Edit Look in Impression

Topaz Products Product Technical Support
1

If there is a better category for this post, please let me know and I will move it to the appropriate area.

I’m fairly new to the Topaz Universe. I started using the products about a year ago with the Impression module in Studio. At that time, I could apply a Look, and then I could adjust the parameters of that specific look as needed for the image. Now working with Impression within Studio 2, I don’t seem to be able to do that. After adding a look, is there a way to fine tune that look as needed? Even when I create and save a look, I don’t see a way to go back in and edit that look. Am I missing something?
Thanks for any help that anyone can offer.
Gordon

2

Firstly remove your email from your profile on the forum through your account preferences as this is a public forum and anyone can pick up the email address.

I am not sure what you are trying to achieve as you can fine tune the filter settings for each Look, create and save your own Looks and then edit and update those looks.

3

Thanks. First things first. I appreciate you pointing out the email address, and would love to remove that. However, I can’t see where to do that. The only place that I have entered that info is for my Topaz account, and I cannot remove it there. Where do I find the profile for this forum where I can make such changes? I am usually not so lost, but I just cannot seem to find that.

4

Seems like someone fixed your email address… here is a example of editing a Impression Look:

image

Remember you can also save as a project file and re-edit it later.

5

That is exactly the screen that I am looking for.
I am sure that it is right in front of me, but I can’t find it. I am usually not this blind and seemingly helpless.

image
image1922×1049 831 KB

6

Looks like I can’t post a screen shot either. It missing the important right menu. So embarrassing. Sorry.

7

It’s there, just click on impression in the filters panel.

9

I’m having the same problem that you describe. I’m normally quite good at figuring my way into software, and I have used the old Topaz Studio with Photoshop for at least a couple of years, but I am baffled by the new interface.

First, isn’t there some way to resize the parts of the Topaz window? Why does the Layers panel need to be so wide? I see no way to narrow it, even though YouTube tutorials show it looking narrower.

Capture
Capture1920×1200 1.33 MB

(The view above is cut off at the right side as I see it, so you can’t tell just how wide the Layers panel looks to me.)

But much more of a problem is that I only see the current open filter in the Layers panel, and I don’t see ANY way to close that filter down, or just to move to another layer with another filter, or to re-access the LOOK button. It’s like I have a Layers Panel that’s missing come critical controls.

So is it me? Am I really as obtuse as I feel? Or is there something wrong with my installation? I have uninstalled and reinstalled but that didn’t fix anything.

I’m using the trial version right now but if I can get it to work I do plan to buy Studio 2. There are some amazing filters that do things that are very useful to me. But…I have to figure out the interface!

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

10

Hi, Typically you can click the X on the header for the panel to close it down.

image

For Impression itself, as it is a long filter, use the arrows on the individual panels to close them:

image

I’m not sure what I am seeing there as on my screen, which is 1920 x 1080 at 100%, I don’t see what you are seeing.

Could you go to Help-> Graphics info and click the copy button and paste it in a reply here please.

Also give me an idea of the PC you are using and the display settings. On windows you can right click on the screen and select display settings.

Just so you can see this is a fullscreen snip of my screen:

image
image1920×1080 1.27 MB

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Here is the Graphics Info:

Application & Version: Topaz Studio 2 Version 2.2.0

Operating System: Windows 10 (10.0)

Graphics Hardware: Intel(R) Iris(R) Plus Graphics

OpenGL Driver: 3.3.0 - Build 26.20.100.7463

CPU RAM: 32537 MB

Video RAM: 1500 MB Total, 1500 MB In Use

Preview Limit: 3910 Pixels

And here’s a screenshot of display settings:

Application & Version: Topaz Studio 2 Version 2.2.0

Operating System: Windows 10 (10.0)

Graphics Hardware: Intel(R) Iris(R) Plus Graphics

OpenGL Driver: 3.3.0 - Build 26.20.100.7463

CPU RAM: 32537 MB

Video RAM: 1500 MB Total, 1500 MB In Use

Preview Limit: 3910 Pixels

So…I can see that it’s a problem related to screen resolution on a HD screen. At 100% or 125% scale (Dell itself recommends 150%) I CAN see the layers and their controls. But the text is SO tiny that’s its essentially unreadable.

Photoshop used to have a resolution problem too, but they have improved the adjustability of the interface over the last couple of years. I have a couple of other plugins that have been flaky, too, but they are usable. I’m not sure what to do with Topaz, though–I need the controls, but I honestly can’t read the text when the controls are accessible.

Here’s a screenshot at 125%:

captures%20small
captures%20small1903×1143 242 KB

OK, on seeing this posted I know you can’t see the right edge of my screen, so you can’t see the tiny text on the layers panel. Not sure how to show you the small text in context with other parts of the image, but I assure you, it’s TINY!

So does Topaz have some other interface controls I’m not finding yet?

Thanks for your quick response to my first post!/

12

I can see what the issue is there with you as you just need to click on the image to see it at 100% to show all the clip. Please go to the display settings and take a screen shot and post it here. Use the Settings panel System and then just post this info for me as I suspect you are using a 4K or UHD (3840 x 2160) setting:

image
image1097×673 150 KB

13

So the problem is definitely that I need to use the 100% or maybe 125% setting. My preferred setting is 150% (1920 x 1200) and that’s what Dell recommends actually. Here’s my usual display settings–sorry, I thought I’d attached that before but I guess I double-pasted the Topaz graphics settings instead. My monitor is HD but not 4K.

display%20settings
display%20settings1182×1085 104 KB

But–the text is nearly impossible to read at 125% and naturally even worse at 100%. There is no obvious way to fine-tune the scale setting–maybe 135% would be just big enough to read and would also keep the whole Layers panel visible?–but I can search around to see if it’s possible to do that.

I really need Topaz to have some setting to adjust the interface text size, I guess. Photoshop has gained some ability to adjust this over the last couple of years. Is there something in Topaz I’m missing that would help here?

Added: it seems odd that at the larger magnification some essential parts of Topaz are actually HIDDEN by the interface. I can actually see, when I open up a filter, that there is content in the Layers panel that is visible for an instant and then covered up as the panel slides up, and then there’s no way to get at it again (at least that I’ve found).

14

I’ve experimented some more and found that maybe 125% is at least almost readable. It’s not the greatest for the other programs I use, but maybe they are more adjustable. I will try using 125% extensively and see if that works. Please let me know if there’s some other adjustment I can make. Otherwise I hope this conversation is helpful to others who have the same problem, which I would assume is not uncommon with smaller and ever-more-high-resolution laptop screens.

15

HI, Have you tried 1920 x 1080 (which is a 16:9 ratio standard) rather than 1920 x 1200 (which is a 3:2 ratio) @ 100% but that will give you black bars at the top and bottom of the monitor. You may be able to do it like this:

  1. Set resolution to 1920x1080 on windows,
  2. On the MONITOR don’t use Aspect Ratio, rather use “1:1” ratio or similar setting.

I am not sure if that will help but on my Notebook with a 15" screen the 1920 x 1080 is OK, would prefer 125% but when that is set everything expands by 125% so it will look like this where you can see it is acceptable but the menus are compressed so i use 100%:

image
image1920×1080 941 KB

16

I was able to use Advanced Scaling Settings to set scale at 140%, so most things are pretty easy to see and Topaz is at least not any worse than at 125% (I can’t really tell if the Topaz text is bigger or not; apparently if an app isn’t set up to use a “custom” scale it won’t make any difference). But it’s usable now at least.

Now I’m off to try to recreate my favorite looks from the old Topaz, which I can’t migrate because they were on a different computer, and I can’t get the old Topaz to work on the new computer where I’ve installed Studio 2. I had to take screenshots of the old settings and will try to recreate them. At least I still have the old computer and it still works fine so I can do this!

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