# Thumbnails on a Mac?



## Bruce_h (Apr 14, 2008)

Hey there everyone.  I just imported all my pictures from my PC to my Mac by DVD, and there is no pictures for a thumbnail, just a jpeg symbol.  I tried to convert some RAW files to jpg, and they showed up the same way.  I've tried everything I can think of.  Any suggestions?


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## Yahoozy (Apr 14, 2008)

*shrug*
thats pretty much how my mac is


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## Socrates (Apr 14, 2008)

Yahoozy said:


> *shrug*
> thats pretty much how my mac is


It seems to be related to the creator (the app). If you open and resave with something like PSE, the correct thumbnail will appear. I never worried too much about it myself because I use iPhoto exclusively and, of course, it doesn't matter there.


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## notelliot (Apr 14, 2008)

happens to me sometimes. in that case i use spacebar to preview the file as it doesn't open an application to do so.


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## Rhys (Apr 14, 2008)

weird!
I have a Macbook and a few PCs. I imported all my photos and I can see them as thumbnails.

Using Leopard.


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## EricBrian (Apr 14, 2008)

notelliot said:


> happens to me sometimes. in that case i use spacebar to preview the file as it doesn't open an application to do so.


Ha! Didn't know that worked. Thanks for the tip.


Now, I am not 100% sure, but I believe the thumbnails are only shown if the exif info contains a thumbnail. So, if you save using PS's save for web feature, all exif info is stripped from the image and when you look, there is also no preview image in Finder.


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## Bruce_h (Apr 14, 2008)

It's kind of a pain in the arse that it won't come up, but I can deal with it.  I was watching a video on YouTube for Mac tips and the guy had thumbnails on his so I figured it could be done.  

I have a couple pictures with thumbnails, but they were saved to the desktop instead of a folder.  I just tried to do that and it didn't work this time...  The EXIF data stays intact when I post them to the web, but I can't seem to save a preview.  It does work on my PC.  

 As for iPhoto, I only ever tried it once and I could not get it to import any of my pictures.  I guess I can give it another try.  Anybody have an quick ideas what I may have been doing wrong the first time?


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## EricBrian (Apr 14, 2008)

Well, there are also some software solutions out there that will batch create thumbnails in your images so that you can see them as icons in Finder... maybe Google for them?


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## Socrates (Apr 14, 2008)

Bruce_h said:


> It's kind of a pain in the arse that it won't come up, but I can deal with it. I was watching a video on YouTube for Mac tips and the guy had thumbnails on his so I figured it could be done.
> 
> I have a couple pictures with thumbnails, but they were saved to the desktop instead of a folder. I just tried to do that and it didn't work this time... The EXIF data stays intact when I post them to the web, but I can't seem to save a preview. It does work on my PC.
> 
> As for iPhoto, I only ever tried it once and I could not get it to import any of my pictures. I guess I can give it another try. Anybody have an quick ideas what I may have been doing wrong the first time?


What happened when you attempted to import?


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## Bruce_h (Apr 14, 2008)

Socrates said:


> What happened when you attempted to import?



Last time it moved all the pictures into a iPhoto folder, but nothing would show.  I just reattempted it, imported from the iPhoto folder and everything works great now!  From now on how do I go about having it automatically import to iPhoto though? 

And since there is a few Mac guys here, is it best to buy a new iMac with 4gb of ram, or just upgrade my Mac Book to 4?  It's only got the Intel Duo core, where as the iMac has a quad core.  Will I be able to run Photoshop CS3 on the Macbook with 4gb ram?


So many questions.. sorry.  I'm supposed to be studying for finals, so thinking up questions for you guys is what I spend most of my time doing!


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## EricBrian (Apr 14, 2008)

Oh, and here is the URL to download that free app:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19673


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## Hertz van Rental (Apr 14, 2008)

Thumbnails appear when they are part of the image file. That is to say they are attached to the image - but this is not done automatically. The thumbnails have to be created.
Saving files with something like Photoshop can generate thumbnails, but it is not an automatic thing - although the default is to create a thumbnail.
In PS go to the top menu bar >File >Save As... will open up a dialog to select how and where the image is to be saved. Clicking Save brings up a second dialog box for JPEG giving compression options. There is (or should be) a check box marked Preview. Putting a tick in this box will create a thumbnail when you save. Leaving it unchecked won't.
Other formats like TIFF don't give you the option, they just do it.
Other image programs may do things differently but they usually include the Create Preview option somewhere. If this has been turned off then saved images won't have a thumbnail.
Macs do their best to provide a thumbnail - even for video. But some file formats it can't cope with.
If a preview is embedded in the image it will show up.
If the Mac can read the file type it will show a thumbnail.
If there is no preview and the Mac can't read the file then you will get a generic 'file type' image. This will say JPEG or TIFF or...
Generic images are often produced to indicate the program that created - or has been allocated to deal with - the image.
I use VLC player for .WMV videos. The icon for these files is the VLC icon. But if I then open one of these files with Windows Media Player the icon is converted to the WMP icon because my actions tell the Mac what program I want to handle the file.
Any image or video that comes up with the plain document image (white rectangle with one corner turned down) means that the Mac does not recognise the file type, cannot read a thumbnail and does not have a program that can handle it.
PC viruses tend to have this icon on a Mac 
Finally imported files should be allocated a relevant icon _unless_ the file has been locked. This can happen for a number of reasons, often when the file is imported from a CD, DVD or external HD. Highlighting the file and pressing 'Command' + 'I' will bring up the information dialogue. At the bottom is 'Sharing & Permissions'. This tells you who can do what to the file: read & write or read only.
Sometimes when importing files the Mac assumes you are third party and sets this to Read Only. If you are logged in to your Mac as Admin (and if it's your Mac then you should be) you can use the Info dialogue to change status.

A good program for image handling - it will convert image types, create thumbnails and do other stuff is Graphic Converter.
If you use a Mac and don't have this, download a copy. It's a life saver and you may never need another graphics program.


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## carlostau (Apr 14, 2008)

Have you tried copying the images to a folder on your desktop and then see if the thumbnails show?
Sometimes the app needs to "modify" de pic to automatically add the thumbnail and if the pics are on a CD or DVD that is not going to be possible since they are read only.
Give it a shot


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## Socrates (Apr 14, 2008)

Bruce_h said:


> Last time it moved all the pictures into a iPhoto folder, but nothing would show.  I just reattempted it, imported from the iPhoto folder and everything works great now!  From now on how do I go about having it automatically import to iPhoto though?
> 
> And since there is a few Mac guys here, is it best to buy a new iMac with 4gb of ram, or just upgrade my Mac Book to 4?  It's only got the Intel Duo core, where as the iMac has a quad core.  Will I be able to run Photoshop CS3 on the Macbook with 4gb ram?
> 
> ...



You can drag into iPhoto and even directly into the album you wish.  However, if you use the finder to drag into the library, iPhoto won't know that the photo is there.

Can't help you with PS CS3.  I use PSE.  My gut feel is that the Mac Book will work just fine.


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## astrostu (Apr 14, 2008)

IF you're running OSX 10.5.x, then you can easily see this in the Finder.  Set your view to either Icon or Coverflow.  Press command+j (or go to View > Show View Options ...).  The bottom checkbox on the menu that pops up is "Show Icon Preview."

The Mac operating system will now create the icon for all images.  You can see this in the Icon view.  For Coverflow, I don't think you even need to go through the extra "Show Icon Preview" option.

Or, as notelliot said, you can use Quick Look by pressing the space bar on the keyboard to bring up a preview of the image.

Oh, and you can run CS3 on a 1.6 GHz single processor with 1.5 GB RAM, as I had been doing for many months until my new desktop came in February.


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## Bruce_h (Apr 14, 2008)

That works!  Excellent!  Thank you so much.  That's why I love this forum, everybody is so helpful


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## notelliot (Apr 15, 2008)

haha, if my brand new imac is supposed to be a quad, i'm gonna get pissed. 
as far as i know, they are intel core 2 duo. 
if you have the money to spend on an imac, they're pretty slick. and with 4gb of ram, you'll be hauling ass.. data-wise. 


ps, Hertz, i've been looking for a wmv player. thanks for the VLC tip!


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## sandratycova (Aug 28, 2009)

You are not able to see the images in thumbnail form those you are imported from your pc to mac so I think the format of your image  files must be damaged or not compatible with your mac otherwise you are mention in your post that you are already tried to convert some row files to jpg if that idea is not working then just try to use another software for your file conversion.


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