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Skypat · Apr 12, 2004, 04:26 PM

Hi
I am using iPhoto 4 on a PowerBook 12 (1 Ghz). Every time I click on a picture to open it, it opens in a new window and the pictures get a little fuzzy. Then I can resize a little bit the picture and it gets less fuzzy.

I would like to see my picture perfectly clear when I open it in a new window.

Can I do that ? Do I need to change something in my configuration ?

Thanks

fetopher · Apr 12, 2004, 06:16 PM

I've noticed it too, I'm on a 15" PowerBook here. I went in a changed the font display smoothing to strong/medium/light in the appearence prefs. It didnt fix it. It must have something to do with the resolution of the laptop screens. My 23" HD Cinema display doesn't fuzz it up.

Skypat · Apr 13, 2004, 02:23 AM

Anyone else notice the problem ?

Thanks

Skypat · Apr 26, 2004, 09:41 AM

Actually this does not happen neither with my Apple Studio 17" LCD nore with another photo software ... so can someone please tell me how I can change that problem ?

Oneota · Apr 26, 2004, 11:54 AM

It seems to be iPhoto blurring the photo on purpose - maybe to make it look more "real" or something. At any rate, I think it's supposed to happen, whether we like it or not. Doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off.

fetopher · Apr 26, 2004, 01:20 PM

It seems that when you prepare the photo for email, web, etc... the image is no longer blurred. I suppose it's supposed to be this way. Ah... I think I know what it is. Whenever you print something, you lose sharpness. To compensate, Apple chose to show you how the photo would look if you printed it out, not how the photo looks as you took it. You could go into Photoshop and do an unsharp mask.
Make sense?

Skypat · Apr 26, 2004, 02:40 PM

I guess that if the blurring was made to show people how the picture will look like when printed, then the effect would appear on bigger screens like my 17" LCD as well ...

I think this is ennoying. Apple advertised the PB 12" as a perfect notebook for pro-photographers. I really don't see a pro using a programs that blurs the picture "on purpose". I would prefer to see all the details of my pictures.

dfiler · Apr 26, 2004, 02:56 PM

Forgive me if this is just restating the obvious...

iPhoto loads images initially at a very low resolution. Given time, it will update thumbnails to the maximum possible detail at a given size. It is most noticable on slow machines with little memory as it is an attempt to decrease the amount of information buffered for quick scrolling.

fetopher · Apr 26, 2004, 04:03 PM

Originally posted by dfiler:
Forgive me if this is just restating the obvious...

iPhoto loads images initially at a very low resolution. Given time, it will update thumbnails to the maximum possible detail at a given size. It is most noticable on slow machines with little memory as it is an attempt to decrease the amount of information buffered for quick scrolling.

No, that's not quite what we are talking about.
I tried the same thing on my Apple 23" Cinema HD monitory and sure enough, it blurs it. Not as much as on my 15" Powerbook, but there is still some blurring. I think the reason may be that the laptop screens are sharper (higher ppi) than the Apple monitors. Hmm.... No, that doesnt sound right. As far as professional photographers go, I dont think any would be using iPhoto instead of Photoshop. And, even if they were, they would understand the loss of sharpness when going to print.

f1000 · Apr 27, 2004, 05:45 PM

Originally posted by Skypat:
Every time I click on a picture to open it, it opens in a new window and the pictures get a little fuzzy. Then I can resize a little bit the picture and it gets less fuzzy.

iPhoto anti-aliases a picture if that picture is resized from its original resolution.

Anti-aliasing is necessary in order to eliminate the jaggies. Apple simply needs to use a better anti-aliasing algorithm.

f1000 · Apr 27, 2004, 05:56 PM

Originally posted by fetopher:
My 23" HD Cinema display doesn't fuzz it up.

That's because a 23" HD Cinema display can usually show an image at its full resolution, which means that iPhoto doesn't have to anti-alias the image.

f1000 · Apr 27, 2004, 06:06 PM

Originally posted by fetopher:
Whenever you print something, you lose sharpness. To compensate, Apple chose to show you how the photo would look if you printed it out, not how the photo looks as you took it. You could go into Photoshop and do an unsharp mask.
Make sense?

A modern printer has a higher dpi than a monitor, and often has a higher dpi than even a digital photograph.

Since a printer can always print out a higher resolution image than a monitor can display, there is no reason for iPhoto to blur an image to show how it would look when printed.

iPhoto anti-aliases a resized image to minimize jaggies.

fetopher · Apr 27, 2004, 06:18 PM

Originally posted by f1000:
That's because a 23" HD Cinema display can usually show an image at its full resolution, which means that iPhoto doesn't have to anti-alias the image.

Should of thought of that. Thanks.

thePurpleGiant · Apr 27, 2004, 08:01 PM

It's just anti-aliasing the image, sicne you are viewing it scaled down from its original res. Preview does this also, but seems to have a 'nicer' antialiasing that is less 'fuzzy'. Perhaps Apple will include a less intrusive filter next time.

Skypat · Apr 28, 2004, 08:12 AM

Originally posted by thePurpleGiant:
Perhaps Apple will include a less intrusive filter next time.

Yes that would be nice. Anti-aliasing looks much better in Panther than it does on Windows. But it has ennoying side effects (pictures). I noticed the same thing in "Preview". I know I could correct the anti-aliasing earlier but I don't remember how. It is not in the anti-aliasing menu (for CRT, LCD, etc.).

On the contrary, other programs don't do that abusive anti-aliasing. That is the strange ...