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User profile for user: markrich5000
markrich5000 Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

I have a weird problem with Preview/Screenshot on my Mac (BigSur) that seems to have developed in the last few weeks. I normally take a screenshot PNG or convert to JPEG of my YouTube vids to use on YouTube. I use preview to add text to them. My prob

I have a weird problem with Preview/Screenshot on my MacBook Pro (Big Sur) that seems to have developed in the last few weeks. I normally take a screenshot PNG or convert to JPEG of my YouTube vids to use on YouTube. I use preview to add text to them. My problem is now when I set the text to 200 pt (max) size the text comes out quite small whereas before it used to be huge when set at 200 pt. I've literally formatted my MacBook Pro as thought I might have installed some software that corrupted it but it's still the same. The text size thing works fine (huge text on size 200) when I download an image or use one I've taken on my phone so maybe it's something in screenshot that has changed? Has anyone else noticed this or could you test yours to see if it does the same as it's driving me nuts!

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 4:32 PM

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User profile for user: ivan54
ivan54
User level: Level 4
2,858 points

Posted on Jan 26, 2021 12:04 PM

Okay, what I think is happening here is your screen shots are with Retina resolution, 144 DPI, where your other pictures are "standard" 72 DPI. When you add text in Preview, it is converting the Points to Pixels so the text with a 144 DPI image looks half as big as text added to a 72 DPI image.


Here is a Retina Screen Shot (144 DPI) with 200pt text added.


Here is a NonRetina Screen Shot, 72 DPI, with 200pt text added.


In Preview, Tools > Show Inspector you can see what the resolution (DPI) of your image or screen shot is before you add text.


If you want to change the DPI you can use Tools > Adjust Size and change the Resolution to 72 pixels/inch and if you don't want to loose any detail, uncheck [ ] Resample image. Note the image will now look twice as big on screen.


If you want it to look the same size, [ √ ] Resample image and leave the size percent at 100%. It will half the size of your picture and added text will look twice as big.


I'm not seeing a place to change the resolution of your screen shots as taken. I think it depends on your display resolution.


ivan

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User profile for user: ivan54
ivan54
User level: Level 4
2,858 points

Jan 26, 2021 12:04 PM in response to markrich5000

Okay, what I think is happening here is your screen shots are with Retina resolution, 144 DPI, where your other pictures are "standard" 72 DPI. When you add text in Preview, it is converting the Points to Pixels so the text with a 144 DPI image looks half as big as text added to a 72 DPI image.


Here is a Retina Screen Shot (144 DPI) with 200pt text added.


Here is a NonRetina Screen Shot, 72 DPI, with 200pt text added.


In Preview, Tools > Show Inspector you can see what the resolution (DPI) of your image or screen shot is before you add text.


If you want to change the DPI you can use Tools > Adjust Size and change the Resolution to 72 pixels/inch and if you don't want to loose any detail, uncheck [ ] Resample image. Note the image will now look twice as big on screen.


If you want it to look the same size, [ √ ] Resample image and leave the size percent at 100%. It will half the size of your picture and added text will look twice as big.


I'm not seeing a place to change the resolution of your screen shots as taken. I think it depends on your display resolution.


ivan

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User profile for user: ivan54
ivan54
User level: Level 4
2,858 points

Jan 26, 2021 12:36 PM in response to markrich5000

FYI, if I changed the screen resolution with the Display Preference, screenshots were still at 144 DPI.

If I changed the resolution with EasyRes to max resolution (for my iMac it's 5120x2880) screenshots captured at 72 DPI.

Changing the resolution back to "Default" of 2560x1440 with EasyRes, screenshots were still at 72 DPI.

But if I used Display Prefs and changed it back to "Default for Display", screenshots were back to 144 DPI.


So the capture resolution seems to change depending on how you change your Display Resolution.

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User profile for user: markrich5000
markrich5000 Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 26, 2021 10:10 AM in response to ivan54

Hi, I have tried various fonts/sizes and it's the same. It's so strange that it only makes the font smaller when it's a screenshot. I took a downloaded photo and it works fine. I will attach them both. I was wondering if it might be to do with the size of the photo but it's always worked fine in the past. When it was working with screenshots a few weeks back when I released a video I found the same photo and tried to edit it again and it now comes out the wrong size when compared to the same font/size as it was a few weeks back!

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User profile for user: markrich5000
markrich5000 Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 26, 2021 2:42 PM in response to ivan54

Thank you so much for helping with this and I've been having a look at some of my images and it definitely looks like it's the 72 and 144 DPI issue. I really don't understand why this would have changed and can only assume my screenshots were coming out at 72 DPI before as the text definitely looked larger whereas now the screenshots seem to have defaulted to 144 DPI. It seems strange as well that a screenshot I used a few weeks ago for a YouTube vid had 72 DPI (the text covered the whole of the lower part of the image) now when I open it it's showing as 144 DPI and the text comes out smaller. I'm wondering if I may have tried changing my screen resolution in the last few weeks and forgotten about it. As you say it would be really good if I could set the 72 DPI for screenshots as a default so that I can edit my vid JPEGS and cover them with text instead of having to first convert them to 72 DPI. I already have to convert from the standard screenshot format of PNG to JPEG as PNG file sizes are too large for YouTube screenshots.

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I have a weird problem with Preview/Screenshot on my Mac (BigSur) that seems to have developed in the last few weeks. I normally take a screenshot PNG or convert to JPEG of my YouTube vids to use on YouTube. I use preview to add text to them. My prob

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