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Confused about scaling on 5k iMac

I just got my 5k iMac yesterday. This is my first Mac computer.

I am confused about screen resolution and the scaling options. I am confused by what, if anything, I am actually viewing in 5k resolution. From the reviews I read, I had the expectation that text and menus would be scaled (doubled by default) but that photographs and videos would actually use all 5k pixels at 5k resolution. Is that correct?

I opened an image, a little larger than 5k in size with the default program (preview). I used the command 0 to make it show actual resolution, and it only showed half of the image, so it doesn't seem to be using the 5k to view images.

I then tried to open the image with iPhoto. In iPhoto, it has a mangification glass that I can slide, but how do I view which magnification percentage I am at? Anyway, my initial impression is that iPhoto is probably not opening the image at 5k resolution either.?

I tried opening a 4k youtube video but was not sure if I was actually seeing it in 4k or how to tell? That is probably doubled pixels too, so 2.5k instead of 5?

Overall, I think I would like larger text and icons but I want to see the images in full resolution. The "dashboard" widgets seem to be overly small for such a large screen.

My main question is what if anything (other than the desktop background) appears in full 5k resolution with the default settings in the included Mac applications? Is there an easy way in iPhoto or Preview to know what magnification of the image I am viewing? In the settings, one can toggle between different resolutions, but full 5k is not a choice. What screen resolution settings are most people using? How do I open an image and view it at 5k resolution?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

Posted on Nov 27, 2014 8:01 AM

23 replies

Cbuzio

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2016 8:33 AM in response to dialabrain

Interesting! I think I am sloooowly starting to understand the whole resolution thing. Thank you for the patience!

I suppose what confused me is that I used to have a non-retina display, and photoshop and preview would interpret the image in a similar way, with similar perceived sizes.

Now they are very different but photoshop shows it smaller and sharper, which led me to conclude that preview must have some setting I cannot find to change the resolution or the way it concludes what the "actual size" is.

dialabrain

Level 10

129,413 points

Feb 28, 2016 8:38 AM in response to Cbuzio

No particular setting to change how Preview displays other than the two we talked about. Preview is sort of self-explanatory I think. It was never meant to be a high end viewer or graphics program. Just a general use program that can open images and PDFs etc.

Jun 23, 2017 11:40 PM in response to Cbuzio

I'm sorry to dig up this old thread, but the problem still exists and I thought I'd chime in instead of starting a new thread.

I got my 5K iMac a couple of days ago, the newest i7 version. And just as you guys, I've found that the scaling is very weird. I first noticed it when I tried to play some of my own 4K movies, recorded from Panasonic and Sony cameras, and saw that they didn't scale correctly. I've tried both VLC and Quicktime Player.

In Quicktime Player, the Inspector (or what it's called in English; I'm using the Swedish version) said correctly that the format was 3840 x 2160 pixels, but the "actual size" was "1920 x 1080 pixels (half resolution)"..! On the screen, the Quicktime window took up around 75 of the screen, which should be pretty close to 4K resolution. But Quicktime didn't know.

I then tried to create an image from scratch in Photoshop, making it 2560 x 1440 pixels – or exactly one quarter of the screen resolution of the 5K screen (which is 5120 x 2880 pixels). In Photoshop, the image (when viewed at 100 percent) took up one quarter of the screen. Just as it should be.

I then exported it as a png image file and opened it in Preview. Even though I chose "actual size", the image seemed to fill the entire screen. I've tried using both options that Cbuzio linked to previously, but with the same result.

This is infuriating! If I have an image or a movie that's 100 by 100 pixels, I expect it to cover 100 by 100 pixels on the screen at 100 percent, or "actual size", or whatever it is called by each program. Just like I can with my four year old iMac (with no Retina screen), and every other computer I've ever owned before.

There is nothing good about this.

/ Kiwi

Jul 1, 2017 7:01 AM in response to axfield

OK, so this is what I've found:

If you press the Option key while you click Scaled in System Preferences > Displays, you will see additional resolutions – including 5120 x 2880. If you choose that, everything will become small, but the things that are supposed to be 100 by 100 pixels are in fact 100 by 100 pixels.

The five different resolution schemes (with the 3rd (or middle) being the standard), is almost all about the GUI (menu bar, icons, etc). Number 3, 4, and 5 all seem to have the full resolution (5120 x 2880). Number 1 and 2 do change everything to a lower resolution.

But why can't Apple give us the best of both worlds? The best solution IMHO is to have a choice where the GUI is scaled up, while each program decides for itself if it's going to scale up or not. Or is that already the case, and the programs don't make any use of it? Either way, it's still extremely irritating.

Alas, it's no better on the "other side". A friend of mine says he experienced the same with a 4K screen and Windows 10: A 4K movie was rescaled, even though the screen should've handled it just fine.

Are retina screens still too new to use properly?

/ Kiwi

axfield

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2017 7:22 AM in response to SwedishKiwi

Thanks for this useful information! It turns out that (indeed) the native resolution makes everything extremely small, so maybe not so practical, but at least one does have the choice between several resolutions and it can be handy one day.