Topaz Clarity and Topaz Detail questions: Windows OS, scaling and 4-5k monitors?

[earlybird]

Re: Topaz Clarity and Topaz Detail

Hi,
 These two Photoshop plugins are integral to my personal digital photo-processing workflow. I would gladly pay for an update or a full-price substitute, but I am unaware of any options.

 I am about to upgrade my photo edit computer with a new Windows desktop system. I had an old system near the end of its life and was looking forward to getting a large display with many pixels so that I could view my landscapes nearer to their intended print size.

 Last fall, my old system died, and I temporarily occupied my wife's spare Windows 10 laptop with a Photoshop CC install for a couple of months while I prepared to purchase a desktop. This laptop has a 17" 4k OLED screen, and I was enthused to use it for editing.

 It was not long before I learned that my two favorite Photoshop plugins, Topaz Clarity and Topaz Detail, would not display correctly on the laptop's 17" screen. In particular, the two side columns and the necessary parameter adjustment display was botched.

 It seemed as if pixel count constrained the width of the panels while the sliders extended past the screen due to scaling.

 I tried various OS scaling rates but never seemed to get anything to work.

 At 17" 4k resolution, the 100% rate was not an option as I could not read any of the "system" fonts. (I don't know what to call the scalable fonts so I hope the "" will suffice as an apology)

 So, to shorten a long story, I have been running this 17" 4K screen with 100% scaling at 1980x1080P, and the Topaz plugins display correctly.

 Since then, I have been hopefully anticipating that running a large display, 27" or perhaps 32" at 4k or 5k with 100% scaling, will allow me to enjoy the upgrade in display specs while still getting to use the plugins comfortably. The hope is that despite buying a high-resolution display, if the screen is large enough, the dpi will be low enough that 100% scaling works OK.

 I used an online calculator, https://www.sven.de/dpi/, to make some comparisons.

 17" monitor at 1980x1080 = 129 PPI
 17" monitor at 3840x2160 = 259 PPI

 27" monitor at 3840x2160 = 163 PPI
 27" monitor at 5120x2880 = 217 PPI

 32" monitor at 3840x2160 = 138 PPI
 32" monitor at 5120x2880 = 183 PPI


 Finally, my question: If I buy a large high-resolution display, will my Topaz plugins display correctly?

 Have any of you had success running the last update version of these plugins on your Windows OS high pixel count monitors?

 Thank you!

 
 

[Peano]

Topaz Labs tech support: https://support.topazlabs.com/

[earlybird]

Oh my...

Did you Google that or use Bing?

[Peano]

Oh my...

Did you Google that or use Bing?

DuckDuckGo

[digitaldog]

"Work Correctly" for what? IOW, what you see on your display and what others see can vastly differ regarding this or any similar product. You can't control what others see, of course. The only accurate way to view this kind of image data is at 1:1, but that is unique to your display to a certain extent. As to the display resolution, there is the URL you provided but its pretty simple to do on your own if you don't see an exact match:
Measure the width of your display and divide that by the number of pixels it's displaying.
On my NEC PA271Q, the width is 23.5 inches. Its resolution is 2560x1440. 2560/23.5=109PPI.
Those values can get plugged into Photoshop's preferences.

[earlybird]

These two Plugin Windows, each having occupied the full screen at 3840x2160 4K with 200% scaling, appear "incorrect" to me.

When I run the OS at 1920x1080 with 100% scaling, the plugins appear as I expect that Topaz intended.

I have the laptop's Nvidia Geforce selected as the full-time graphics for Photoshop. I have manually installed the very latest Dec 2024 drivers; Topaz recommended both choices in threads I have searched regarding issues with 4K monitors and their legacy plugins.

Here are some screenshots... note that I cropped out the centers to focus on the corners and sides where the problems occur and to minimize the size of the illustrative document.

[earlybird]

So, to clarify, I am asking if anyone here is running a large format, 4k or 5k in Windows OS, using the 100% system scaling choice, and able to view a complete Topaz Clarity and Detail work window.

Fingers crossed.

Thank you!

[digitaldog]

What you are showing looks like a bug (unless the software states that resolution isn't supported). And yeah, you really want to be running at 100%, also known as 1:1.
You can also try disabling GPU in PS's preferences; does that make a difference? If so, this is a GPU bug.

[earlybird]

Yeah, I don't know if the long-abandoned plugin software specs support 4K... that is why I am asking.

I really like the plugins. I learned about them here. I bought them, used them extensively, but ultimately watched the company abandon them and go all in on AI.

I would gladly pay for an update, but I can't.

I would gladly try a substitute, but I have not found one for either of these two specific processes. (I can live without my other Topaz legacy plugins... so I have not mentioned them.)

Yes, I have tried various GPU choices, and as mentioned above, I am currently using the recommendations from the last correspondence I can find while searching Topaz support.

My guess, and ok, it's just a guess, is that the programmer who made these plugins is long gone, and that is why they have become abandonware.

Nevertheless, if I can get them to work on a new system, I anticipate that an installation on my soon to be new system may be sufficient to last me the rest of my photo edit days.

So, I am asking if anyone here is running a large format, 4k or 5k in Windows OS, using the 100% system scaling choice, and able to view a complete Topaz Clarity and Detail work window.

Fingers crossed.

Thank you!

[KenS]

I run both of Topaz apps you mentioned (Clarity 1.1.0, Detail 3.3.0) on an EIZO CS2740 monitor at 3840x2160, 27in.  I do NOT have any problems with display (squishing, clipping) that you showed in your post.

When I run with a scaling ratio of 150% there is only a very minor amount of cut-off that does not hinder or annoy me (with either app).  When I run at 100% scaling (1:1) there is NO display problem at all.  I often run my monitor at 150% because the text and icons become very small which is a bit of annoying (even though I am nearsighted).

So, I think you are in luck, at least as far as I can tell with my Eizo 4k monitor.  I also have other Topaz apps but almost never used them.  I can check them too if you are interested.

[earlybird]

Hi Ken,

Thank you very much for sharing this helpful info. This is very good news.

Thank you!
 

[Peano]

If you contact Topaz Support as I suggested and describe the problem you're having, they'll add Adjust AI (which replaces Clarity and Detail) to your account at no charge. Although Adjust AI is also discontinued, it was discontinued more recently than Clarity and Detail. Just FYI.

[KenS]

earlybird,

I forgot to mention I am using the the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 GPU (which I think is older than your GPU), and I am running Windows 10.  It is my understanding that these two Topaz apps will run under Windows 11 also.

Good Luck,
Ken

[earlybird]

Hi Ken,
 Thank you for the follow up information.

 Thank you!

[nemophoto]

Those are two of my favorite older Topaz plugins. On my 4K 27" Viewsonic monitors, the navigation bars are also truncated. This is due to these being older plugins and no longer actively developed or supported (sadly) by Topaz. Be aware, these WILL NOT WORK in PS 2024 or 2025. The latest version they run on is PS 2023. Likely, this is because Adobe changed the plugin architecture which then trashed lots of great older plugins. Some of the other orphaned Topaz plugins do still work, like Sharpen AI and Denoise AI, which I often prefer over their all-in-one Photo AI.

[earlybird]

Goodness, thank you very much for the heads up about the versions of Photoshop.

I am on Photoshop 23.0.2 on my temporary use laptop. It looks like the updater wants to go all the way to version 26.+

Is there an effective way to install and use an older version when I build my new system?

Thank you.

[Peano]

Install previous versions of your Creative Cloud apps

[Dave Gurtcheff]

I recently fouled up my Plug - Ins, there is a separate post of mine on this topic. I fortunately have several versions of Photoshop CS5 and CS6 in both 32 Bit and 64 BIT. Those two plug-ins are my most used plug-ins. I have a run of the mill 24" monitor, but it works for me as my prints match my monitor. Big prints are my thing. Here are two screen shots showing the choices Clarity offers. It is a really nice plug in app.
 One screen shot shows the possibilities, and the second shot shows the original with no filters applied.
Dave in NJ

[earlybird]

I encountered a discussion about Topaz Clarity substitutes, and Luminar NEO Supercontrast was suggested.

I downloaded Luminar NEO and tried the Supercontrast feature.

Luminar NEO Supercontrast seemed crude compared to Topaz Clarity.  The Luminar NEO Supercontrast crossover range seemed too large, so "high contrast" adjustments affected "medium contrast" areas in an unsightly manner. All of the Luminar NEO Supercontrast adjustments appeared to aggravate the saturation and vibrance of the image with undesirable results.

The experience gave me a greater appreciation of Topaz Clarity. It induced a greater sense of longing for a stable and perpetual replacement for Topaz Clarity as I near the end of my ability to use it.

It seems crazy to me that Topaz owns the mathematics for the seemingly unique Clarity filter but declines to make it available for sale in a contemporary plugin product.




 

[Redcrown]

I'm a big fan of Topaz Adjust (the upgrade of Clarity). I've spent many hours looking at alternatives and find none that come close. I've also tried to reverse engineer the technique using luminosity and edge masks with Curves. Also no luck. Topaz Adjust is a perpetual license and still works with the current version of Photoshop, so no problem yet. I've even written to a couple other commercial plugin developers suggesting they consider making an alternative. But got no responses.

As for your UI problem... I had similar problems with some older Photoshop plugins (Tony Kyper TK7) when I got a 4K monitor and used the Windows settings to set text size to 120% (just text, not Scale). There was no solution. But I'm running Topaz Adjust (V1.0.6) with 120% text on Windows 11 and no problems.