Lightroom — Standard Previews
Importing a photo into Lightroom is a 2 pass process:
- Create all the database entries to keep track of the photo and convert it if necessary
- Create the previews
Lightroom has 2 set of previews the standard previews and the 1:1 previews. For my views, pun intended, on the 1:1 previews see: Lightroom: Rendering Previews. All these previews are stored in the thumbnails-cache.db database located in the xyz Previews.lrdata1 folder/directory. Today, we will discuss the standard previews. The settings are per catalog, with Edit > Catalog Settings > File Handling tab.
The standard previews are used:
- At the bottom of the screen, in the film strip
- At the centre of the screen, in the grid view and the survey mode
Lightroom gives you the choice of the size of the standard previews:
- 1024 pixels
- 1440 pixels
- 1680 pixels
- 2048 pixels
So which one to use and what are the implications. The correct answer is: 1.5 times your screen resolution. My screen resolution is: 1656 pixels wide by 856 pixels tall. So 1656 x 1.5 = 2484. The closest is 2048. That's what I use.
Lightroom: Standard Preview Size
- It does not really matter if you set the "wrong" standard preview size. Lightroom will generate the correct preview size on the fly.
- The thumbnails-cache.db database located in the xyz Previews.lrdata2 folder/directory can be deleted and Lightroom will re-generate it as it needs it with the required standard previews. That's the way I change the catalog setting of the standard previews.
- The setting is for the whole catalog.
- The size of the thumbnails-cache.db database will be 4 times3 smaller at 1024 pixels than at 2048 pixels. So it's a balance between speed vs. space.
- Storage is cheap, $100 Canadian per terabyte and becoming cheaper every few months.
1 xyz is the name of your catalog ↑
2 xyz is the name of your catalog ↑
3 Yes 4 times and not twice. It's 2<sup>2</sup> ↑
Tags: Dam | Lightroom | Lightroom-How-To | Lightroom-Why | Technical