Quality of Preview Images

First of all, I think the idea of previews, especially in relation to referenced files, is a great one. However I've come across an issue with the quality of these previews. many have alluded to the fact that versions exported as JPGs with resoluton set at 300dpi look soft and "jaggedy", whereas those exported with res of 72dpi look crisp and "un-jaggedy". Well the same appears to be the case for previews dragged to the desktop.
Having first noticed this I thought I'd compare apples with apples and so set preferences for the previews to unlimited in size and set the quality really high (10 or 11) - then I regenerated the preview for one image. I then dragged that image to the desktop and then for comparison exported the same version as full size JPG. Opened them both in PS CS2 and found that the exported version was at 72dpi and looked good, whereas the preview, whilst the same overall size, was at 300dpi and looked soft and "jaggedy" in places. Just wondering if other people see this as well.
I realise that the previews are only meant to be just that and only for certain tasks (browsing of off-line images, slideshows etc.) but I guess I'd hoped that the preview jpg would fulfill the same purpose as the embedded jpg preview in a DNG file, which is of such quality that it can be used in many instances as the final version.
Hope this makes sense.

I don't have any other ideas. It may be worth considering creating a phone case here:
http://store.businessobjects.com/store/bobjamer/en_US/pd/productID.98078100?resid=S6I@hgoHAkEAAGsiyVkAAAAR&rests=1282226845369
and get this investigated in more details and perhaps reported for a fix.
- Ludek

Similar Messages

Poor quality in preview - image is blurry

To date, I have not had any issues with the preview quality matching the actual image quality.
I have not made any hardware por software changes. Image files are in raw, jpg and tiff formats.
This issue appears to be only with raw files. The image in preview is extremely blurry, yet when the
file is opened it is tack sharp. I have checked all my preference settings and cannot figure out what is goin on.
I have tried purging and refreshing the cache and nothing seems to work.
I am running PS CS4
Windows Vist 64 Ultimate
Please help!
Update: I have changed raw preferences to apply to preview images only. The image qulaity only seems to improve when I
purge the cache for the slected images. I have the cache option for export to folder when possible checked. I have tried to purge the cache for
all images but the preview does not imprevoce unless I purge selected only.

This may be dumb but when it recently happened to me, I opened one image in adobe camera raw and increased the clarity by an inpercievable 1%. Then I hit done. Preview looked crisp again. I copied settings of that image. Then I highlighted all other blurry previews and pasted settings and they all became crisp again. Probabley just a quick fix that doesn't solve the problem but my knowledge is limited.
-mark

Image quality in Preview is extremely low

Hello,
I just recently switched to Mac from PC. Since using this Mac, I have had some issues with image quality. At first I thought it was just Photoshop, but I realized that the standard OS preview is also having display issues.
Basically, if I open an image in preview or in Photoshop to edit, the quality is low, but when I go to "save for web" and view it in the preview box, it looks perfectly normal. Website images look normal, and everything else that is vector looks normal. It's only pictures that are having this issue.
I have no idea what would cause preview images and photoshop files to look like this.
Here is a link to a picture of the problem. The left side is what the image looks like in Photoshop (and Preview) and the right side is the "save for web" box showing it looks normal.
Thanks in advance for any help or guidance someone may be able to offer.
http://www.soshanna.com/images.png

"...The left side is what the image looks like in Photoshop (and Preview) and the right side is the "save for web" box showing it looks normal."
Just the opposite on my Mac.

Aperture 3: low quality preview images

I don’t know if it's just a problem with my (new) Aperture Trial library or if it's a Aperture 3 bug:
The preview images Aperture 3 (trial) creates from raw files (in my case NEFs) are different from the JPEGs exported using the same JPEG settings.
I get the impression that the preview images don’t use all the adjustments applied to the raw files. They don’t have the moire reduction applied. The preview images of high ISO images have color noise, the exported images don’t have that color noise (the moire and noise settings of raw fine tuning are applied to the exported files but not to the image previews).
As the preview images are used for the Finder media browser, iLife, iPhone/iPod touch picture sync and other things the lower quality is not acceptable for me.
The preview images of Aperture 2 are identical to the exported JPEGs from Aperture 2 (using the same settings).
I use Aperture 3 Trial with a new trial library and a few hundred raw images just to test Aperture 3.
I already erased all preview images and rebuild the previews. I deselected using the embedded JPEGs from the raw files and I let Aperture rebuild the miniatures.

It seems that Ap2 syncs the previews to the iPhone... you have to clear the previous cached previews before it will load higher quality previews... anyhow, here is what I did... and photos look better on my iphone (not feeling motivated enough to verify if it is the same quality as iphoto sync)...
1.) change Ap2 prefs for "limit preview size" to "don't limit"...
2.) select all the photos in the album(s) you are want to sync, right click (ctrl click), and select delete previews...
3.) sync your iphone again...
if that doesn't work directly, you might need to uncheck sync photos to delete all photos on the iphone, but the ultimate goal is to ensure refresh with the higher quality previews...
Hope that makes sense or gets folks in the right direction... Apple really needs to put a check box in future version of itunes to sync full quality or something...

Preview image does not match content image

I have been using Bridge CS3 on MAC OS X 10.4 for about 2 years and have happily used it as part of my image processing work flow for thousands of images. A Canon 1DS is my main camera. Some time ago I have started using a Canon G9 in addition to the 1DS. So far so good.
Recently and for no reason I can see, Bridge has started displaying an entirely different image in the preview panel than the image selected in the content panel. This only seems to happen when selecting RAW G9 images in the content panel; the image shown in the preview panel will be a processed PSD file originally taken on the 1DS, or a 1DS RAW image (of an entirely different subject and processed months earlier). Needless to say, the file name format of RAW G9 images and processed / RAW 1DS images is entirely different. What ever Bridge is using to marry content image selected with preview image displayed, its getting it wrong. I should add that that this doesn't always happen all of the time - but it does happen about 25% of the time.
When I open in ACR I get the correct image. Also Bridge meta data refers to the correct image. It is just preview that is incorrect.
I have compacted and refreshed the cache. This resolves the issue the first time I go back in and select images from the content panel, but if I reselect, I'm back where I started.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
(in preferences against "When Creating Thumbnails Generate:" I have "Convert To High Quality When Previewed". Also I have both "Use Software Rendering" and "Use High-quality Previews" checked. I'm using Bridge CS3 2.1.1.9)
Many thanks, Tom

I had this with my Canon30D files as well. Spurious previews. I met with Adobe in person and went over this. I then moved to Bridge 3.x and went over why I needed high quality images and the person I was working with took many copies of my images to work on the high quality previews.
I found when I went to one of the 3.x versions of Bridge, this was corrected and I got to use High Quality without the spurious previews.
I did not have to give up my High Quality. At least not in my case.
I will note that I was on the prerelease member site and so did get Bridge 3.x versions that may not have made it to the public, hard to know as I have since moved on to CS4.
I remember a time when I could not use the global purge command and had to throw away all cache folders but this is no longer the case.
I think Adobe did all they could to fix this issue and still feel that it was incredible that they met with me several times and did conference calls with 6-7 engineers in the room with me and how they really seemed to want to know what was up.
So I, for one, cannot say there will remain a black eye. Adobe was very supportive with me.
b One thing though, I could not use "software render" ever with any success.

Can I extract an InDesign preview image?

Somehow one of my Tiff images that I use in InDesign has been corrupted. PS won't open it (it tells me that it is not a Tiff file), so the only record I have of the image is the preview that InDesign grabbed when I first imported the image. InDesign shows me the image when I go to that page, but when I try to export or print, InDesign tells me it can't find the file.
This image is not a very important one. It is a simple drawing I made in PS with a few fills and I'm quite happy with the quality that I see in InDesign. So I thought I'd try to export it to PDF and grab the image from within the PDF. Wouldn't export. OK, how about embedding the file and exporting? No go. Print? No.
That is my problem. Instead of me spending a few hours to redraw the image, given that I'm happy with what I see on screen, can I get the image out of InDesign?

Sandee, maybe I didn't do what you suggested. Let me use colours to explain what I did. I clicked on the white pointer, clicked on the image and it was surrounded by a brown rectangle, then I copied (or cut) and nothing got copied to the clipboard. I tried images that are OK, and still nothing happened. I am using CS, maybe that's why I can't copy a preview image.
Do you mean that when you copy an image with the direct selection tool, that you are copying InDesign's stored preview to the clipboard?
I also tried these:
1. Copying the image and pasting it back into InDesign CS. That worked, but I couldn't copy the second image to the clipboard.
2. Cut the image and repasted into InDesign. Again, I wasn't able to copy or cut to the clipboard.
Maybe trying to paste into Photoshop CS is where the problem lies. I'm going to download a trial version of CS3 to see if that works.

How does the quality of Previews effect slideshow performance?

Does anybody know how Aperture uses the Image Previews in a slideshow? The default image preview is half size and medium quality. Does this mean Aperture has to generate full size previews on-the-fly during the show?
If I changed to full-size previews at high quality am I helping Aperture display the images during a slidshow, or not?
Maybe Aperture doesn't use the previews at all during a slideshow and making a few hundred full-size previews would only be filling up my hard drive for no useful purpose.

And another quote from the fine manual:
Re Slideshow:
Rendering Preview Images
Aperture renders preview images in four situations:
When a library is upgraded—provided that the “Create previews for existing images” checkbox is selected in the Welcome to Aperture dialog
When an image is imported, or a version is created, rotated, or adjusted—provided that the Maintain Previews item is selected in the Library Action pop-up menu (with a gear icon)
When you Control-click the library, a project, or an image selection and choose Update Previews from the shortcut menu
Immediately before a slideshow, if the previews are not up to date, and the slideshow preset uses the Best quality setting
When rendering a group of preview images, Aperture uses the current application preference settings for compression quality and picture size, not the settings that were specified when preview rendering began. For example, if you have the quality set to 6, and then halfway through rendering you change the setting to 8, the previews that have not yet been rendered will be compressed at setting 8. Previously rendered previews are unaffected.
So, a high quality slideshow will require high quality previews, and indeed Aperture will render previews before rendering a slideshow, if the preview quality is not sufficient.
Regards
Léonie

Jpeg preview images -- how to check

Whenever I take my USB stick to a photolab to print images, if I don't save from Photoshop with "Image Previews" turned off (and most of the time I forget to turn it off), the dopy photolab machine recognises the previews as separate images and presents them as printable images (which they are not – they will print heavily pixellated).
Is there any way of checking in the Finder whether an image has a preview embedded – the kind that a photolab recognises – and be able to remove the preview if there is one? Or is this a Photoshop thing?
Note: this preview image I'm talking about does not appear to be the same preview as the Finder uses. Images saved from Photoshop with Image Previews turned on or off (Preferences > File Handling > File Saving Options > Image Previews > Never Save/Always Save), both have previews on the Desktop.

Thanks for the responses.
Kurt
"It's not clear what you're referring to when you say a Finder preview image; are you referring to QuickLook, which is a feature of Snow Leopard?"
I was not aware of QuickLook. The preview images are the ones that Finder shows you in "icon" format.
Fane_J
I'm using Photoshop CS4.
"…and another file containing the resource fork, with the same name and the prefix "._". This file is invisible…"
That's the one! I get two of every image and one of them has the underscore. The Fuji Lab warns you that it will not print properly, but it will allow you to print them. It has happened several times when friends want me to edit their images and I save them to their USB sticks – but forget to turn off preview. They get back to me complaining about the quality of the images when they choose the wrong one.
The Fuji Lab I am talking about is like this one: http://www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/images/fujifilm_DPC.jpg
The Fuji Lab also recognises every image in the trash. So if you have 500 images in the trash, and want to print only one image, you'll get 501 images to select from. What I mess.
I suspect it has something to do with the way PCs and the Fuji Lab interpret images, as a friend who uses a Mac to save Photoshop images onto a USB stick, and then takes them to the local camera club for projection, also complained to me (I was the one who suggested he use a USB stick) that the PC used for projection was picking up everything in the trash. He wanted to project half a dozen images, but several hundred came up.
Problem does not seem to occur if I burn to CD and use the CD to print or project images.
So the situation is: if I save images (preview on) from Photoshop onto a USB stick, the Fuji Labs recognise two images for each image, one of which has an underscore. All images in the trash are also recognised. Same seems to apply when read by a PC.
What does saving a preview image in Photoshop do anyway? Is it necessary? Maybe I should just turn off "Save Preview" and leave it off.
You mentioned FAT32. If I reformatted the USB stick to a different format, would that fix the problem?

Why are slide show images less sharp than preview images?

Dear Aperture users,
as documented in the manual and on Apple's support pages, Aperture 3 uses the preview images for its slide show. However, when I compare the quality of my preview images in full-screen mode with the quality of the slide show images, the preview images clearly look sharper.
Apparently, Aperture's slide show does not simply use the preview images as documented, but applies some sort of "adjustment", resulting in less crisp looking images. Since I haven't found any satisfying answer yet, my questions are:
1). What exactly is the adjustment that slide show applies to the preview images?
2). Can I somehow tweak this adjustment, say, with a terminal command?
Best regards,
Dirk61.

iPhoto can make two different types of slide show movies. It would help to know which you're making.
One is made via the File/Export to QuickTime movie and makes a 4 track file with a simple fade effect. These use the Photo-JPEG codec.
The other is a 30 fps "video" using H.264 video codec via the "Share" menu.
A third method (rarely used) is to Export to iDVD. This makes an absurdly high data rate MPEG-4 video. This is also found under the Share menu.
The MPEG-4 video codec also includes an "automatic" gamma correction feature which compensates for the gammas difference between Mac's and PC's.
Try one export to iDVD. Include your audio track prior but use a high quality (.aiff) sound file. No need to actually "burn" the DVD. You can even close iDVD after it opens. You'll find the new movie in your Users Movie folder.
Open it with QT Pro and export to a new .mov file. Adjust the data rate to something more reasonable and add some audio compression.
If the colors still look too dark you can use the built in Filters in the Export dialog. You can adjust B&C or HSL or even use ColorSync Profiles that can help correct the image quality (if needed).

Why are my icons of aliases does not preview images do not show?

When I create aliases to image files, only a few of them have a preview image in the alias icon and thumbnail view finderworks as good as the original image files? (OS X 10.6.7)

So yes, Including generation of icons in PhotoShop previewlets you see the icon image in the alias. Unfortunately, it also changes the quality of the previews of psd files in all windows of the Finder. So bad and so not well: (
Conwerts all the graphics files on my computer to themdodwać additional icons for aliases in my practice is not verydifficult.
But the same solution that you recommend actually working.
So thank you for this idea. remember it.
I know that once an alias in OS X has always had a picture ofwhy a request to Apple to not change something that is very good.
Work on the alias is very useful because of disk space and work with only one file in the form of various names, eg forcorrection, etc. .. Apple damage.

CS4 - Render preview image not scaled and position properly

Hi,
I'm trying to edit video captured with a GoPro in R4 mode.
It produces videos int he following format:
1280x960
1.0 square pixel
29.97 fps
I created a sequence corresponding to these settings. When no effects are added to the clip in the sequence, playback is fine in the sequence preview panel.
Things starts to get messy when I edit the clip. I get the red bar over the clip telling me I need to render a preview. And it's true, the playback skips and lag.
Here's some image of the result of the rendered preview:
when playing:
Image above shows both clips are at the same frame. No effects applied beside a title.
When not playing and clicking on the preview image:
Image is centered, but the ratio changed.
Investigating this problem showed em that the rendered videos changed resolution (which is logic), but they also changed the ratio of the original video!!
Original video is 1280 * 960 for a 4:3 ratio, while the preview videos are 720*480 (not 4:3).
Now, I tried changing the rendered preview settings here:
I had no success. The only codecs I have found to not change the resolution of the preview are "Uncompressed UYVY 422 8 bits" and "V210 10-bit YUV". These codec produce high quality videos (same resolution, high bit rates) as preview that my computer still have problem to play.
I'm not more advanced.
In my choices of settings, the only preview file format I have is microsoft AVI.
So,
1. Anyone ever had this problem? (and knows how to fix it )
2 How can I have more choice than AVI for a preview file format.
3. How can I install more preview codecs to test the different options?
4. Suggestions, comments?
Please, keep in mind that I'm still discovering adobe premiere. I started to play with it only 2 days ago. This is pretty much the last problem I have before starting to edit my footage.
Thank you all.
PS
Sorry if my english is not perfect, it's not my main langugage.

@John T Smith:
already searched for the answers, but withiout success.
@Ann Benns:
Thanks for the advice. I will try that tonight.
In the meantime, I found a post about a guy who had the same issue as me:
http://goprouser.freeforums.org/changed-question-about-adobe-premiere-resolution-t1492-20. htm
The post ends in 2010 with: "WOOHOO!! I finally got it (mysteriously) to work again!"
I will try to send him an email.
Thanks for your help. If anyone has more suggestions or ideaas, they are more than welcome!

Where are the preview images stored

When you launch iPhoto 8.1.2 and you can look at the preview of the photos in the main screen, Where are these file fragments located?
I have many original pictures that are deleted (yes they are gone and right now I dont care about that) but they still show up in the preview area of iPhoto.
This is a great thing for me since the originals have been deleted and I am trying to salvage whatever sanity I have left in these deleted photos.
I know the images for the previews are somewhere in this machine? is it in a database file or something that needs a special tool to extract the thumbnails?
And yes I have already looked in all the folders inside of the 'show package contents' window. So I am left to believe this is a hidden database preview structure since the photo is truly deleted but it shows up clear as day in the preview area of iPhoto. But of course when you click on the photo you get the big "EXCLAMATION POINT" telling you the photo is gone. Yes I know the photo is gone.
I just want to know where the preview images are stored so I can recover them.. (even if it is the lowest quality and only a few kb in size) its better than nothing as far as I am concerned.
Thanks

They are in the Data folder within the Library Package.
Regards
TD

When previewing images by clicking on the thumbnail in an Event for example, I've been finding that many images preview in a 'zoomed in' way so only a small part of the photos is previewed in a highly magnified view.

When previewing images by clicking on the thumbnail in an Event for example, I've been finding that many images preview in a 'zoomed in' way so only a small part of the photos is previewed in a highly magnified view.
Initially I could find no cause. Then I tried right click - Edit and on the affected images, always get this warning:
"Image Cannot Be Edited - This photo was previously edited with another application or with an early version of Iphoto. Duplicate this photo to edit it." and a "Duplicate To Edit" Button is displayed.
The external Editor defined for iPhoto is Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Now, I reckon the MUST be others out there affected by this same apparent Preview bug, yet my searches have not revealed any answers. Also seems impossible to find a contact number for adobe???
Thanks

Start '''[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode Firefox in Safe Mode]''' {web Link} by holding down the '''<Shift ''(Mac Options)'' >''' key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?

HT2531 Spotlight lists items and shows preview images. BUT what about showing the location address of an item in my computer. Especially important if I've put the item in the wrong folder and what to locate it without multi-steps. iMac OS 10.5 was more u

Spotlight lists items and shows preview images. BUT what about showing the path/location address of an item in my computer.
Especially important if I've put the item in the wrong folder and what to locate it without multi-steps. iMac OS X 10.5 was more useful.
Old OSX Spotlight function automatically displayed path/location within the machine: e.g. desktop/folder/sub-folder/item.
Can I make Spotlight show the path?

Press option-command and the path is displayed at the bottom of the little preview window. Press command-return and the enclosing folder opens.

Previewing images in forms 11g from the server

Hi All,
i need your help in this issue please
i've just migrated my application from forms 6i to forms 11g
there is a function in my application that i used that previewed images that exists on a network drive that are used in an image gallary
now i don't have this setup as the application is hosted on the weblogic server
i want an alternative method that i can use to preview the images from the server
the old way was:
read_image_file('.\default_image.jpg','any','preview.image_preview'); --this shows a default image if no image was selected
if :search_results.file_path is not null then
     read_image_file(:preview.image_path||'\'||:search_results.file_path,'any','preview.image_preview');     -- this shows the image that we retreived it's name from the database but it exists on the file system
end if;
i've configured the webutil but i don't know what method to use
also another functionality that i lost in the migration is opening a browser window to preview the final article that the editor entered using my application
the old way was:
declare
     url varchar2(1000);
begin
     url:='http://10.100.100.197:55/allcontent/allcontentimages/'||:SEARCH_RESULTS.FILE_PATH||'';
WIN_API_SHELL.WinExec('"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" '||url||'',
WIN_API.SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED,TRUE);
Exception when NO_DATA_FOUND then
MESSAGE('CAN NOT FIND THE FILE');
end;
now ithe WIN_API_SHELL is not working as i'm on the server side and i don't know the alternative
please advice

Hello Nivin
If you want to read an file from local drive or from netwrok drive then before reading images please make sure that do you have full rights and have you mapped that network drive .
after that you use read_image_file built in(). secondly you configure WEBUTIL package.
please visit the following link for configuring webutil.
I configured my webutil package from this link and its worked fine.
http://www.baigzeeshan.com/2010/01/open-file-dailog-box-example-using.html
thanks
G.Yassen

Quality of Preview Images

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