fit to screen image appears soft!

[DavidL]

I've just put a new set up in my PC running windows 7 64bit with CS5. When I click "Fit to screen the image appears soft. It's sharp at any other magnification above that. I'm presumably missing something simple here as it works fine on the old XP CS4 set up (32bit).
Two systems boot up separately from BIOS, as set up by son, my computer guru and saviour.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
David

 

[Corlan F.]

David, do you have the same screen resolution setup on both systems?
Depending on the size of the actual image (and screen resolution), "Fit on Screen" can easily looks soft, simply because the resulting zoom factor is random by definition. In Photoshop generally all zoom factors look kinda soft except 12.5% - 25% - 50% and of course 100%.

In between, only 16.7% - 33.3% and 66.7% are relatively OK (but working details requires checking 100% (or possibly 50/25/12.5 if before reduction).

All other ratios are soft... and unreliable.

Maybe you're well aware of all this... just in case.
Worth checking

 

[Jack]

What Corlan said.

For this very reason, I typically use only a few screen resolutions when critically editing: 100% for most normal detail and masking work; 200% - 400% for extra-fine detail, pixel level editing; 50% is my "what it will look like in print sort of" view; Print size view -- assuming you have calibrated your monitor's resolution in CS prefs to render actual size accurately -- to get an idea how the image will present at its actual size; and finally 12.5 or 25% for global edits on the whole image, soft proof adjustments, etc.

 

[Corlan F.]

Elaborating on Jack's precisions:

When working on critical editing (say, high quality advertising // editorial full page spread material // larger prints), at pixel or pixel cluster level, it's good practice (and eventually time saving) to edit @ the aforementionned 200%-400% ratio with a second "control" window @ 100%.

For that, on larger files a second monitor is either helping... or simply required.

note: when two monitors are not available, the "resize windows to fit" option under the zoom tool is to be investigated/tested for all kind of editing where one has to go back and forth from one zoom factor to another. Each person has a preferred workflow but that option is being perceived either as helpful, by some, or as time consuming. The possibility shouldn't be ignored, though.

 

[DavidL]

Thanks guys
Screen is same on both systems 1680x1050
As I said it looks sharp in CS4 but not 5
Jack's "assuming you have calibrated your monitor's resolution in CS prefs to render actual size accurately" Where in prefs is this?

 

[Jack]

Preferences/Units and Rulers/Screen resolution. The value you enter there determines what size an image renders on any given screen. Smaller pixel pitch displays need a higher number. For example, my 30" NEC likes 102 while my MacBook Pro 15" high-rez likes 111...