Disclosed herein are embodiments of systems and methods for displaying and updating image previews in the graphical user interface of an application program running on a computer. The image previews for a given master image within the application program constitute various image sizes and resolution of that master image, and are preferably compiled as image preview data sets in a database accessible by the application program. When the image previews are manipulated in the applications program by a user, for example by scrolling or magnifying them, an appropriate resolution for that image preview can be queried from the database and displayed. For example, while scrolling, a lower-resolution image preview data set might be used when compared to those image preview data sets used while the image previews are not scrolled, thus making them less computationally intensive to display and update. Likewise, while magnifying, an appropriate image preview data set can be queried from the database instead of, or in conjunction with, up- or downscaling the image preview.