Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I was in Lightroom on an image then I sent it over to Qimage to print but the image on the screen is not crisp kind of pixelated. Seems to print ok. Any idea why this is happening? I use an EIZO monitor and in LR in the print module the image is nice and crisp.

It sounds like Qimage is seeing a very low resolution jpg for the screen display. It has its own Hi resolution image for printing. (you said it printed fine)
If the thumbnail looks OK, right click on it and select REBUILD selected thumb

Did you export the image and the thumb? Just use the image. Qimage will make its own thumb.

I did try the rebuild thumb but the image is still not that great, from my perspective this image in Qimage should be the same quality as it is in LR correct?

It should be better...

Please check the resolution of the image by hovering the mouse over the thumnbnail and reading the bottom of the Qimage screen (HOT BAR)  for resolution.
Screen snap 079 shows the hotbar with resolution of the image that my mouse pointer is sitting on.  3120 x 4160
Can you shoot a snap of yours?

Screen snap 080 shows the thumbbails of an image at 3120 x 4160 and the image at 50 x 40 all pixelated.
078 shows the info box with an easier read by right clicking on thumb, and selecting Display image info
What is the suffix of the image?
Fred

The thumbnail info on the bottom of the screen says 6720x4480 and here is screen grab from it attached to show the poor image

It doesn't appear fuzzy in your screen snap, but one thing bothers me.
I see it's a .png file.
I have seen crazy behavior from .png files.
Try putting the image into the queue, as if you were going to print. Right click in the middle of the big live view screen and select CONVERT.
Create a TIF or a JPG from your png (You will still have  the png original) Not to worry, and run that image.
Please let us know.
Fred

The screen capture is the png the actual file on screen is a tif and that is fuzzy, my screen capture program does the png, one thing I did notice is that if I soft proof it the image becomes clear, hope that helps in resolving this issue?

With your settings in the Full Page Editor like mine, see snap, how does the image look?
Click HQ button or Soft Proof button, clears up?

Fred

No does not clear up the only way to get a clear photo is to soft proof from the main view screen.

Did you do what Mike explained? That was to go to VIEW menu, from THUMB QUALITY, select BEST. Then do Thumb size, and select the size you like. Mine is medium
Now REBUILD the folder of thumbs or selected thumbs.
Folder of thumbs is rebuilt from Thumb/Cache build menu at the top.
Selected thumbs are rebuilt from the right click menu on a thumb


Fred

Yes I did exactly and it did not resolve the issue. The only way that I see at this point is to do a softproof that way the image is nice and crisp but on the regular view screen the image is poor but prints fine. I have included the image information attached.

If your thumbnails are set to best quality, the only way you are going to see pixelated images is if you make a print crop that is a very tight crop (small portion of the original).  You can work with high res images though: click the "Edit Page" button under the live view and open the full page editor.  Set the "View" on the right side to "All Images" and the quality will be the same as soft proof but you can work on your pages that way.

Mike

Any chance that Mike or I can have a copy of the offending image? I see it is large but can be sent free using WE TRANSFER
My email is wathree.ssz@verizon.net
Fred

I can but I tried other images as well and they are same. I tried a Canon raw file and again in the regular view the image is fuzzy. In other programs the image is crisp and clean. I have sent one along anyway. I also did this screen capture in jpg so you can see the pixelation.

Yeah, that's not typical for what the preview looks like.  I've attached my screen shot for comparison.  The only way I can get a preview as pixelated as yours is if I use the print cropping tool to crop only a small portion of the image: at that point, you are cropping a portion of the small image that is cached for previews and it can turn pixelated if you use a tight zoom/crop on the print.  Let's make sure we are clear on the steps to make the live view the highest quality possible:

First set thumb quality (applies to all image types):

(1) Click View, Thumb Quality, and choose "Best Thumbnail Quality".

Next, set raw options (this applies if you are working with raw photos):

(1) Click Edit, Preferences, Raw Format Options.
(2) In the next to last setting near the bottom under Quality for Screen Views and Small Prints: set that to "Full".
(3) On the last option at the bottom under Raw Thumbnails and Cache: set that to "Cache w/Fast Thumbnail Priority".

After doing the above steps, go to the folder that contains the images you are about to print.  After the thumbs are displayed, click View, Rebuild Thumbs/Cache.  After that, the rebuilt thumbnails in that folder should show up without pixelization.  Again... as long as you are not defining tight print crops.

Mike

Yes your view looks great wish mine did that.

I followed each of your steps precisely and still my image is pixelated. In soft proof mode it looks good. I sent the file to Fred perhaps you have it but other files look the same way.

I passed your images along to Mike... It is still very early am here in Florida.
It looks fine here, butI need to investigate some more.   The wonderful detail is missing in the thumb, but I sort of expected that.
Mike will have the  answer.

(off the wall)  Far fetched....    Any chance you have a softener filter on in GLOBAL FILTER?

Thanks for your help in sending the images.
Fred

Your image does look more pixelated than I'd like.  It has to do with the resolution of the original vs the resolution of the live view images.  That particular combination produces some aliasing.  In the next version, I'll have it produce a higher quality preview if you select that "Best quality" thumbnail setting.  Keep in mind that Qimage has to be able to produce fast previews with potentially dozens of images on one page, so the priority is usability there.  In the live view, you are primarily judging print placement and cropping.  If you want to judge quality or how the printed page will look, you can use soft proof as you discovered as that is more for viewing a preview of the output.

Regards,
Mike

Ok great will look forward to the update but for now will use the soft preview for clarity.

2019.107 now has the improved quality live view and page editor (as well as improved thumbnails).  Just be sure to rebuild your thumbs in 2019.107: you can do that on a per-folder basis by using View, Rebuild Thumbs/Cache.

Regards,
Mike