Imatch HDPI Displays and Thumbnails

[Jstar333]

I have a 4K monitor and I am using Imatch in Windows 10 using High DPI Scaling with the  System option selected.  Thumbnails set at 300 DPI will scale to an acceptable size, at the expense of slightly blurry menu fonts (Microsoft is Scaling the Thumbnails ).   If I turn off High DPI Scaling in Windows, my thumbnails are small and can not be scaled up using the Thumbnail slider in the Media & Folder View.   The only way to fix this is to select a larger Thumbnail size in Edit: Preferences: Database: Thumbnail size.  Once I change this value, how do I get Imatch to regenerate my thumbnails for selected images and for the whole database?

[ubacher]

What scaling are you using. I have 150% set and all is well.

If you want new thumbnails to be generated just select the files, then Shift F5 and select FORCED reload.

[Jstar333]

My scaling  is set to 225%.

[Mario]

Don't use the built-in scaling in Windows for IMatch. IMatch is High-DPI aware and allows you to configure different aspects of the UI to adapt to high DPI screens. I use 4K monitors myself.

If you are unaware of the options, check out the IMatch help: https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/#rmh_app_dpi.htm and also look into the knowledge-base: https://www.photools.com/3242/configuring-imatch-high-rez-easier-reading/

IMatch by default scales thumbnails in file windows up to 100% of the size configured in the database. Usually 300 pixel is quite sufficient, even for 4K monitors.
If you want larger thumbnails:

A) Enable the option which allows IMatch to scale thumbnails in the file window > 100% under Edit > Preferences > Application: Allow thumbnail enlargement. This is an IMatch 2018 feature. The thumbnails will be scaled using a proper scaler, but some blurriness is inevitable of course.

B) Change the thumbnail size for your database and then re-create thumbnails by selecting files in a file window and pressing Shift+Ctrl+F5. Then use "Force Update". If there are pending metadata write-backs you need to write back first.

My scaling  is set to 225%.

That's the insane side-effect of monitors getting more DPI all the time. You have a high-DPI monitor but you need to blow up every font and UI element to more than twice its size in order to make it readable and usable. Some modern notebooks with rather small screens now need 300% or more scaling to be readable and usable. Where is the sense in increasing the DPI...?

[Jstar333]

These are the settings I have changed so far to make thumbnails and the Imatch interface scale larger.

Windows setting in Imatch Short Cut Link:  Compatibility: Override High DPI scaling behavior – Uncheck (Turn off Windows Scaling)

Settings in Imatch:

Edit: Preferences: Application: User Interface: Allow Thumbnail enlargement beyond 100%: Yes (default was no)
This is the most important setting, to get thumbnail scaling to work.

Info Pop-up Information is Hard to Read
Edit: Preferences: Application: User Interface: Info Popup: Font size – set to 24 (Default 12)

Context Menu for File Viewer (Right Click on Image being displayed): Zoom : Zoom options selected – Enlarge Smaller Images and Fit to Panel checked (Most images on a 4K monitor become small and need to be enlarged).

Edit: Preferences: Slide Show: Scale Mode – Scale to fill screen (allow grow)
Sharpeness increase by two ticks of slider

[Mario]

Allow Thumbnail enlargement beyond 100%: Yes (default was no)

This is off by default because scaling thumbnails beyond 100% of course reduces the quality and introduces blurriness.
I use 4K monitors with DPI up to 200 and I think that 300 pixel thumbnails still work well. For all else there is the Quick View Panel and the Viewer. Your requirements may be different of course.

[Jingo]

Where is the sense in increasing the DPI...?

I think it comes from the battle between what folks use their computer monitors for nowadays... so many users want that high dpi for gaming or watching 4k movies.. but they don't realize that is negatively impacts using the monitor for computer work.... thus - they need to insanely scale the fonts really high.  Have a friend who has an iphone X... huge screen... amazing resolution... but he has his font scaling set so high that only he can only see like 10 lines of text in a text message! 

Personally - I prefer to stick with multiple monitors running 1920... it seems to be the sweet spot for me (and my vision)... no font scaling necessary and tons of space across 24" monitors... if I need more room for apps - thinking of getting a 3rd monitor instead of moving up in resolution... thoughts?

[Mario]

If you have a 4K monitor but scale up to 200% you end up with a 1920 pixel monitor ;-)

Higher DPI makes sense for smart phones as you said. To get enough pixels on the small space to display HR or even 4K movies.
There is a sweet spot between monitor dimensions and DPI. But it varies per user I think. Squeezing 4K into a 15" notebook screen is less fun than using the same DPI on a 32" desktop monitor.

Making a software scale well on all resolutions is quite hard to do. IMatch has multiple sets of icons and other graphics etc. I could do it in vector, but there is no UI toolkit that can use them.
For all browser-based content (apps and in the future file windows and views) this is much easier. There are responsive style frameworks and the user can adapt the app panel scale individually via the IMatch settings too.

[Jstar333]

I bought a 4K monitor for Adobe Photoshop.  Photoshop version 19.1 included support for 4K monitors on Windows 10.   Having the extra pixels is a huge advantage when using Photoshop.  When viewing an image at 100%(actual size), more of the image will show on the monitor.  Camera capture sizes are also getting larger all the time.  The other program which benefits from a 4K monitor is CorelDraw.  I also agree that the 4K monitor caused as many problems as it solved and was a pain getting all my software to scale correctly.

[jch2103]

Allow Thumbnail enlargement beyond 100%: Yes (default was no)

This is off by default because scaling thumbnails beyond 100% of course reduces the quality and introduces blurriness.
I use 4K monitors with DPI up to 200 and I think that 300 pixel thumbnails still work well. For all else there is the Quick View Panel and the Viewer. Your requirements may be different of course.

A lot depends on the size of the monitor (and thus the effective dpi). In the case of my Surface Book 2 (3000x2000 13" screen), bumping up the thumbnail size was helpful. On a 27" 4K monitor, I don't think I would need to, however.