Printing out things to its real size

Tundra · July 25th, 2010, 12:15 PM

For some reason whenever I try and print out things from a picture editing program such as paint.net it takes me to a printing wizard that gives me size choices such as full page, fax page, and a bunch of smaller ones. It stretches the image to fit them, or shrinks or crops. Nowhere can I find the option to keep it to the size the image should actually be. Right now I'm trying to print out dollhouse wallpaper and I *know* it is not a full size A4 page! It's supposed to be 10 x 8 inches. So, I copy/paste the image into Word... which shrinks it because of the column widths I have.

This happens when I'm trying to print out smaller images too. I was making some dollhouse books, and I knew they were 3 cms wide because I made them that big in the photo editing program. I had to copy/paste them into word to get them to print in any sort of 'real' size.

How do I fix this?

MichaelB · July 25th, 2010, 10:45 PM

Get a professional image printing/publishing program, like Photoshop or Gimp or Fireworks or InDesign. That's really the only way that I can think of. Gimp is opensource and free.

Locke · July 26th, 2010, 01:14 AM

Yeah, that's Microsoft's idea of telling you what it is you want to do. It's among the most annoying "features" of Windows.

BTW, the Gimp is awesome once you get used to it.

Tundra · July 26th, 2010, 10:21 AM

Is that the only solution? I swear I never used to have this damn printing wizard a few years back.

Locke · July 27th, 2010, 03:05 PM

I'm sure most any image editing program that isn't the default Windows image viewer will probably get you around that abysmal image printing wizard.

Tundra · July 27th, 2010, 04:23 PM

Paint.net isn't the default windows image viewer.

Locke · July 28th, 2010, 09:24 AM

And it still calls the wizard? That's just lazy programming. The Gimp probably won't do that. I say probably because my experience with it is purely on a Mac, which is free of the aforementioned wizard.

Tundra · July 28th, 2010, 12:50 PM

It didn't call the wizard in the past I swear! I don't know why it is now.

Locke · July 28th, 2010, 03:06 PM

The wizard is taking over your computer!

AXJ · July 29th, 2010, 02:56 AM

A decent 'hack' to get something printing at the size you want it when your imaging programs are misbehaving is to save it as an image then import the picture into a MS word (or other word processor) document then scale it to the size you want it using the rulers. (you may have to expand the margins, though)

Locke · July 29th, 2010, 03:37 AM

Yeah, that's what she's complaining about having to do :P

AXJ · July 29th, 2010, 04:43 AM

Reading fail.

Never had that problem tho. In Word, maybe try right-clicking the image, "format picture", choose the 'layout' tab, then "in front of text". That should allow you to manually move and resize however you like without it changing the size on you.... up to and including sizing it out of the printable portion of the page, if you wish.

Tundra · July 30th, 2010, 07:53 PM

For word it works if it's small images. However I was trying to print dollhouse wallpaper that was apparently 8 x 10 inches, and I measured the print out and it is not at all that. :S I'll try fiddling with the margins again.

AXJ · July 30th, 2010, 11:45 PM

Side margins .25", top/bottom margin .5", and expand image to fill all available space? Can't imagine it wouldn't work as long as the pic was formatted as 'in front of text' alignment. Unless, of course, your printer can't do margins that narrow....

ETA, oh wait, A4, not american 'letter'. That means side margins would need to be 0.15 in ea and top/bottom would need to be .85 in each.

Tundra · July 30th, 2010, 11:53 PM

I don't want to expand the image to fill all available space because it's a very specific size.

But I'll try again.

AXJ · July 31st, 2010, 04:20 AM

But if you make the margins as I listed, the available size will be the specific size you need (8x10). So filling the space gives you what you want.

July 25th, 2010, 12:15 PM	#1
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Printing out things to its real size For some reason whenever I try and print out things from a picture editing program such as paint.net it takes me to a printing wizard that gives me size choices such as full page, fax page, and a bunch of smaller ones. It stretches the image to fit them, or shrinks or crops. Nowhere can I find the option to keep it to the size the image should actually be. Right now I'm trying to print out dollhouse wallpaper and I know it is not a full size A4 page! It's supposed to be 10 x 8 inches. So, I copy/paste the image into Word... which shrinks it because of the column widths I have. This happens when I'm trying to print out smaller images too. I was making some dollhouse books, and I knew they were 3 cms wide because I made them that big in the photo editing program. I had to copy/paste them into word to get them to print in any sort of 'real' size. How do I fix this? __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 25th, 2010, 10:45 PM	#2
MichaelB Shouty Cat Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 5,657	Re: Printing out things to its real size Get a professional image printing/publishing program, like Photoshop or Gimp or Fireworks or InDesign. That's really the only way that I can think of. Gimp is opensource and free. __________________ .....Michael is the underrated wit on NiH. - Gene .....Jeez, Michael, you are by far the most hardcore worldbuilder I've ever had the pleasure of conversing with. - Gene .....Polyglot is polyglot, whether the glot is old or not. - Ariella

July 26th, 2010, 01:14 AM	#3
Locke Guitar Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 918	Re: Printing out things to its real size Yeah, that's Microsoft's idea of telling you what it is you want to do. It's among the most annoying "features" of Windows. BTW, the Gimp is awesome once you get used to it. __________________ "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with matches." Ray Bradbury, "Coda" VisionForge: Blog, Stories, Confessions Flash Fiction Forums: For workshopping impossibly short stories.

July 26th, 2010, 10:21 AM	#4
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Re: Printing out things to its real size Is that the only solution? I swear I never used to have this damn printing wizard a few years back. __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 27th, 2010, 03:05 PM	#5
Locke Guitar Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 918	Re: Printing out things to its real size I'm sure most any image editing program that isn't the default Windows image viewer will probably get you around that abysmal image printing wizard. __________________ "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with matches." Ray Bradbury, "Coda" VisionForge: Blog, Stories, Confessions Flash Fiction Forums: For workshopping impossibly short stories.

July 27th, 2010, 04:23 PM	#6
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Re: Printing out things to its real size Paint.net isn't the default windows image viewer. __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 28th, 2010, 09:24 AM	#7
Locke Guitar Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 918	Re: Printing out things to its real size And it still calls the wizard? That's just lazy programming. The Gimp probably won't do that. I say probably because my experience with it is purely on a Mac, which is free of the aforementioned wizard. __________________ "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with matches." Ray Bradbury, "Coda" VisionForge: Blog, Stories, Confessions Flash Fiction Forums: For workshopping impossibly short stories.

July 28th, 2010, 12:50 PM	#8
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Re: Printing out things to its real size It didn't call the wizard in the past I swear! I don't know why it is now. __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 28th, 2010, 03:06 PM	#9
Locke Guitar Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 918	Re: Printing out things to its real size The wizard is taking over your computer! __________________ "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with matches." Ray Bradbury, "Coda" VisionForge: Blog, Stories, Confessions Flash Fiction Forums: For workshopping impossibly short stories.

July 29th, 2010, 02:56 AM	#10
AXJ With Added Bacon Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: South Carolina - United States Posts: 10,241	Re: Printing out things to its real size A decent 'hack' to get something printing at the size you want it when your imaging programs are misbehaving is to save it as an image then import the picture into a MS word (or other word processor) document then scale it to the size you want it using the rulers. (you may have to expand the margins, though) __________________ AXJ's DadHaven blog (RIP)

July 29th, 2010, 03:37 AM	#11
Locke Guitar Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 918	Re: Printing out things to its real size Yeah, that's what she's complaining about having to do :P __________________ "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with matches." Ray Bradbury, "Coda" VisionForge: Blog, Stories, Confessions Flash Fiction Forums: For workshopping impossibly short stories.

July 29th, 2010, 04:43 AM	#12
AXJ With Added Bacon Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: South Carolina - United States Posts: 10,241	Re: Printing out things to its real size Reading fail. Never had that problem tho. In Word, maybe try right-clicking the image, "format picture", choose the 'layout' tab, then "in front of text". That should allow you to manually move and resize however you like without it changing the size on you.... up to and including sizing it out of the printable portion of the page, if you wish. __________________ AXJ's DadHaven blog (RIP)

July 30th, 2010, 07:53 PM	#13
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Re: Printing out things to its real size For word it works if it's small images. However I was trying to print dollhouse wallpaper that was apparently 8 x 10 inches, and I measured the print out and it is not at all that. :S I'll try fiddling with the margins again. __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 30th, 2010, 11:45 PM	#14
AXJ With Added Bacon Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: South Carolina - United States Posts: 10,241	Re: Printing out things to its real size Side margins .25", top/bottom margin .5", and expand image to fill all available space? Can't imagine it wouldn't work as long as the pic was formatted as 'in front of text' alignment. Unless, of course, your printer can't do margins that narrow.... ETA, oh wait, A4, not american 'letter'. That means side margins would need to be 0.15 in ea and top/bottom would need to be .85 in each. __________________ AXJ's DadHaven blog (RIP)

July 30th, 2010, 11:53 PM	#15
Tundra Site Admin Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Mirror World Posts: 25,586	Re: Printing out things to its real size I don't want to expand the image to fill all available space because it's a very specific size. But I'll try again. __________________ "We may indeed assume, with a high degree of probability, that Jane Austen went commando." I don't trust mandarines. They shed their skins too fast. I find it very hard to respect them. They're like the sluts of the fruit world. - Frank Woodley "Don't look at the Dinghies! In China you're not allowed to notice them!!!" -from a weird dream I had Vol au vent. French for "inadequate pie" I'm taking her hankie. In RETRIBUTION!

July 31st, 2010, 04:20 AM	#16
AXJ With Added Bacon Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: South Carolina - United States Posts: 10,241	Re: Printing out things to its real size But if you make the margins as I listed, the available size will be the specific size you need (8x10). So filling the space gives you what you want. __________________ AXJ's DadHaven blog (RIP)

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