Printing in actual size?

[qqjqyzzr]

How can I print something in its actual size? There is an option to resize a picture's print size, but no option to print it in that size?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Print at 96dpi ~ that should be the same resolution as your monitor. Be warned: it will look awful.

[kreemoweet]

Digital images do not have a physical size, regardless of what any attributes of the image may suggest,

so the term "actual size" is really quite meaningless.

 

Also, the Windows image printing facility which Paint.net uses is very limited and simply does not have

the ability to print images at arbitrary sizes. There may be further limitations imposed by your printer.

[pdnnoob]

Simon Brown's printer+ plugin can be manipulated to print to a size you are aiming for, but you'll have to do the calculations yourself.

Edited January 27, 2013 by pdnnoob

[midora]

Save as PDF using the ImPDF filetype plugin and print PDF.

The plugin allows you to define position and size on the virtual paper.

[NeverCMie]

Save as PDF using the ImPDF filetype plugin and print PDF.

The plugin allows you to define position and size on the virtual paper.

Don't you lose some quality there ? 

[NeverCMie]

I have created an drawing as follows:

image size is 3308 x 2338, 200 pixels/inch, giving 16,54 inch x 11,69 inch. 
The intention was to printout on A3 format...

But PDN always prints out on A4 format (on an A3 paper however, but only 3/4 the of the page is used to print my drawing. 

 

Somebody can help me to get it on A3 ?

[midora]

Don't you lose some quality there ? 

No if you are not using jpeg compression in the pdf options.

[maxgoof]

It seems that, at least in Windows 7, that Paint.NET does not have a way to print "actual size".

 

However, if you save it, then read it into MS Paint (bleh!) there is a page setup that will let you set the scaling to 100%. If you then print, it will print it actual size.

 

Seems to me there should be a way for Paint.NET to do this directly.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The term 'actual size' is misleading.  The size you see on the screen at 100% is achievable if you print at the same resolution as the screen (usually 96dpi).  However it looks dreadful at this resolution.

[Zag24]

I'm puzzled, Ego, that you don't seem to understand the question.  This isn't about resolution or print quality.  Using resize, I set my image to be a certain size, in inches.  I have the ruler showing, which shows the image, in inches.  This isn't a photo, it's a cartoonish quality picture that I have made as a template for my wife's quilting.  The only issue is that she needs it to be a particular size.  The outer square has to be exactly 4 inches.  That's what it is, according to the ruler, which is in inches.  That's what I want it to print.  All the print options so very helpfully scale the image to print page, in many different modes.  I want an option that just freaking prints it the size that I told it to be.

[david.atwell]

I'm puzzled, Zag24, that you don't seem to understand the answer.  This is totally about resolution and print quality.  :-)  You want it to be exactly 4 inches square; that means, if you set your DPI at 96, you will want the image to be precisely 384x384 pixels.  That will give an image of 4"x4".  But it won't look very nice.

 

See, in computer graphics, the DPI you set directly affects the size of the image when printed.  Trying to stretch an image made for 96dpi (your monitor's resolution) over a printed page (usually at 150-300dpi) will result in a notoriously bad printed image; print resolution and screen resolution are very different beasts.  If you don't care about that, you can use a plugin (like the aforementioned Printer+) to print it at whatever arbitrary resolution you want it to print at.

 

If you want a good looking image on the printed page, you will want it to be higher resolution.  Say, for instance, 600x600 or 1200x1200px.

 

And if this is not the question you were asking, then you weren't asking the same question as the original poster.  Since you shouldn't have necroposted anyway, I'm going to lock this thread per the Rules; if you still have questions, feel free to open a new thread.

 

Thanks!  Welcome to the forum!