# Lightroom Scaling Issue on Retina Display



## Swphoto (Apr 13, 2014)

I started a topic regarding the Lightroom GUI on retina screens on the Adobe forum. Have any of you found a way around this, or do I need to put in a feature request with Adobe?

Does anyone know if it behaves similarly on a Windows box running a display with similar pixel density to a retina screen?

Details here: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom_panels_arent_scaled_properly_on_retina_display

BTW this is with 5.4, but the behavior was the same with all 5.x releases.


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## philmoz (Apr 13, 2014)

Swphoto said:


> I started a topic regarding the Lightroom GUI on retina screens on the Adobe forum. Have any of you found a way around this, or do I need to put in a feature request with Adobe?
> 
> Does anyone know if it behaves similarly on a Windows box running a display with similar pixel density to a retina screen?
> 
> ...



Retina displays on the Mac work a bit differently than anything you'll find on Windows.

The native pixel resolution of your 13" Retina display is 2560 x 1600; but at this resolution fonts and stuff get very very small.

So the Mac defaults to the 'Best for Retina' resolution which on your Mac will be equivalent to a 1280 x 800 pixel display as far as font size and scaling; but everything looks crisper and cleaner because the Mac can do nice scaling and anti-aliasing.

The next part of the picture is that apps can be 'optimised' for Retina display. What this means is that the application knows it is running on a Retina screen and it can choose to use the scaled resolution or the native resolution for different parts of the user interface. LightRoom is optimised for Retina - it uses native resolution for the main image display; but uses scaled resolution for the rest of the user interface. This ensures the fonts and sliders are legible and usable; while having the maximum number of pixels available for the image.

So when you run LR at 'Best for Retina' resolution the font size is like you are running on a 1280 x 800 screen, so the panels take up proportionately more space, than on a 1920 x 1200 (or 2560 x 1600) screen.

In the Display settings on the Mac, you can choose the 'Scaled' resolution setting for the Retina display.
See if there an option between 'Best (Retina)' and 'More Space' - this should give you a scaled 1920 x 1200 equivalent resolution - however you may find the fonts too small on the 13" screen (I use this resolution most of the time on my 15" MacBook Pro).

You could also try the QuickRes app which allows you to choose other resolution options.

Phil.


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## Swphoto (Apr 13, 2014)

Hi Phil - thanks for this explanation, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Per the advice on the thread at photoshop.com, I've tried the scaled option in the display settings with the slider far right (more space), and it does exactly what I want it to do with Lightroom. Unfortunately I'm afraid it's going to affect performance, but I'm willing to try it. The other downside is that it will affect more than just LR.

I wish that Adobe would provide a setting so that we could take advantage of the retina screen for the full LR interface, and not just the image display - instead of needing to change an OS setting. It just seems to be a very inefficient use of space as-is.

Do you agree that this would be a valuable improvement, or are you satisfied with your current scaling solution?


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## Swphoto (Apr 13, 2014)

The other issue with this scaled mode is that I only get 1680x1050 displayed in the image window @ 1:1 in the image window when full screen.

I want to have the proportional panels and the nice retina-optimized image display as well. Looks like that will require some changes to Lightroom.


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## philmoz (Apr 13, 2014)

Swphoto said:


> The other issue with this scaled mode is that I only get 1680x1050 displayed in the image window @ 1:1 in the image window when full screen.
> 
> I want to have the proportional panels and the nice retina-optimized image display as well. Looks like that will require some changes to Lightroom.



Can't say whether Adobe will change LR - the current system works ok for me.

QuickRes also has a menubar tool for quickly changing resolution between whatever presets you set up.
It might also give you more resolution options than the Apple settings.

Phil.


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## Swphoto (Apr 13, 2014)

Looks like they changed my thread from a question to idea - feel free to vote for it if it would help you out as well.


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