PSE 7 images look bad

[HoosierGal]

I'm wondering about something that's come up on a few of my images. When I view them when working in PSE 7 I can see "squares". Like today a picture of my daughter - the curve of her cheek has a "stairstep" look instead of smooth, and over the nose I can see squares as the color varies. This is with the picture "fit to screen" and when I open the same pic same size in zoombrowser it looks fine.

I've noticed that photos in PSE often show things that don't show up in any other viewer, which makes me feel like I can't trust what I'm seeing as I edit photos. Specifically, sharpening an image. Sometimes it looks like I've oversharpened an image, but if I look through zoombrowser it looks fine. I never know which image to believe others are seeing or how it will print.

Do others have this same problem?

[OsmosisStudios]

An example is gonna be necessary, unfortunately.

[HoosierGal]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

An example is gonna be necessary, unfortunately.

Does that require a screenshot? I don't know how else you will see what I'm seeing.

[OsmosisStudios]

Most likely.

[HoosierGal]

I've never done a screenshot, so I googled it. I've tried it repeatedly (PrintScreen key- with or without Alt. and then paste in Paint), but can't get it to work. There's nothing to paste. I tried selecting the photo and copying it to paint, but it looks fine there. So, I can't figure out how to show the photo with the problem. I realized it even looks fine when viewed through the PSE organizer, the problem is only when it's in the editor.

[OsmosisStudios]

What was your "zoom" setting in PSE? If youre using a 1/3 or 2/3 number (like 33.3% or 66.7%) then you can get jagged edges and clipped pixels. A rounded (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) will give you better results

[windrider86]

Can you upload an attachment?

[HoosierGal]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What was your "zoom" setting in PSE? If youre using a 1/3 or 2/3 number (like 33.3% or 66.7%) then you can get jagged edges and clipped pixels. A rounded (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) will give you better results

That's it! You're a genius. :-) This was bugging me so much. Thanks!

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by HoosierGal

That's it! You're a genius. :-) This was bugging me so much. Thanks!

Photoshop is great, but thats one niggling then that has ALWAYS bothered me. Its not their fault, though.

Its especially annoying when youre dealing with 1px borders, or something similar when doing web design. They either end up looking like 2px borders, or disappearing!

[sybren]

Looks like PSE is using nearest neigbour interpolation when zooming, instead of the more CPU-intensive bilinear interpolation. Nearest neighbour is known to be quick but ugly. See if you can find anything regarding interpolation in the program's preferences.