iView thumbnail not displaying for psd file

[cabrackett]

Every so often I encounter a PSD file that will not display either a thumbnail or a preview in iView. What is displayed is a blank white thumbnail with a message that this layered photoshop file was not saved with a composite preview. Now I have tried purging the cache in Bridge, opening and resaving the image, converting the image to TIFF and then back to PSD, and nothing does the job. The image itself opens well in PS and I can use it in InDesign and so the basic file seems ok.

Furthermore, when saving as PSD, the "building composite image" note displays on the screen.

What on earth gives?

Using iView 3.1.3, PS CS3 10.0.1, Bridge 2.1.1.9 on a MacPro Intel running OS 10.4.11.

Chuck Brackett

[peterkrogh]

Chuck,
You hould be able to get a thmbnail in iView by doing the following.

Open the file
Save As with same name in same place
Make sure to check Maximize Compatibility
Rebuild the item in iView (make sure the Preference not to render large images does not prevent the rendering here).

The image should now show up.
Peter

[andris]

Hi Chuck,

A few questions:

-Does your image contain alpha channels?  Selections saved with the 'Selection -> Save Selection' command create alpha channels automatically.  These can sometimes cause problems for iView.  There's a setting in the iView prefs to 'ignore alpha channels' which you could try.

-Is your image in LAB color mode?  I have found that iView is unable to display LAB color PSD files.

Hope this helps,

Andris

[cabrackett]

First, no alpha channels and no Lab color.

Second, the procedure Peter outlines doesn't do the trick. In fact, I never see the Maximize Comaptibility check off.
Third, I just tried Peter's suggestion with another file and it went from having a proper rendering to the same as the first.

I also tried renaming the file (adding a 2 after the file name, as in ...5605-M2.psd  and then saving it as a tiff. The rendering comes up with the tiff icon but still has the psd file name and never shows an image.

??

[cabrackett]

OK, Peter you were right, Maximize compatibility worked when I finally found it.

What I don't understand is how it was not a problem for most images, but just the odd one.
Of course, I don't ordinarily use psds so I wouldn't be testing it that often.

Thanks for both suggestions.

Chuck

[peterkrogh]

Chuck,
Any chance these are older files?
Peter

[cabrackett]

Peter

Nope. A set taken this Thanksgiving had photos that rendered perfectly and then this one that did not. I have had it on files that are a year older or so, but nothing remarkable.

Why?

Chuck

[peterkrogh]

Chuck,
I built my older PSDs without previews.
I have changed that practice (I think everyone else should too.)
Peter