# Sharpening on a high pixel density monitor



## camner (Jun 18, 2017)

I recently switched to a 27" iMac with a retina display (my current second monitor and my prior monitors were NEC PA242W monitors with normal pixel density displays).  

I immediately noticed a change in how things looked when I was sharpening images.  On the iMac display, it was much more difficult to see the effect of sharpening.  Even when applying extreme sharpening (just as a test), I could not see nearly as well the effect of the sharpening I was applying.

Poking around the web, I learned that this is a side effect of a high pixel density monitor, because the human eye cannot as easily distinguish the changes that sharpening causes at, say, 220dpi vs 96 or 72dpi.

One recommendation I have seen is to sharpen at 200% (or more) rather than at 100%.  Others have said that the upsampling the monitor does to display at 200% makes it more difficult to sharpen, because some of the  fuzziness one sees at 200% is due to the upsampling the monitor does, rather than being due to image softness.

How do those of you with high pixel density displays deal with this?


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## clee01l (Jun 18, 2017)

I upscale to 200% just as you have discovered.


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## camner (Jun 23, 2017)

clee01l said:


> I upscale to 200% just as you have discovered.


Thanks, Cletus; I'll give this a try.


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## rob211 (Jun 24, 2017)

I noticed you said upsampling; I do what Cletus said and upSCALE on occasion. I use a second monitor at 2.5k so it's often easier to use just that. But it kinda depends on what I intend to show it on; with some many retina devices and 4k now, I have sorta default ted to retina now. It seems even more pronounced when I used pixel shifted images from RAW. With those I can crank the sharpness up to ridiculous levels to bring out some intense detail.


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