I zoom in at 100%, I'm actually getting a 50% view. How do I adjust the screen view for retina displays?

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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It looks smaller than it is 1400x400px. That's exactly the problem

Ekran Resmi 2020-06-11 19.43.29.png

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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John T Smith — The script in the link will not help in this case. The script is for combinations of older Photoshop versions and Windows versions where UI scaling was not fully coordinated yet. But this question is about a Mac running recent versions of Photoshop and macOS where Retina/HiDPI already works properly.


mzkilci - You say it looks smaller than 1400 x 400 px. But because the pixels on a Retina desktop display are around 220 ppi, if you measure that image you will probably find that it is in fact 1400 x 400 pixels. Try this: Press Command-Shift-4 (the Mac shortcut for taking a screen shot of an area) and drag a rectangle matching the size of that image at 100%. As you drag, the pixel measurement next to the pointer will tell you how large the screen shot will be. It will probably be 1400 x 400 px.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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"I'm actually getting a 50% view."

No you're not.  Photoshop is a raster image editor and thus renders pixel for pixel 1:1.  It makes no adjustments for your hi-DPI device. You must do that yourself through your OS settings.  See HiDPI and Retina Display Support FAQ below. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/hidpi-retina.html

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator
Alt-Web Design & Publishing ~ Web : Print : Graphics : Media

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Nancy is spot on.

Photoshop is a professional pixel editor. 100% zoom does not refer to any physical size but refers to 1 image pixel mapped to 1 screen pixel. That way no scaling artifacts are introduced.

Other applications do scale up the image.

 

Dave

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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What you are seeing as a “50% view” is actually 100% as defined in Photoshop and other photo editors, where 100% means 1:1, or one image pixel to one screen pixel. 100% does not mean 100% real world magnification.

 

Over the last 30 years, 100% or 1:1 size slowly got smaller and smaller as screens went from 72 ppi in the 1980s, to over 100 ppi by the 2000s. Then, when Mac Retina displays (and HiDPI displays in Windows) came out, the resolution of computer displays suddenly went over 200 ppi. That resulted in 100% magnification suddenly looking around 50% smaller than before. But that is not wrong, as long as 100% means 1 display pixel to 1 image pixel. It’s just that the display pixels got a lot smaller, in fact about 50% smaller.

 

If you believe this is done incorrectly, unfortunately, if you decide to switch to just about any other Mac photo editor out there like Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, etc., you will find that they treat magnification exactly the same way Photoshop does. So one solution is to understand what 100% magnification really means: When 100% means 1:1 image to screen pixels, 100% will always depend on the ppi of the display, and will always look smaller on higher resolution displays.

 

Sure, it’s annoying. What I did for my 13" MacBook Pro is, in Photoshop, open Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, find the menu item View > 200%, and assign the Command-1 shortcut to that.

 

If you want 100% magnification to mean “actual size” as in the real world (which is a totally different 100% definition that is traditionally used in photo editors), reply and we’ll go over how to do that in Photoshop.

 

Also, note that an image you edit in Photoshop at 1:1 on a Retina/HiDPI display may look 50% smaller than when uploaded to the web. That is because web browsers typically adjust for Retina/HiDPI displays by enlarging images by 200%. However, this workaround means they are not using the full resolution of the display, while Photoshop is.

 

Finally, the fact that it’s 72 ppi is not important. If a 72 ppi image and a 300 ppi image have the same pixel dimensions (such as 800 x 400 px), they will be the same apparent size on screen at 100%, because of how 100% is defined as one image pixel to one display pixel.

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New Here ,
May 22, 2021 May 22, 2021

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thanks. I get all this and I've been using photoshop for many years but for online advertising and small formats such as 468x60 120x600 etc photoshop at 100% preview on my imac is so small it's unworkable unless I design at double the pixel size and then resize down. This seems insane as before retina display it was never an issue. The problem is on some graphic content that's detailed and fine you can't really trust what you're producing regarding web preview

 

please advise

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LEGEND ,
May 22, 2021 May 22, 2021

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Sure, so double the size. Retina was INVENTED so people like photographers would have fine detail shown in tiny pixels. That's why it is made and sold. Photoshop lets you work at that level of detail, and we sure would be flooded with complaints if it didn't show the detail people had paid for.

 

Again and again, we see people who seem outraged that they need to go to 200% to match the other apps that just double sizes. What's the big deal?

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Community Expert ,
May 22, 2021 May 22, 2021

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@james5C77,

It's all relative.  Your 226 dpi display is like an Olympic sized swimming pool compared to an average 96 dpi display which is more like a child's inflatable pool. Your image of 72,000 total pixels gets lost in the Olympic pool but looks normal in the kiddie's pool.

 

OPTION 1 :

Use the Navigator panel in PS to work on finer details.

 

OPTION 2:

Increase magnification with Cmd/Ctrl ++++ to make your postage stamp sized image appear bigger.  Revert to normal with Ctrl + 0 (zero).

 

OPTION 3:

Avoid using pixel-based raster images.  Switch to Illustrator and create vector graphics which are not resolution dependent.  SVGs are math-based and thus remain stable at any size without distortion or pixelation.  SVGs are ideal for icons, logos, trademarks, drawings, comics, cartoon puppets, text, infographics and other flat colored images.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_GraphicsSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator
Alt-Web Design & Publishing ~ Web : Print : Graphics : Media

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