Screenshots of Adobe CC running on iMac 5k display?

[Jack Burton]

Hi everyone -

Just reaching the end of life for my franken-PC. I'm tired of dealing with it. THinking of either getting a new monitor for my PC and living with it for a while, or just giving up on this train wreck and getting back on the mac.

Only thing is - do apps like After Effects, Photoshop, and premiere look super tiny on the 5k display? I fooled with one at Best Buy, but I found the monitor settings in display preferences confusing (looks like X resolution). Nothing looked like native resolution - is it scaling interfaces of programs but displaying the artwork/video/viewports at a 1:1 ratio?

If anyone has any screen grabs, or could take some, or could point me in the right direction to a resource, it would certainly help me out in making a decision. I don't know if my old eyes can take super tiny displays, but I wouldn't mind a lot of extra screen real estate in After Effects. I'm caught in the middle between a need for resolution and a need for readability.

Also, any rumors on when the imac 5k is due for a refresh? I wouldn't mind more video hardware choices, especially nVidia based.

 

[andy9l]

You don't need to touch the display settings.

With Adobe and other up-to-date apps, video and image content will be shown in native 5K resolution whilst the application they sit within will remain at scaled size (same size as on your PC screen physically, but twice as sharp).

For example, Photoshop will look like it always has done for you. However, when you open a 4K image, it will fit on the iMac screen at 100% zoom quite easily, whereas on your PC screen it would be absolutely huge and fall way off the screen.

Basically:

- leave the screen settings
- interface = normal size
- image and video = native resolution

 

[Jack Burton]

Thanks, Andy. This is exactly what I was hoping for!

I think I'm ready to leave Windows behind again after learning this.

 

[andy9l]

It is pretty neat. It's not without bugs at the moment, but they are relatively few and far between.

As for the next iMac update, it's all speculation. One would assume it would be October this year at the very latest. If you need a new computer today, now is not a particularly bad time to buy.

For your usage, a high end 5K iMac would be an excellent machine. I have no doubt.

 

[robgendreau]

He's so right. And the retina-ness applies to Lightroom as well.

Strangely, it doesn't work with Apple's preview. Actual size in that application is scaled.

It takes a bit to get unused to the "native resolution" idea and to ignore the resolution settings. Retina is a whole new way of experiencing displays, since we've now reached a sort of tipping point where the pixels have disappeared.

And BTW, even without using 1:1, using scaled images, they look great. I would NEVER have worked on scaled images before, but with this kind of sharpness, and using say a half or quarter size, or variations thereof, it's very doable.