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How to View Actual Size of Image


Jane

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Hi,

I'm about a week into using paint.net and today, after I downloaded an image from my camera. I used paint.net to make minor changes (brightness, cropping). I then clicked "view" and then "actual size" to see the full size of the pic (in case I needed to resize) before uploading it to my website. After clicking "actual size", the photo remained the same size on the screen, so I went ahead and uploaded it using my ftp software, added a description next to the photo and then went to my website to view it. Well, the picture took up almost half the screen. With my old imaging software (it is not compatible with Win 7), when I clicked "actual size", I got the actual size and could resize if needed. I loved my older software, but it is no longer available and paint.net is a poor imitation, but it's the closest I could find. So, I went back to paint net, resized the image to smaller, uploaded to my website, and now it is the correct size. Since clicking "actual size" in paint.net does not show the actual size of the image, the only way to see if the image is the size I need is to upload it, then view it from my website, and then go back to paint.net to make changes, a huge waste of time. Why is it that when I click "actual size" in paint.net, the photo size remains the same? Thanks.

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Actual Size means 1 pixel from the image is drawn to 1 pixel on the screen. (And yes, Actual Size is the same as setting it to 100%)

What you may be looking for is "print size", which is related to DPI (resolution). Simply take the ratio between the image's DPI and your monitor, and set to that zoom ratio.

Example: Image at 300dpi. Monitor is probably 96dpi. 96/300 = 0.32, so set zoom to about 32%

Although even if Windows is set to 96dpi, that doesn't mean your monitor has 96 pixels per inch. Determining the true DPI of your monitor would mean: 1) measure the physical width of your screen, excluding any border, 2) determine the screen resolution, e.g. 1920x1080, 3) divide the width from 2 by the number from 1, e.g. 1920 pixels / 20 inches = 96 dpi. You will now see the image at the same physical size as it would be if you printed with something that takes the DPI (resolution) which is stored in the image into account.

However, you may not be interested in the print size. There may be an impedance mismatch between reality and whatever website you're uploading to.

There's a really informative tutorial regarding DPI on the forum here somewhere.

The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/

Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

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Recommended reading - no - make that compulsory! It explains so much. Rick - your explanation just gave me a migraine.

I always use a 3200 x 2400 canvas & then when the image is done (& I've collected a nice new bunch of crash logs), I save the image as a .png & then resize it to 800 x 600 which tells me the image will be 1.8MB but when I upload it or even on my pc it tells me the image is about 800kb. I can live with it.

THiGVp.png

Knowledge is no burden to carry.

 

April Jones, 2012

 
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