Photoshop

Preview your document on a video monitor

The Video Preview plug‑in lets you preview the current frame specified in the Animation timeline (or any image open in Photoshop) through FireWire (IEEE 1394) on a display device, such as a video monitor. You can also adjust the aspect ratio for proper display of images. The Video Preview plug‑in supports RGB, grayscale, and indexed images. (The plug‑in converts 16‑bpc images to 8‑bpc images.) The Video Preview plug‑in does not support alpha channels. Transparency is displayed as black.

Note: The Video Preview plug‑in does not lock the display device. When Photoshop is in the background on your computer and another application moves into the foreground, the preview turns off and the device is unlocked so other applications can use it for preview purposes.
  1. Connect a display device, such as a video monitor, to your computer via FireWire (IEEE 1394).
  2. With a document open in Photoshop, do one of the following:

    • If you don’t want to set output options for viewing your document on a device, choose File > Export > Send Video Preview To Device. You can skip the rest of the steps in this procedure.

    • To set output options before viewing your document on the device, choose File > Export > Video Preview.

    The Video Preview dialog box opens. If your document’s pixel aspect ratio doesn’t match the aspect ratio settings of the display device, you will see an alert.

    Note: The Send Video Preview To Device command uses the previous settings in the Video Preview dialog box.
  3. Under Device Settings, specify options for the device that will display the image:

    • (Mac OS) To specify an output mode, select NTSC or PAL. If the output mode and the device do not match (for example, specifying NTSC for the output mode and connecting to a device in PAL mode), black patches appear on previewing.

    • To specify the aspect ratio of the display device, choose either Standard (4:3) or Widescreen (16:9) from the Aspect Ratio menu.

    Note: The Aspect Ratio setting determines which placement options are available.
  4. Under Image Options, choose a placement option to determine how the image appears in the display device:
    Center
    Places the center of the image at the center of the screen, cropping the portions that fall outside the display edges of the video preview device.

    Pillarbox
    Displays a 4:3 image on a 16:9 display with the center of the image at the center of the screen and gray bands on the left and right sides of the image. This option is available only if you chose Widescreen (16:9) for the device aspect ratio.

    Crop to 4:3
    Displays a 16:9 image on a 4:3 display with the center of the image at the center of the screen and without distortion by cropping the left and right edges of the frame that fall outside the display edges of the video preview device. This option is available only if you chose Standard (4:3) for the device aspect ratio.

    Letterbox
    Scales a 16:9 image to fit on a 4:3 display. Gray bands appear on the top and bottom of the image due the difference in aspect ratio between the 16:9 image and the 4:3 display. This maintains the display aspect ratio without cropping or distorting the image. This option is available only if you chose Standard (4:3) for the device aspect ratio.

    Crop To 14:9/Letterbox
    Displays a widescreen image cropped to a 14:9 aspect ratio with black bands on either the top and bottom of the image (when viewed on a 4:3 display) or on the left and right sides (when viewed on a 16:9 display). This maintains the display aspect ratio without distorting the image.

  5. Choose an option from the Image Size menu to control whether the document pixels are scaled to the device display:
    Do Not Scale
    Applies no vertical scaling to the image. The image is cropped if its height is greater than that of the video display.

    Scale To Fit Within Frame
    Increases or decreases the image height and width proportionally to fit in the video frame. With this option, a 16:9 image appears on a 4:3 display as letterbox, and a 4:3 image appears on a 16:9 display as pillarbox.

  6. Select the Apply Pixel Aspect Ratio To Preview check box to display the image using the document’s (nonsquare) pixel aspect ratio. Deselect this option to display the image as it appears on your computer (square pixel) monitor.

    By default, the Apply Pixel Aspect Ratio To Preview check box is selected to maintain the image’s pixel aspect ratio. In general, you would deselect this option if the document’s pixel aspect ratio is assumed to be square and you want to view the image as it would appear on a computer (square pixel) monitor.

  7. Click OK to export the document to the device display.