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frostlk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2012
5
1
As I'm totally overdue for an upgrade, I've been reading the forums on and off since the launch of the new MPB(r) line.

I found answers to most of my questions, but I'm pretty unclear on a thing or two. Tried asking around, but got no clear answers so far.

To put it simply, my situation is the following:

The nature of my business makes me depend heavily on my clients seeing the photos I upload or send being as close as possible to the original colour and sharpness seen on the monitor I edited them on. Small differences can have massive impact here – they can literally make or break a deal.

Would I be correct in assuming that pictures that were edited – optimized – on a retina screen wouldn’t suffer in sharpness when seen on other, lower resolution screens?

For a specific example, let’s say I edit and export a low-res photo ready for the web or e-mail – say a 500 x 500 or 1000 x 1000 px image. If the photo looks sharp on a retina it was edited on, will it look just as sharp on standard lower resolution panels?

In other words, can I assume that beyond modifications of whites/blacks/contrast photos from a retina screen wouldn't suffer in sharpness when sent to other lower DPI screens?

Also, another question, but a bit less urgent… Is there a way of encoding colour profiles/exact colour coordinates into a picture, so as to make the colours appear equal on all screens? In essence, force a screen (through a browser) to show the colour coordinates that were seen on the one the picture was originally edited for colour? Of course, allowing for different brightness settings and contrast.

I’m not that apt screen-wise and that’s something I’m working to change. So helping me out with this, if possible, would really be appreciated.
 
I can't answer your second question, though my guess is no. (That'd be awesome, however)

As for the first question. It depends. Imagine you created a 1000x1000 pixel image in photoshop, and your mac is setup at best for retina setting (1440x900) That means that you've really created a 4000x4000 pixel image which is being displayed like a 1000x1000 image. In order to get pixel for pixel conversions, you must work at the native resolutions.

When you're working 1:1 a 1000x1000 pixel image is going to be displayed massively larger on, say, a native 1440x900 display than it will look on a native 2880x1800 display. OR they will be the same size, IF you're retina is set to scaled 1440x900 (In this case the photo will be sharper)
 
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So in other words, forcing a native 2880 x 1800 through SwitchResX or taking the Bootcamp way to 2880 x 1800 would give equivalent pixel-for-pixel density/photo sharpness as there's no virtual scaling, right?

And using Best for Retina or 1920 x 1200 would produce images that might look sharp on those modes, but will be fuzzier on lower native resolutions (on other monitors)?

It's not so much about the real estate size at which it's displayed on other monitors - although you certainly make a point there. More about the sharpness differences because of all the scaling going on.

Basically, I'm torn between a high end MBP (1680 x 1050) and a RMBP. I'd go for the latter, but I can't have the pictures looking fuzzy on other screens just because they were originally optimized on a Retina on which they might have seemed sharp because of denser pixelation. If I understood you correctly, it means I'd have to go with an inferior screen in order to optimize sharpness for other such displays.

Thanks a lot for taking the time!
 
If a picture looks sharp and crisp on a retina display, the logical conclusion is that it has to look sharp on a normal display too, since for retina you need much more pixel at the same size to make it look sharp.

An example: You edit a picture in photoshop with 1440x900.
On retina it looks sharp as long as you don't max it to the whole screen size and thus stretched out to 2880x1800.
On a regular display it will look sharp because the picture is about the same size or only little smaller pixel-wise.

The best for retina and other scaling modes do not change anything about that behavior, they only change the size and scaling of the UI.

I'd advise you to go compare that live in an Apple Store
 
Guess I'll just have to ask them to let me play with editing and sending files between a MBP and a Retina.

Thanks a lot for the input!
 
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