Been away awhile 

Wondering why SOME of my image thumnails and some of my soft proof images look really bad? Some, not all look very rough but print out just fine. By rough I mean crunchy, low resolution, looks like someone rubbed sand on them type of image. 

This is what I mean. This image prints beautifully, smooth background, etc but in the previews it looks horrible.

I see that your screen snap is showing the Page Editor screen which shows a very low resolution image there too.
There's a button on the right side of that screen that currently says, Thumbnail and Small image.

Either click the HQ button or click that Thumbnail and Small box and change to All Images.

What do you see now?

Fred

The HQ button basically looks the same, crunchy 

That leaves us with three options.
Either the image is grainy because the camera caused it, or you presharpened the image somewhere before QU, or you didn't de-bone the bird before you ate it, and it was "crunchy"

Iso 400 shouldn't be a problem with most cameras.
If the Hi resolution image is grainy, then the print should be grainy too.
That's what bothers me. It doesn't fit. Something is wrong with the information.

Fred

Were the originals shot as Raw images?
Do you have the originals? If so, simply put that image into Qimage without pre-processing, and you will find the answer.

Fred

That's not what I am saying at all.
What I am trying to impart is this:
(First of all, I suggest a click on VIEW at the top of the Main screen, and then REBUILD thumbs. (Not refresh; REBUILD!)

Just in cast there was a problem with the thumb quality or even the monitor profile.
The reason Terry and I go back time and time again to using Qimage a problem solving tool is because it can be.
We do not know what you, or any other person does to his or her images before he/she tries to print them from Qimage. Then when there is a problem to solve, we can use Qimage as a starting point (even from the RAW image or a JPG from the camera) and know that we, Qimage, Fred or Terry will not spoil the image. We also get a level point from which to start to help.

Your complaint was that the thumbnails and the preview panel were "crunchy" or sandy looking.
You also said,
Since Qimage uses a low resolution image for thumbs and the previews (for speed), it becomes likely that you have a Thumbnail resolution problem, a thumbnail Quality setting problem or a lot over sharpened which looks worse in the low resolution samples.


Again the quote above tells us that you have a thumbnail problem.

Finally, we work our way down through the posts, and you say,
Now we have different data. The HQ button no longer uses the thumbnails.
You say the image looks "crunchy" even in HI Resolution.
So *that* says you over cooked something. The image itself is saved with too much noise or too much sharpening!


You had to have done it in Lightroom or some previous work station....
I have very little knowledge of Lightroom. I have no idea if you made layers and duplicated the unsharp mask layer (if that's possible) and when  you saved the TIF it added too much.
I have no clue.

I do know, however, what Qimage does with an image, and should you be kind enough to email one image to me (Original image), we could see what happened in an instant.
Qimage never alters the image. So whatever either of us does with the image, is easily tested and returned to original.

Remember, we only have your information that you give us from your posts.
That's why I ask for a test image. When the information from your posts has contradictions or doesn't point to a conclusion.
If the print looks good, no speckles, but the HQ button shows speckles, then I almost have to ask what printer and what paper?


Just trying to help!!


Fred

Thanks for you input, and Terry's.  I looked at the full screen image and although you can see grain it is a really fine grain and in print and looks great.

1:1 screen shot.




On the next two images, if I used the scroll wheel back and forth I could get the image to display in "crunchy mode" and "normally" at the same image size on the screen.  I do this via cntl x for full screen, then scroll wheel to a smaller size then rock the wheel back and forth and sometimes the image will look crunchy and sometimes normal.

Crunchy


Normal


The grain that you see in this image is more like what the grain looks like in print.