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t0-bias
t0-bias
Known Participant
May 2, 2017
Answered

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

  • May 2, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 49428 views

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.

4 replies

MioMillioni
MioMillioni
Participant
July 26, 2022

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
Matteo Grander
Participating Frequently
October 21, 2021

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
    October 23, 2021

    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
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 23, 2021

    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
    ishbelt69765476
    Participant
    May 21, 2018

    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
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 21, 2018

    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
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    May 2, 2017

    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
      April 10, 2018

      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.

      T
      Thomas Dearie
      Known Participant
      April 12, 2018

      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

      Yes. Thanks.
      I put a feature request in about 15 years ago and again a couple of times since then (along with every other designer I know).

      Your comment re responsive design is precisely what I mean when I say screen output is device dependent.
      It's one of the reasons our view needs are different when designing for screen from when designing for print, and why we need to flip back and forth between the two views.

      So it would be great if the apps didn't conflate the two concepts of actual output size and 1:1 pixel ratio, and stayed consistent from app to app.

      I don't use InDesign for screen, so 1:1 view's not an issue for me there, though you've suggested it might be for others.
      In Illustrator, I need both, and so it would be best if each view had its own menu choice.

      Still — your reply told me that Actual Output Size view in Illustrator still hasn't been implemented, and that it's not a bug—which was my original question.

      So thanks!

      Back to work   —   at 150% view     =8 • )

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