Nuisance Bug deserves to be squashed – PS7 & PSCS

DP
Posted By
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 17, 2004
Views
610
Replies
24
Status
Closed
Well, while I can live with (and apparently have been longer than I realized) this little nuisance, I’ve just recently noticed what is an unquestionable bug in Photoshop. Perhaps this goes back through several versions, but I could only confirm it is in both PS7 & PS CS. I’ve also see in the archives that someone had previously made mention of it yet I saw no solution offered other than the common "reset your preferences".

The bug is that if your ruler dimensions are specified in pixels, then the default units that appear in the Image Size dialog for the document size are set to "cm", even if the resolution is ppi (pixels/inch). That makes no sense whatsoever and the user shouldn’t have to change that. Photoshop should be smart enough to know that if resolution is specified relative to inches, then the document size should likewise be in inches. Only when the rulers are in inches does the Image Size dialog show things properly. From my observations, a preferences reset makes no difference. I can’t imagine this being a conflict with any other software, but I’ll not deny that’s always a possibility.

If two people have seen this, surely others have also. A forum search isn’t turning up a solution for me unless the keywords I’m using are inadequate (cm units image size). Has anyone seen this before and found a solution that supports keeping your units preferences specified in pixels while providing image size dialog document dimensions in inches?

Thanks,

Daryl

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MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 17, 2004
Daryl,

Here in Europe, we also use PPI, ´cause somehow this got a standard. However, I would never use inches for setting my document size! I´m not even sure how long a US inch is.

I can see how it would be a nuisance to US users though. But the other way around would be a nuisance to me.

Mathias
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 17, 2004
Mathias,

I questioned if this might be a question of standards, thinking just as you said that perhaps PPI was universally used even in countries that are on the metric system…obviously the great majority of countries are. I thought I’d mention that but then it slipped my mind (my dog came and told me she wanted me to play with her some, ha!).

So, if that is the logic behind a default to "cm" for the document size units when the rulers are in pixels, I’d suggest Adobe still implement a solution that caters to all users. The solution would be to provide a preferences option to select a units of measures default as either the Metric System or US System (or simply enable/disable Metric System). The result of that choice would be to control what units system of measurements are used application-wide when the rulers are set for pixels. I’m guessing the Image Size dialog may be the only affected dialog, in which case Adobe may not find such a change worthwhile. With all due respect to those on the metric system, I’d nearly have expected Adobe – as a U.S. based company – to establish the U.S. system of measures as the default for the U.S. English version of PS at the very least.

Daryl

P.S. – 1 inch = 2.54 cm.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 17, 2004

P.S. – 1 inch = 2.54 cm.

Much obliged!
Y
YrbkMgr
Jan 17, 2004
The solution would be to provide a preferences option to select a units of measures default as either the Metric System or US System (or simply enable/disable Metric System).

I agree.

However, I’m unable to duplicate Daryl’s results. When my ruler is set to pixels, document size is in inches. When I change the ruler to CM, the document size units change to CM. <shrug>

Peace,
Tony
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 17, 2004
Daryl, perhaps you are taking the meaning of the word bug a bit too far here. In any case, a simple right click on the ruler allows you to very rapidly change the units from pixels to inches which will then allow you to see the print size in inches in the dialog box.
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 17, 2004
OK. Got it I think after seeing Tony’s post. Check Regional Settings in Control Panel = Customise/ You probably have it set to metric for Measurement System. I just changed mine to US and lo and behold, I get inches in Image Size with rulers set to pixels.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 18, 2004
Hi Mick,

Maybe "bug" is exaggeration, but I do consider it a problem that is easily worked. However, a worakaround for something of this nature shouldn’t even be required in my opinion. There are certainly problems more warranting attention than this one though…and particularly if it doesn’t behave the same way for everyone (as Tony’s comment indicates) who is working in U.S. measurements.

This wasn’t a matter of the regional settings being wrong, as mine were on U.S. already.

Tony, are you using WinXP or Win2K? That might be a factor, in which case this "bug" is shared jointly with Microsoft.

Regards,

Daryl
Y
YrbkMgr
Jan 18, 2004
Tony, are you using WinXP or Win2K? That might be a factor, in which case this "bug" is shared jointly with Microsoft.

You bring up a good point Daryl. First, I’m in 7.01, on Win98SE. So we may not be comparing apples to apples.

Peace,
Tony
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 18, 2004
Oops, my mistake there Tony. For some reason I thought you were using PS CS now, so I just assumed Win2K or XP as the O/S.

Thanks,

Daryl
DM
dave_milbut
Jan 18, 2004
nah, tony’s a luddite.

gr&d, dave
Y
YrbkMgr
Jan 18, 2004
Good word Dave. I’d buy that.
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 18, 2004
Well, it works properly on my XP Home machine both in PS6 and CS. Change Measurement System in the Number tab within Regional Settings -Customise. You don’t change the actual regional settings.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 18, 2004
Well, it may be that the "unquestionable bug" is in question…and may again be a unique system problem on my PC. Although all my regional settings looked good, I thought I’d try toggling the measurement system to metric, applying the change, and then reverting to U.S. to see if that would correct the problem. As it turns out, attempts to change any of the settings on the Numbers tabe of the Customize Settings dialog, is giving an error of "One or more of the characters you typed in this filed are invalid. Try typing different characters." While I can change the global regional settings (such as to U.K. English), these customized settings can’t be changed. Looks like I’ve got some troubleshooting to do.

But, Mick, I have one question for you…are you using the International English version of Photoshop or the U.S. English version? Mine is the latter.

Thanks,

Daryl
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 18, 2004
Daryl
Seems like a Windows problem and nothing to do with PS. You should be able to change those fields. Maybe try posting on one of the MS forums.

I’m not sure that there is any difference between the different English versions of PS. My impression was that the choices you get when installing are related to the licence agreement. I can’t even remember which I chose when I installed. The PS spell checker defaults to US if that is any indication. I bought CS upgrade download online from the European store. PS6 was an upgrade CD bought in Britain.
DM
dave_milbut
Jan 18, 2004
My impression was that the choices you get when installing are related to the licence agreement.

afaik that’s just for display of the eula itself. no affect on the program at all.
M
MarkATS
Jan 18, 2004
I think the International English version has some intentional spelling errors like ‘colour’, ‘initialise’, etc. 😉
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 18, 2004
Thanks guys…fortunately this is just an annoyance, but hopefully some digging around will turn up an answer to the regional settings customization problem. This is a good day to run a drive image, so after doing that I may restore to an earlier image with win WinXP & PS only, to see if the problem exists there also.

Regards,

Daryl
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Jan 18, 2004
I am amused by Mathias being confounded by the use of inches, preferring PPI as "PPI" means pixels per inch………
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 18, 2004
Hi Lawrence,

Well, even though use of PPI wouldn’t lend itself very well to images printed in metric units, I’m sure it is just a matter of association over time. Whether or not Mathais knew the inch to cm conversion, he may have just come to associate 300ppi with high quality images and 72ppi with low quality images.

Daryl
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 18, 2004
I guess 28.346 pixels per cm doesn’t slip off the tongue so well.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 18, 2004
Well if I had to go technical, I´d get a Lines Per Millimeter off my printer and convert that value to Pixels Per Inch for my imagery. Never have a printer requested a Pixels Per Centimeter value off of me. I dont know either what the 72ppi equivalent would be exactly in CM. Never had a use for it. Monitors over here are measured in Inches as well.

Maybe someone else on this side on the pond can quibble in.
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 18, 2004
I’m on this side of the pond – in Britain where cms and kgs and degrees C can have political connotations and can conjure up all sorts of Europhobic and xenophobic feelings in otherwise apparently rational people. I’ve never understood why America, being such a generally progressive place, has stuck with such archaic units as inches, lbs and degrees F.

Personally I’m all for metric. 10 is such an easy number to work with. I also use ppi for resolution because it is completely ingrained and it’s not a problem. The image size dialog box shows the pixel size and the print size so I never need to do calculations.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jan 19, 2004
Mick,

I know there has long been scattered talk of the U.S. standardizing to the metric system, but I think the reason it has never happened has all sort of reasons. The costs of converting would likely be rather high, and I don’t know that the taxpayers would want to foot the bill for that when they’re likely in their "comfort zone" just staying as is. There may be some who’d argue that they like being unique rather than like every other country. I can’t say I’d personally like converting to metric, but I’ve had enough exposure to it that I think I could make the change reasonably easy. I don’t know my unit conversions all that well but have done some things that help me remember at least a few associations:

1. B/W darkroom work often used 20°C as the standard developer temperature, so I know that is equivalent to 68°F. And of course the freezing and boiling points have long been trained into me.

2. Participating in a bicyling rally where I rode a "metric century" finds me readily remembering that 100km is 62 miles.

3. Loss of a dive watch and replacing it with one bought on Ebay found me with a watch that recorded depth in meters rather than feet. I nearly returned the watch until thinking further about it made me realize the metric readings would actually simplify calculations. No longer thinking in terms of dividing 33ft into the indicated depth to know the equivalent depth in atmospheres, now I simply shift the decimal one digit left. For example, 10m = 1.0atm. While I’d still rather not have the temperature readout on the watch in °C, and prefer °F, the water temperature is pretty stable and not much of a concern during the dive anyway.

I think it is mostly with applications such as Photoshop where I’d find a change in the units to be annoying, until the metric sizes of print media I use became intuitive to me. All in all though, accepting that ppi is a pretty universal standard, it just looks odd to see computed print sizes showing up in cm. I’m sure you get used to it though. I’m surprised that monitor sizes are quoted in U.S. English units, particularly given that a great many monitors are made outside of the U.S.

I guess it’s just a crazy world we’re in. 🙂

Daryl
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Jan 19, 2004
I think more in metric than English, due to the engineering profession. Why ppi when the resolution of a photographic system has always been lines /mm. I have to make the conversion in my head and ouch! What a headache. Darkroom was always metric, paper and film size excluded.

BTW, just pulling your leg, Mathias! 😉

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

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