tanstaafl. Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 I have found the printing options in PDN to be... ummm, lacking to be polite about it. Maybe frustrating is a better word. In all probability, PDN will print just the way I want it to, and I'm just not smart enough to figure out how to do it. Right now, all I want is to be able to print at something less than full-page. For example, I create a simple drawing, size it in PDN to, say, 2 inches by 2.5 inches. It will print out at 8 inches by 10 inches, with no other choices, at least not that I was smart enough to find. This is probably the rankest heresy to say this on the Paint.Net forum, but I find the Microsoft Paint print options to be far more useful, with the ability to scale the drawing by percentage, fit to a single page or fit to multiple pages, make my own choice about landscape vs portrait mode, etc. Unfortunately, MS Paint won't run on my computer anymore, probably a corrupted DLL file or something that will require a nuke and repave operation to fix. [This is one of the better things to happen to me, because without it I wouldn't have found and installed Paint.Net! ] Rick Brewster has said in the "Popular Feature Requests" thread Better printing user interface -- Planned for a pre-4.0 update. Will this just be a change to the UI, or will there be added functionality? I installed the "PrinterPlus" plug-in, and while it mimics the MS Paint print interface to some degree, it does not add any of the MS Paint print options. What will the "Better printing user interface" actually do, and is there any projected time frame? tanstaafl. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Try the Printer+ v1.0 plugin. ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarkut Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 tanstaafl, I don't have my printer hooked up, so I can't check this. Take your example 2x2.5 inch image, and then expand the canvas to 8x10 inches. (Anchored in the Middle) Image > Canvas Size... With the Print Dialogue set to 8x10 will it print your 2x2.5 image right-sized? -------------------------- (If it does, you owe me a free lunch) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl. Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 >(If it does, you owe me a free lunch) If you will come and visit me here in Ajijic, Mexico*, I will treat you to a filet mignon dinner at Ajijic Tango's, best restaurant in town. In an attempt to disprove your silly theory about expanding the canvas size around a small image, I finally gained an understanding of the difference between image size and canvas size, and now it all makes sense, particularly in how it relates to printing. Turns out your silly theory was right. I was always used to a system where the print dialogue controlled how the image would print, that is, you did your sizing and page fitting when it was time to actually print. With PDN, on the other hand, you do all that in the editing phase: you set the size of your image, you set the size of your canvas (NOT the same thing!) and the print routine scales the canvas to fill every square inch of paper. If this seems bone-headedly obvious, just remember my mantra: "If it's different from what I'm used to, it can't be any good." You inspired me to do the experimenting and testing I needed to do in order to understand the relationship between image size, canvas size, and print size. For that I thank you! I still feel that the print options are the weakest link in a great free program, but now that I understand things a bit better, it's not as bad as I thought. Doug Burnside aka: tanstaafl. *See attached photo, taken from my deck. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl. Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 Try the Printer+ v1.0 plugin. Uhhh... been there, done that! But I thank you for the suggestion. Rick Brewster has said in the "Popular Feature Requests" thread Better printing user interface -- Planned for a pre-4.0 update. Will this just be a change to the UI, or will there be added functionality? I installed the "PrinterPlus" plug-in, and while it mimics the MS Paint print interface to some degree, it does not add any of the MS Paint print options. tanstaafl. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrochild Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 If you prefer MSPaint's print options, you should head to a tech support forum and ask for help getting it working again. ambigram signature by Kemaru [i write plugins and stuff] If you like a post, upvote it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Brown Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Also, if you insert your Windows/OEM disk, there'll probably be an option to repair corrupted system files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl. Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 If you prefer MSPaint's print options, you should head to a tech support forum and ask for help getting it working again. Oh, I have spent many hours with pretty tech-savvy people trying to get MSPaint to work again, to no avail. The strange thing is, it will work under the proper circumstances. If I open Paint.Net and save a file, then MSPaint will work -- one time. Then it will no longer open until I repeat the process with Paint.Net. Very strange. In any case, the editing advantages of Paint.Net far overwhelm any supposed superiority of MSPaint's print options. tanstaafl. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrochild Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 If I open Paint.Net and save a file, then MSPaint will work -- one time. Well, there's your solution right there. When you're ready to print, save, then use your one MSPaint run to print.In any case, the editing advantages of Paint.Net far overwhelm any supposed superiority of MSPaint's print options. I wasn't suggesting you switch back to MSPaint, I was saying there's room on your toolbelt for a hammer and a screwdriver. ambigram signature by Kemaru [i write plugins and stuff] If you like a post, upvote it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarkut Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 That's a pretty nice view from your deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brewster Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 I wasn't suggesting you switch back to MSPaint, I was saying there's room on your toolbelt for a hammer and a screwdriver. Or at least a hammer and ... a small hammer. The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/ Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattiG Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 This was the closest thread I could find that seem to relate to my problem. I'm making graduation invitations, started out with my canvas as 8x6, for the inside of my card I made another canvas 8x12 (making front, inside, back). When I went to print the inside I had a thumbnail size print. I have the printer+ plug in, can see how to print full page, ect. just not sure what it is I'm doing wrong to end up with much smaller print version. I've been playing with Paint.net quite awhile but had never printed anything...now I'm worried all my projects are way to small. I also read the article on the dpi and resize, sorry to say though, it didn't make a lot of sense to me...but I'm dense when it comes to things like this. Appreciate any thoughts and input! PattiG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarkut Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 If this thread becomes locked, start a new topic in the General Discussion & Questions forum with a link to this thread. What are the pixel dimensions of the 8x6 image and also the pixel dimensions of the 8x12 canvas? (Canvas size should be 8½x11, if that is the paper size you will be printing on.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brewster Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Please see the rules for details on when you shouldn't post to an ooolllddd thread. Thread Closed The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/ Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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