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100% size preview is not actual size (change DPI scaling)

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 2, 2017
4 replies
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I would like to know, how I can adjust DPI preview of documents in InDesign and Photoshop. In Acrobat I can easily change resolution to custom (in my case I want 109 pixels/inch - 2560x1440 on 27') and 100% preview is correct (when I put A4 paper on screen it fits). How can I adjust it in other Adobe software? PS in ID has both lower resolution by default (96 i guess?).

Thanks.

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Correct answer rob day

InDesign CS6 or later displays the actual print size when you view at 100%—it automatically detects your main monitor's resolution to display the actual print size. At 100% your ruler dimensions will view at their actual size.

The current Photoshop will give you the actual print size if you choose View>Print Size. In that case the zoom percentage will depend on both your monitor's and the document's resolution. Photoshop's 100% view has always previewed the image at a 1:1 monitor pixel to image pixel ratio, and would not show the actual print size unless the image resolution happened to match your monitor resolution.

Prior to CS6 InDesign also used the 1:1 ratio for 100% views and in that case you were not seeing the actual print size.

MioMillioni

Participant

In my experience all you need is this script: https://www.indiscripts.com/post/2019/02/physicalsize-check-your-design-at-true-magnification

It works perfectly for me

Matteo Grander

Participating Frequently

Most people here seem to be on Mac - and my MacBook does display the scale of pages correctly (on the built-in monitor), but my PC doesn't seem to report display size correctly. My vertical monitor is the one with the least deviation at 5 mm. My vertical monitor isn't the main monitor though, and on my main monitor the scaling is off by ~1 cm...

Now I want to know: is there a way to manually adjust the scaling in InDesign to be accurate?

D

default3ie9cnn9h03c

Participant

This does seem to be a Windows problem (our Macs scale correctly). I can get the scaling more or less correct by changing the Windows user interface scaling setting to 113 % (display is Fujitsu 27 inch).

rob day

Community Expert

If the OS is not correctly reporting the display’s pixel per inch resolution you could set it via scripting, for eample my 27" display’s physical display width measures 23.5" inches and is running at 3200 x 1800 px, so its ppi is 136. This script would override the reported main monitor res and 1" print output would display as 1":

app.generalPreferences.customMonitorPpi = 136;
app.generalPreferences.useCustomMonitorResolution = true;

ishbelt69765476

Participant

Nope!

I am using InDesign CS 2018. My monitor is a 2560x1440 27" monitor. A page which should be 153x123 (~4"x6") is coming out at 133mm x 88mm at "Actual Size", about 15% too small. I have double monitors and the second monitor is also 27" but only HD (1920x1080), when I slide indesign to that monitor it is far too big - so we can ignore that monitor.

There doesn't seem to be a monitor/resolution setting in InDesign , not in Preferences nor the View menu.

I am using windows 10 professional 64 with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti (4gb) graphics card.

Is there a setting somewhere else I should be looking at?

rob day

Community Expert

A page which should be 153x123 (~4"x6") is coming out at 133mm x 88mm at "Actual Size", about 15% too small.

Just to clarify, by "coming out" you mean the window's ruler units displayed size? So if you show rulers, set them to inches, with the zoom view to 100%, and you use a physical ruler to measure the ruler display, 1 inch measures as .85"?

InDesign uses the primary monitor's resolution to calculate the display of the print output size, so a second monitor's 100% is never an accurate print view.

Is there a setting somewhere else I should be looking at?

If you are looking for Photoshop's 1:1 view at 100%, here is a JS version of the script I posted in #7.

app.generalPreferences.customMonitorPpi = 72;
app.generalPreferences.useCustomMonitorResolution = true;

rob day

Correct answer

Community Expert

InDesign CS6 or later displays the actual print size when you view at 100%—it automatically detects your main monitor's resolution to display the actual print size. At 100% your ruler dimensions will view at their actual size.

The current Photoshop will give you the actual print size if you choose View>Print Size. In that case the zoom percentage will depend on both your monitor's and the document's resolution. Photoshop's 100% view has always previewed the image at a 1:1 monitor pixel to image pixel ratio, and would not show the actual print size unless the image resolution happened to match your monitor resolution.

Prior to CS6 InDesign also used the 1:1 ratio for 100% views and in that case you were not seeing the actual print size.

T

Thomas Dearie

Known Participant

I'm getting a similar problem in Adobe Illustrator CC 2018

I have to choose 150% to get actual size display on my 27"iMac
(2560x1440).

Any idea if this is a bug?

Thanks

T.

rob day

Community Expert

Yes.

That's why differentiation is needed.
You need a different value depending on the output destination.
So it's better to have both options.

Screen 1:1 is not really actual size, though it's an important value when we're working for screen output.

Actual Size, strictly speaking, is the output dimension on whichever device you're outputting to (whether that be a screen or a printer).
It's the actual real-world dimensions a viewer sees when the image is output.

For screen, output size varies depending on the screen resolution of the user's device — it's typically device dependent.

For print, output size is typically device independent.
It's the real word size of something when it comes out of your printer and will be the same size no matter what printer you print to.

So we need two menu choices, depending on whether we're in print or screen workflow:
Actual size (output) for print; and
1:1 (display to image pixel dimensions) for screen

One value will never suit for both purposes, regardless of what we call them.

We won't die if it doesn't happen, but it's a bit of a nuisance that's been hanging around for a long time.

You could do a feature request, but I think any change would have its own set of issues.

For screen design the 1:1 view concept has become less meaningful now that Google is penalizing websites that are not mobile friendly. It's futile to design a page to a specific device pixel dimension or aspect ratio because the mobile friendly directive forces the developer to code the page so its content rearranges and scales itself to the device. You might choose to carefully design to a specific pixel dimension, but those dimensions will likely change in the device's browser making the matching views irrelevant.

InDesign does have a preference that is not in the GUI, which lets you change the scale.

This Applescript sets the page to a 1:1 view—66% on our 27" iMac:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"

set x to main monitor ppi of general preferences

set zoom percentage of active window to (72 / x) * 100

end tell

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