Try using timing. (You have tried both settings before asking a question, haven’t you?) Use a tool, or a filter, look at the display in the info palette: a number of seconds… (That might encompass the time that you spend on some dialogs) self explanatory, once you’ve tried it.
Scratch size: the amount of virtual memory that Photoshop is currently using with the different states stored in history, all the presets loaded, etc.
Ok Pierre, your not translating from French, man I didn’t understand much there.
Ok Pierre, your not translating from French, man I didn’t understand much there.
hello? is this thing on? are you a troll or what scottie?
Timing tells you haw long it took to accomplish a task.
Scratch size tells you the size of the "scratch file" that PS uses to accommodate the images you are working on.
Ok Micheal,
Timing: tells you how long to do what? and why would I want to know that?
Scratch size, then would be for those images at less than 100% efficiency? thanks.
Dave Did not understand that… troll?
suddenly it’s all clear to me. nevermind.
<walks away, hands behind back, whistling tunelessly>
I’m not entirely sure what timing times.
Scratch size is the size of the scratch file. All documents in PS use a scratch file, regardless of the efficiency measurement. It’s where a working copy of the image is stored while working on it, whether or not it can be fully accommodated in RAM. The size is important only insofar as you may run out of space on the disk with your scratch file. It does not mean that Photoshop is using that much RAM (real or virtual) to work on the document. If you have a single layer 200MB image, uncompressed (e.g., TIFF), loading it into RAM would take up 200MB; if it has four layers, loading it into RAM would take up 800MB. Instead of loading the entire document into RAM, Photoshop puts the working version of the document into a scratch file and loads only the portions needed for any given operation into RAM. So if you are working on one layer, the other three layers need not be in RAM, and perhaps only a part of the one layer you are working on will be in RAM while you are performing the operation. When finished with the operation, the scratch file contains the data for the full image and RAM can be used for something else.
Hey, I have an idea. Set the info palette to show timing and watch what happens when you perform various tasks. Maybe it means how long it took to perform that task, as stated in post #1. Just a thought.
Except it doesn’t. (I tried what you suggested.)
Michael, even if you do a large radial blur at the best settings on a huge layer, you do not see any data when ‘timing’ is selected?
Scottie: it is useful if you try to benchmark your machine, mainly to troubleshoot (or just for bragging rights)
Thanks Pierre: if timing is for trouble shooting, I’ll probably not leave it up. But it would still be nice to get a lucid explanation on it.
Micheal. thanks! Now last question: what benifit do you get by knowing scracth size?
How big your itch is….
Really it is how often and how hard PSCS2 is hitting the hard drive/s you have allocated for scratch space…(you have allocated scratch disk space…)
I see data in the timing line, but sometimes it says 10+ seconds for an operation that took a second or two or less. For longer operations, it seems to reflect the timing more accurately.
Because sometimes, it records the time you spent on a filter window. Right now, it is less useful than before ; in the old times, it could take a few hundreds seconds for some operations. So if you used to go away for a cafe, or so, it was useful to know how long you should have gone for the next time 😉
I’d just like to throw in a quick word of appreciation here to thank Michael for his explanation (#7) of Scratch Files.
Only caught it in passing but was glad to chance on it. Went a fair way to explaining something i’ve never really managed to understand…
Thanks, Michael
I’m a big fan of MIchaels explanations too. and he said he’s only on PS for a year!
