# How to make the lightroom screen smaller?



## Hallfrisch (Dec 9, 2012)

Hello, I want to make it so i can access more on a panel at any moment and also make the panels narrower than what i can now.



here is an example of what I am looking for.












This is similar to what I have going on








notice that the former picture takes up more space and the panels show more on them you can access more with out scroll as often.


Thank you for your help.


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## WorkingClassHero (Dec 9, 2012)

You can just drag the edges of the panels in to make them narrower and give yourself more space.


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## Allan Olesen (Dec 9, 2012)

You need a higher screen resolution. Are you using the native resolution of your monitor?

Dragging the edges of the panels will not solve the problem.


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## erro (Dec 9, 2012)

First screenshot looks lika a large screen, like 24-30 inches. Second screenshot looks more like a standard laptop screen. A larger physical screen will let you see a larger image, as well as longer panel lists.


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## gregDT (Dec 9, 2012)

You need a combination of both. Dragging the edges can help and it's clear that the ratio of panel width to central image width is greater in the first image than the second. A quick way to see this is to notice that the right hand panel sits between the Develop and Slideshow buttons at top right on the top image but on the second image the panel extends out to the middle of the Develop button i.e. takes up more of the screen proportional to the main image pane. 

Also as mentioned the top panel seems to be displayed on a higher resolution screen than the second. Just drag the panels as far as you can and see how it looks. If it's still not what you want and your already at the correct resolution for your screen then you're out of luck without a hardware upgrade.


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## Hallfrisch (Dec 9, 2012)

I have a 32 inch diagonal tv for a monitor I have a high end gpu. im using the native hd resolution, 1360 x 738. And i have the panels as narrow as they can go it will not let me make them narrower.


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## Hal P Anderson (Dec 9, 2012)

Hallfrisch,

Like the other posters said, you'll need to get a higher resolution screen. My screens are much smaller physically, but they have a 2048 x 1152 native resolution. That leaves much more screen real-estate for the image.

Hal


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## erro (Dec 9, 2012)

A TV? OK, the physical size isnät all. A TV isn't very high resolution: 1360*738 is fairly low as far as resolutions go. My 24" screen is 1920*1200. Your TV has no more pixels than a standard laptop screen. Why not buy a decent screen instead of a TV? The TV may be physically large, but it has no resolution to speak of.


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## Hallfrisch (Dec 9, 2012)

First of all, because i also use it as a tv. second, it is still hd quality. third, I got it for a good deal and I'm not made of money. 
Okay so may screen doesn't have the greatest resolution but how can i make panels smaller? when my panel takes up over 4 inches on a side it is kind of unnecessary, I could be using that space for more picture. Do I need to manually change the programming?


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## wianb (Dec 9, 2012)

True HDTV resolution is 1920x1080. To achieve the effect you want you need a higher resolution monitor, your low resolution tv is never going to achieve what you want.


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## Hallfrisch (Dec 9, 2012)

I'm not talking resolution I'm talking physical size. not how how to get more pixels in an area but how to change the size of the area. these are two different concepts that are yes related in the fact it seems lightroom chooses how much space panels take up depending on your resolution but they are different things in themselves. 

so from what it seems that no one knows of a way to do this. I will see if I can change the code to meet my needs.


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## awp (Dec 9, 2012)

Press the Tab key


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## Hallfrisch (Dec 9, 2012)

doesn't seem to be the case. Lightroom seems to be designed to only work at certain resolutions and to change some off the things im looking for would require a large overhaul in programming. 

I can officailly say that I have now found one thing I dislike about lightroom. It's still very functional it would have been nice though. Thank you everyone for looking into it for me!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 9, 2012)

You may be seeing resolution and physical size as two different concepts, but in this case one begets the other. The side panels are measured in pixels, nothing else....I think the minimum width is 250 pixels, the maximum is 400 pixels. What this means in reality on individual screens depends entirely on the screen's resolution.....the physical size of the screen is completely irrelevant at this stage. In your case, as you are running at a resolution of 1360 pixels wide, this means that when using the panels at their narrowest they will take up at least 18% (250/1360x100) of the available screen width....which would be somewhere between 4 and 5 inches on a 32" screen if you want to translate into a physical dimension.

There is no setting within Lightroom that would allow you to change these pixel dimensions. However, I believe that Jeffrey Friedl's Configuration Manager does allow you to get under the hood and change some things around, but that does come with some hefty warnings which any potential user needs to understand and accept.


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## awp (Dec 9, 2012)

The answer has been stated over and over above.  A tv is not a suitable monitor as the resolution is not high enough. You need a high resolution monitor to do the job properly. Anything else is going to require a degree of compromise.


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## clee01l (Dec 9, 2012)

Hallfrisch said:


> ...screen doesn't have the greatest resolution but how can i make panels smaller? when my panel takes up over 4 inches on a side it is kind of unnecessary, I could be using that space for more picture. Do I need to manually change the programming?


LR was designed such that the side panel could be resized *down* to a minimum number of pixels.  If the pixel density on your monitor is such that that minimum is 4", then that is your minimum size *on your monitor*
Your other option is to toggle the side panels off and on with the f7 & f8 keys.

FWIW,  my second monitor is a 26" HDTV with a resolution of 1920x1080.  In spite of what others may say, it works fine for LR.  Before I got my iMac, this was my primary and largest monitor.


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## Hallfrisch (Dec 10, 2012)

awp said:


> A tv is not a suitable monitor as the resolution is not high enough.



No, The fact it is a Tv has nothing to do with it. It is an issue with resolution and light room's set up for how to size the panel based of pixels as TNG pointed out.


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## gregDT (Dec 10, 2012)

Have you actually hovered your mouse over the inner edge of each panel? It will turn the cursor into a little double sided arrow, sort of like  <--> If you hold down the mouse you can drag the size of the panel to make it larger or smaller. If you've not already done so you should try this as you may not have the panels set to their smallest size.


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## donoreo (Dec 10, 2012)

Hallfrisch said:


> No, The fact it is a Tv has nothing to do with it. It is an issue with resolution and light room's set up for how to size the panel based of pixels as TNG pointed out.


As TNG pointed out it does.  The TV does not have enough pixel space, regardless of the physical size.    You will only be able to fix this by switching to something with higher resolution.  LR will work with 1024x768, but that does not mean it is ideal and 1360X738 is going to be the same.  As others pointed out, the panels drop to 250 pixels.  When you only have 1360 pixels, that is going to be a lot of screen space.  There no way to change this minimum, it is how the program is written.  

Just because you do not want that to be true, does not mean it is not.  Sorry.


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## Michi (Jan 3, 2013)

in my release 4.1, in LR4, goto Window, Screen Mode, Normal. Then in the right-top-corner you will see all options, i.e. min, max, close.



here is an example of what I am looking for.











This is similar to what I have going on








notice that the former picture takes up more space and the panels show more on them you can access more with out scroll as often.


Thank you for your help.[/QUOTE]


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## Brad Snyder (Jan 3, 2013)

Michi, welcome to the forums!

Press 'F', (for 'F'ullscreen mode) however many times, to cycle through the available modes.
(An extremely common gotcha hiding in Lr's user interface, for the learning stage user)

Ooops, maybe I've misunderstood your question. You can drag the side and top/bottom panels smaller. Hover your mouse cursor over the border areas between the side panels and the central display window, and it should turn to a double-headed arrow, click and drag to size the panels.

Double oops, all this is covered in the thread above, so maybe I'm missing the actual question entirely?


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 3, 2013)

Not sure there is a question there, Brad. Looks like the new poster was trying to answer the original post but didn't get the start quote right (the end quote is there), resulting is a spot of confusion....


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## Michi (Jan 4, 2013)

change from full screen mode to normal, this diaplays the toolbar, then you get the min, max close options in the top right hand corner.


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## erro (Jan 4, 2013)

The min/max/close buttons is not the issue here though....


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