Images shrinking on program for M1 Macs?

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2020-12-01 07:42:10

Hi there, I had to return a M1 Macbook Air a few days ago due to some issues, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to get any screenshots of one issue I noticed for using it with Pixelmator Pro.

A huge thing I noticed with PixPro on the M1 MBA (and I'm not sure if other M1 models have this problem) is that any image I uploaded would basically shrink a tremendous amount. When I used the view feature and set it to 'actual size' the issue would still be there. Selecting 'Zoom to Fit' would just make the image super blurry.

I repeatedly had to compare how images looked in 'actual size' mode on both PixPro and the Preview app that's in every mac computer, to see if there was a difference. Preview showed the actual size of the image without it shrinking or having a downgrade in resolution. PixPro did not.

I'm not sure if this is a bug due to Big Sur (I'm using the updated version on PixPro on my 2015 Macbook Air and there's no problem there (I'm still using Mojave on that machine).

Has anyone else had this problem?
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2020-12-01 09:00:31

Hi! I think it's all down to the Retina display on the new M1 MacBook Pro. The pixels in these displays are twice as dense compared to the regular non-Retina displays (like the one on your 2015 MacBook Air, for instance), so images need to be double the size to look sharp. Pixelmator Pro automatically shows images optimized for this denser display to maintain their quality. In the meantime, the Preview app is not Retina-aware so at actual size, images look larger, just as they would on a non-Retina display. That said, the real size of the images is the same in both apps.
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2020-12-01 10:51:06

by Aurelija 2020-12-01 14:00:31 Hi! I think it's all down to the Retina display on the new M1 MacBook Pro. The pixels in these displays are twice as dense compared to the regular non-Retina displays (like the one on your 2015 MacBook Air, for instance), so images need to be double the size to look sharp. Pixelmator Pro automatically shows images optimized for this denser display to maintain their quality. In the meantime, the Preview app is not Retina-aware so at actual size, images look larger, just as they would on a non-Retina display. That said, the real size of the images is the same in both apps.
Is there a way to remedy that so I can view an image in its intended size through Retina? (I have bad eyesight so seeing every image get shrunk, especially small ones like 100x100 icons I like to make was pretty discouraging to see.
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2020-12-01 16:10:00

The image is actually being displayed at its intended size – on Retina and other high-res displays, images need to be 2 times the size to appear as sharp as they are on non-Retina at the same physical size. Our app workflow is optimized for working on Retina-ready images – i.e. what you see is 100% scale when displaying images on Retina. Conversely, you would export 0.5x versions of the same image for non-Retina. This is how we work on our web visuals and how people prepare Xcode assets. Well, except Xcode now also has 3x versions for the latest even higher-res devices. But the fact remains that viewing things the way Preview displays them presents a somewhat distorted view of reality.

A relatively simple workaround is to use the Command-+ keyboard shortcut to zoom in which will zoom your image to 200% and do what Preview basically does by default. So if you choose Actual Size then choose Zoom In, you'll get the Preview size.

P.S. Purely out of curiosity, on what kind of displays are your icons usually viewed? Does your workflow not involve differentiating between regular and high-DPI displays?
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2020-12-01 20:42:18

by Andrius 2020-12-01 21:10:00 The image is actually being displayed at its intended size – on Retina and other high-res displays, images need to be 2 times the size to appear as sharp as they are on non-Retina at the same physical size. Our app workflow is optimized for working on Retina-ready images – i.e. what you see is 100% scale when displaying images on Retina. Conversely, you would export 0.5x versions of the same image for non-Retina. This is how we work on our web visuals and how we people prepare Xcode assets. Well, except Xcode now also has 3x versions for the latest even higher-res devices. But the fact remains that viewing things the way Preview displays them presents a somewhat distorted view of reality.

A relatively simple workaround is to use the Command-+ keyboard shortcut to zoom in which will zoom your image to 200% and do what Preview basically does by default. So if you choose Actual Size then choose Zoom In, you'll get the Preview size.

P.S. Purely out of curiosity, on what kind of displays are your icons usually viewed? Does your workflow not involve differentiating between regular and high-DPI displays?
I'm currently waiting for a new 13inch Macbook Pro M1 to arrive this week, so I'll have to try what you suggested once I have it and set it up.

As for your question, I'm actually not an expert on editing or professional-level work, so I don't really know what you mean by high-DPI displays. Sorry about that! :persevere: