I'm not sure where to post this question so I'll do it here.

[OCtoolguy]

At least I know most folks monitor this forum on a regular basis. I've got a Inkscape question to ask. I'm trying to figure out why my printer doesn't print things at the same size as I draw them in Inkscape. I'm trying to print some circles at 4.5" diameter and when they print, they are about 1/16" small. They are coming out at 4 7/16" diameter. The project that I'm working on has to have the patterns correct or it throws everything off. I'm using an engineer's 3 sided scale for measuring so I'm fairly sure it's accurate. Can anybody shed light on this? I'd sure love to know what I'm doing wrong. If anything. My printer is a Brother all-in-one color laser printer and it is usually very accurate.

 

[Jim McDonald]

Not familiar with the settings in Inkscape, but check at the print dialog box for something like "print actual" or "fit to page". 

I know that causes a lot of grief on PDF printing.

Could be something similar.

[OCtoolguy]

17 minutes ago, Jim McDonald said:

Not familiar with the settings in Inkscape, but check at the print dialog box for something like "print actual" or "fit to page". 

I know that causes a lot of grief on PDF printing.

Could be something similar.

Thanks. I'm aware of that but I failed to check that this time. I'll give it another go.

[OCtoolguy]

Well, that didn't work. I added a 32nd of an inch to my pattern and printed it and it came out exact. Not sure what's going on.

 

[Dan]

I don't have inkscape in front of me, but I know that when programming a cnc the measurement of a line (kerf) can be made from the inside, outside or center of the line. Try making the line of your object very thin, resize your object, and print. See if that gets you closer to the size you want. This is assuming your object is a line and not a fill. 

[OCtoolguy]

52 minutes ago, Dan said:

I don't have inkscape in front of me, but I know that when programming a cnc the measurement of a line (kerf) can be made from the inside, outside or center of the line. Try making the line of your object very thin, resize your object, and print. See if that gets you closer to the size you want. This is assuming your object is a line and not a fill. 

I've the line thickness set a .5mm or. 05mm. Can't remember but it's thin. You may be onto something though. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[don in brooklin on]

Did you check under Document properties to make sure you are printing US letter.  If I have it set to A4 when I print it will be just a smaller( about 1/4).  Not sure if it is Inscape or my Lexmark printer.

 

Don

[Wichman]

Sorry, this is why I gave up printing from Inkscape or Gimp. Too many setting to try to remember to get an exact size print.

Add to this that I just tried to print from Inkscape, to see if I could find the settings and guess what, my new latest greatest version of Inkscape for Linux will not print, not even a dialogue box, nothing (even the task manager shows no change in the resources Inkscape is using). Restarted the computer and all. Blech

[OCtoolguy]

55 minutes ago, don in brooklin on said:

Did you check under Document properties to make sure you are printing US letter.  If I have it set to A4 when I print it will be just a smaller( about 1/4).  Not sure if it is Inscape or my Lexmark printer.

 

Don

It's set to 8 1/2 x 11.

[WayneMahler]

I save mine as a PDF and print from that. Maybe this will help you ?

[John B]

I can't help much, but because of a number of Editing programmes not printing accurately to scale, I usually import my drawing etc into Publisher, with a grid, size it there and print. Always spot on.

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by John B

[Fab4]

Hi Ray
Check this out and see if it will do anything for you
hope it plays
Fab4

[BadBob]

On 1/8/2022 at 11:15 PM, Wichman said:

Sorry, this is why I gave up printing from Inkscape or Gimp. Too many setting to try to remember to get an exact size print.

I use both Inkscape and Gimp running on Fedora 32 Linux. I've never had a problem printing to the exact size from Inkscape. I never print patterns from Gimp I use it to clean up scans I made or other bitmaped images before tracing them with Inkscape.

Edited January 10, 2022 by BadBob

[TAIrving]

Good topic and good discussion.  Maybe this will inspire me to try my hand at Inkscape again.  So far I have not designed enough patterns to really get into it.

The few patterns I have designed I did in PowerPoint and they most certainly did NOT print to scale! That led to a lot of frustration and fiddling with printer controls.

[Dan]

I created two 4" circles in Inkscape. One had a stroke width of 0.5 pts and the other 12.000 pts. After creating the circles and stroke widths I had to resize the circles to 4". Then I printed them out and both measure 4". 

The Z value at the bottom right of the page does the same thing as using the + and - keys. It should not affect the printed size. To verify this, I printed one page at 99% and another page at 24% and both circles measure 4".

[OCtoolguy]

10 hours ago, Fab4 said:

Hi Ray
Check this out and see if it will do anything for you
hope it plays
Fab4

Thanks. It played fine but I will watch it on my pc. 

[OCtoolguy]

3 hours ago, Dan said:

I created two 4" circles in Inkscape. One had a stroke width of 0.5 pts and the other 12.000 pts. After creating the circles and stroke widths I had to resize the circles to 4". Then I printed them out and both measure 4". 

The Z value at the bottom right of the page does the same thing as using the + and - keys. It should not affect the printed size. To verify this, I printed one page at 99% and another page at 24% and both circles measure 4".

You are over my head at this point but it forces me to learn more. Thanks Dan.

[OCtoolguy]

6 hours ago, Dan said:

I created two 4" circles in Inkscape. One had a stroke width of 0.5 pts and the other 12.000 pts. After creating the circles and stroke widths I had to resize the circles to 4". Then I printed them out and both measure 4". 

The Z value at the bottom right of the page does the same thing as using the + and - keys. It should not affect the printed size. To verify this, I printed one page at 99% and another page at 24% and both circles measure 4".

Dan, I played around with the stroke width and for me, the line "thickens" toward the inner part of the circle and doesn't make the outer diameter grow or shrink. But after viewing the Youtube that was posted above by Fab4, I played with that setting also and it seems to make sense. On my monitor if I set the zoom at 97% the circle is right on the money at 4.5" both on screen and printed. So that may be the determining factor. Time will tell.

 

[Dan]

6 minutes ago, OCtoolguy said:

Dan, I played around with the stroke width and for me, the line "thickens" toward the inner part of the circle and doesn't make the outer diameter grow or shrink. But after viewing the Youtube that was posted above by Fab4, I played with that setting also and it seems to make sense. On my monitor if I set the zoom at 97% the circle is right on the money at 4.5" both on screen and printed. So that may be the determining factor. Time will tell.

 

That's odd. On my computer changing the percentage made no difference in the printed pattern. Hmm. Well, I'm glad it's working for you. 

[Fish]

I export to pictures then use rapid resizer.    It cost about $40 a year and is worth it.   

Edited January 10, 2022 by Fish

[Fab4]

I'm going to add something else that's weird about printing the right size
When I was following that video, The only way I could get the correct size
after trial and error was to change my Display Setting. Apparently Inkscape
was being stretched with the setting I had and not giving me a true measurement
went from 1152x864 to 1280x720 (for those who understand this)
Make sense??? 
All I know is that I can print from Inkscape size for size when I set the
Zoom at 64% - I don't pretend to understand but I'm happy with the results
Fab4

[Fab4]

13 hours ago, Dan said:

That's odd. On my computer changing the percentage made no difference in the printed pattern. Hmm. Well, I'm glad it's working for you. 

Dan:
What is your display setting set at for your computer - just curious - see my post about changing my setting - thanks

[Dan]

20 minutes ago, Fab4 said:

Dan:
What is your display setting set at for your computer - just curious - see my post about changing my setting - thanks

1920 x 1080

[OCtoolguy]

10 hours ago, Fab4 said:

I'm going to add something else that's weird about printing the right size
When I was following that video, The only way I could get the correct size
after trial and error was to change my Display Setting. Apparently Inkscape
was being stretched with the setting I had and not giving me a true measurement
went from 1152x864 to 1280x720 (for those who understand this)
Make sense??? 
All I know is that I can print from Inkscape size for size when I set the
Zoom at 64% - I don't pretend to understand but I'm happy with the results
Fab4

I tried changing my display settings. Two things happened. Actually only one thing happened. I hated the new setting and the printout remained the same. When I have the circle set at 4.5" my printout is 4 7/16".

[BadBob]

14 hours ago, OCtoolguy said:

I tried changing my display settings.

Changing your display settings doesn't have anything to do with printing. I worked in IT for over 30 years. Printers can be a pain to deal with. My educated guess guess is that the problem is either your printer, driver, or printer settings.