Work with photos in grid view

Grid view displays the photos in your selection in the Library inspector as a grid of thumbnails in the Browser. You can use grid view when you want to review large thumbnail photos quickly. Setting the Aperture main window to show the Browser by itself provides the maximum amount of space to dedicate to viewing thumbnails. You may want to adjust the size of the thumbnails to a size convenient for selecting and working with them. If your selection in the Library inspector has many photos, you can also use the Shuttle control or the scroll bar to scroll through the photos.

For more information about setting the Aperture main window to show the Browser by itself, see Change the main window layout.

Figure. Browser in grid view.

Switch to grid view

Do one of the following:

  • Choose View > Browser > Grid (or press Control-G).

  • Click the Grid View button in the Browser.

    Figure. Grid View button in the Browser.

Adjust the thumbnail size

  • Drag the Thumbnail Resize slider to increase or decrease the size of the thumbnails.

Shuttle continuously through the photos in grid view

  • Press J to shuttle left, press K to stop shuttling, or press L to shuttle right.

    Note: Pressing J or L multiple times increases the shuttle speed.

Lighten or darken the background of the Browser

Depending on your work preferences, you may want to lighten or darken the background that your thumbnails appear against in the Browser. The darker the background, the less it interferes with the colors in your photo. It’s a good idea to set the background to a dark color when performing color adjustments to your photo. You can darken the background from shades of gray all the way to black, or lighten it from gray to white.

  1. Choose Aperture > Preferences, or press Command-Comma (,).

  2. In the Preferences window, click Appearance and drag the Browser Background Brightness slider to lighten or darken the background, then close the window.