Aperture 1.5: Who Needs Previews?
2006-09-30
You've upgraded to Aperture 1.5 and clicked on the little box that asked if you wanted to make previews. Now you are waiting while 80,000 images are created and you don't really know why you clicked on that little box. Meanwhile your disk is filling up, your machine is slow, and the fans are going crazy.
The fact is you don't understand previews. And you almost certainly don't need the 80,000 new images that Aperture is creating for you right now. Blasphemy!
So, lets get rid of all of those previews that have been generated and take control of the situation. Click on the Library and uncheck Maintain Previews For All Projects in the action menu (cog top right in the projects window):
Then delete all the previews by control-clicking on the Library and selecting Delete Previews For Library:
And while we're at it, prevent any more previews being automatically created by opening the Aperture preferences deselecting New Projects Automatically Generate Previews:
Whew. Those fans will die down in a little while and you will be able to think.
Down to business. There are only four reasons that you need Aperture 1.5 previews:
1. You use slide shows
2. You need high resolution versions of your images with you while you are away from the originals
3. You or someone else needs to access images from other applications (including iLife) while Aperture is not running
4. You want to click and drag thumbnails from Aperture to the Finder or other applications.
And if you do need previews, then you probably don't need a library packed with them at the resolution and quality that Aperture has picked for you.
Furthermore:
1. You don't need previews to view, browse, sort, or rate images while you are away from the originals
2. Previews are never used for on-screen display except for slide shows [update -- see below]
3. Previews cannot be used to export versions or masters
4. Previews are always used at the resolution and quality they were created
Really I did not expect previews to be the way they are, but they are that way.
[Update: I'm wrong about this. Aperture does use the high resolution previews for regular screen display, but only if it thinks it can do better than the built-in library image and the master is off-line. You can test this yourself. Set the preview quality to be 0 and the size to be 1280x1280. Take a project that uses big images and regenerate all the previews. Now move the project masters to another volume and take it off-line. Try displaying the images in the project at 100% and you will see the fuzzy image based on the built-in library image appear first and then the blocky low-quality preview replace it. If the master is on-line then the preview is not used -- or at least I have never been able to catch it using it with the technique just described. However, my error does not change my advice though, given in the paragraph below. If you have off-line images and you need high resolution, then previews are most definitely for you].
Aperture already has images stored in the library that it uses for screen and thumbnail display. You don't have any control over which images have them (all of them do) or the quality or resolution they are generated at. The previews are an extra mechanism that the user can control. But you only need them if you need high quality or high resolution images that you don't have the means or the time to generate from the master on the fly. Hence the rules above.
If you do need previews, then a better way to manage them is as follows:
1. Decide how high a resolution you need and set it up by going to Aperture preferences and selecting the quality and size. Pick the size by figuring out how big you will ever want to view the images away from the originals. Pick the quality by experimentation. A setting of 7 or above seems fine to me. Check the box to share the previews with other applications:
The asterisk shows your screen size. That's a good choice for slide shows.
2. Now pick the projects and albums that you do need previews for, and make them. Control click on the project or album and select Update Previews. When it is done, you are done:
Check on progress by selecting Window > Show Tasks List to see how far it has to go:
There will be more on previews. Managing them is very confusing until you understand a few things.
The fact is you don't understand previews. And you almost certainly don't need the 80,000 new images that Aperture is creating for you right now. Blasphemy!
So, lets get rid of all of those previews that have been generated and take control of the situation. Click on the Library and uncheck Maintain Previews For All Projects in the action menu (cog top right in the projects window):
Then delete all the previews by control-clicking on the Library and selecting Delete Previews For Library:
And while we're at it, prevent any more previews being automatically created by opening the Aperture preferences deselecting New Projects Automatically Generate Previews:
Whew. Those fans will die down in a little while and you will be able to think.
Down to business. There are only four reasons that you need Aperture 1.5 previews:
1. You use slide shows
2. You need high resolution versions of your images with you while you are away from the originals
3. You or someone else needs to access images from other applications (including iLife) while Aperture is not running
4. You want to click and drag thumbnails from Aperture to the Finder or other applications.
And if you do need previews, then you probably don't need a library packed with them at the resolution and quality that Aperture has picked for you.
Furthermore:
1. You don't need previews to view, browse, sort, or rate images while you are away from the originals
2. Previews are never used for on-screen display except for slide shows [update -- see below]
3. Previews cannot be used to export versions or masters
4. Previews are always used at the resolution and quality they were created
Really I did not expect previews to be the way they are, but they are that way.
[Update: I'm wrong about this. Aperture does use the high resolution previews for regular screen display, but only if it thinks it can do better than the built-in library image and the master is off-line. You can test this yourself. Set the preview quality to be 0 and the size to be 1280x1280. Take a project that uses big images and regenerate all the previews. Now move the project masters to another volume and take it off-line. Try displaying the images in the project at 100% and you will see the fuzzy image based on the built-in library image appear first and then the blocky low-quality preview replace it. If the master is on-line then the preview is not used -- or at least I have never been able to catch it using it with the technique just described. However, my error does not change my advice though, given in the paragraph below. If you have off-line images and you need high resolution, then previews are most definitely for you].
Aperture already has images stored in the library that it uses for screen and thumbnail display. You don't have any control over which images have them (all of them do) or the quality or resolution they are generated at. The previews are an extra mechanism that the user can control. But you only need them if you need high quality or high resolution images that you don't have the means or the time to generate from the master on the fly. Hence the rules above.
If you do need previews, then a better way to manage them is as follows:
1. Decide how high a resolution you need and set it up by going to Aperture preferences and selecting the quality and size. Pick the size by figuring out how big you will ever want to view the images away from the originals. Pick the quality by experimentation. A setting of 7 or above seems fine to me. Check the box to share the previews with other applications:
The asterisk shows your screen size. That's a good choice for slide shows.
2. Now pick the projects and albums that you do need previews for, and make them. Control click on the project or album and select Update Previews. When it is done, you are done:
Check on progress by selecting Window > Show Tasks List to see how far it has to go:
There will be more on previews. Managing them is very confusing until you understand a few things.
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