Hi,
I've recently switched to Aperture to fit my library onto my Macbook Air with 128GB of hard drive space.
This worked great until Apple came along with the retina-display update which seems to have jacked up the thumbnail sizes.
My ~128GB library now has a thumbnail directory of 13gb!
I have a bunch of questions about this:
- Thumbnails instead of Previews: I've disabled automatic preview generation, and the ones Aperture makes are all about the same size as my thumbnails because of the settings I've chose. Any way to use these big thumbnails as my Previews?
- Thumbnail Size: Any way to change the size of thumbnails? Preferably smaller. Not sure if there's some hidden preference or something.
- Using Thumbnails for web-pages and emails. When I try and email some photos it says they are offline. I get it - the previews and/or originals aren't there for mailing. The thumbnail image size is fine for me to use for web pages and emails. This would be great. It seems a bit silly that my Thumbnails are all over 300K and there is no way to use them for webpages and posting email and to FB.
I'm quite happy having my library like this, it means I can get to the work of rating and making albums and captions and such for the 4-6 years of photos I have. Editing the good ones later. I'm a little behind :) In retrospect I guess the extra 128gb would have made a big difference on the Air but boy was it extra-expensive too. :(
I've come a long way since using iPhoto for years - the ease (well, it wasn't easy, but I guess it was possible) of migration from iPhoto to Aperture the big reason I moved, along with the possiblity of showing off my photos offline.
Any other tips on managing a big library w a tiny HD appreciated.
Thanks Joseph,
Thanks for the thorough response. I wasn’t expecting any solutions but nice to know I can stop looking for then.
Sounds like we’re both doing the same things. I’ve done the screen caps from the thumbnails as well. I’m not helping myself with such a large music library, maybe that’s the next thing to pare down.
Cheers,
Ryan
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Ryan,
Those large thumbnails are definitely an issue for people. It is unfortunate that there’s not a better way to manage those.
To answer your questions…
“Thumbnails instead of Previews” — no, no way to do that sorry.
“Thumbnail Size” — again no, I’m afraid.
“Using Thumbnails for web-pages and emails” — what I’ve done in the past when needing a low rez image and not having a preview or the Original available is to simply make a screenshot of the thumbnail at its largest size. I’ve even gone as far as importing that to make additional changes before sending/posting!
Command-shift-4 to get your screen capture cross-hairs, then carefully drag around the image to capture what you need.
Other than that, as far as tips for managing a small HD, is simply to keep the Library referenced except for the latest projects that you’re actively working on… if you’re really tight on space you can move older projects entirely to a different library on a different drive… keep previews off as you’ve already discovered…
For non Aperture things: use software like OmniDiskSweeper to locate chunks of data you don’t really need… if using DropBox to sync files, customize the sync to only have the stuff you really need on your Air… don’t store any music or videos locally… those are the things I do with my Air to keep it lean.
@PhotoJoseph
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Ryan,
Yeah, the large music library isn’t helping. Pay for iTunes Match and you don’t have to store any music locally! That’s what I do… of course I’m not a big music nut so I often just stream Spotify when I want music, but I can appreciate it’s more important to many people.
Anyway, yes, you’re doing all you can really. Gotta keep that thing running lean.
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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