Participating Frequently

Question

Viewing "Actual Size"

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
March 31, 2011
3 replies
57882 views

HI,

I've always wondered why, if I set the screen view to "Actual Size" or even 100%, that if measured against a ruler put up to the monitor, it does not correspond. Is there a view or setting that can do this without me zooming in or zooming out and measureing with a ruler every time? (I'm feeling this might be so simple I'm going to once again be embarrassed....

Thanks.

Performance

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davidblatner

Community Expert

Great thread! We discussed this in podcast 4, many moons ago, and included a one line script from Dave Saunders: http://indesignsecrets.com/indesignsecrets-004.php

John Hawkinson

Inspiring

There's some funny irony with us posting the long scripts verbatim and Dave's 1-line script being inside a .zip file. Here it is for comparison:

try {app.layoutWindows[0].zoomPercentage = 140 } catch (e) {};

Of course it's short since it doesn't do any math and hardcodes to 140%.

davidblatner

Community Expert

That is funny. (technically the reason we used zip was to force download of the jsx file.) It's so much easier to hold a ruler to the screen and figure the proper resolution than to do the math.

A

Anonymous

Zoom something of a known width and measure it with a ruler until you get true 100%

Make note of the zoom amount (131% for my setup)

Open a text file and add this code:

try {app.layoutWindows[0].zoomPercentage = 131 } catch (e) {};

Save as Zoom131.jsx (or whatever name.jsx) into your scripts folder

Edit keyboard shortcuts to set Ctrl-1 to run your script (if you want 131% instead of 100%)

Duplicate/edit/rename script for 200%, 50% etc and add shortcuts if desired...

A

Anonymous

This has been discussed several times in the forum. You might search for one of those threads.

Canned_Pug-Ng0EYkAuthor

Participating Frequently

i did try "viewing size' and "actual view" with 0 results not sure

what else to ask...will look further

A

Anonymous

You are totally misunderstanding me. The units ID uses internally are postscript points which are 72 per inch. It makes no difference what ruler units you use, at 100% ID is going to base the view on showing you the equivalent of 72 postscript points in the size it "believes" represents one inch, which is calculated by checking the number of pixels being displayed and dividing by the reported system resolution (I'm making a presumption, here).

Two different monitors may both be running at 1920 x 1200, for example but if one is a 24 " and the other is 27" the apparent size of what is on screen is going to be very different, even though Windows or OS X is using the same value for resolution in the OS. ID can't tell the physical dimensions of your monitor, so it displays the rulers using the same calculations on both monitors, and the size will be wrong, but differently wrong, on each one, unless the the "true" resolution of the monitor -- the number of pixels displayed divided by the physical size of the display -- is exactly 72.

In order to find the correct zoom level for a lifesize view you need to calculate that "true" monitor resolution and divide it by 72, the number of postscript points you want to display in one real inch of monitor space. It has nothing whatever to do with 72 ppi or 96 ppi beyond what those numbers may be doing to affect the size of the pixels on the screen, and you don't need to know what number the OS is using.

The second post was probably my misunderstanding you. Again, I don't believe the system resolution is particularly relevant. It's a constant, or at least can be treated as a constant, and your display depends on the physical size of the monitor and the number of pixels it displays. I keep hearing that Windows uses 96 ppi, and I don't understand where that number is even useful, if it has a real meaning, or is simply a relative value and not truly tied to a physical dimension (which is what I suspect). The number of pixels that will be displayed in an inch in your browser will still be determined by the same monitor resolution value/physical size calculation, modified by any zoom factor.

The same 600px wide image displayed in the same browser using the same settings will use the same proportion of the screen regardless of the physical dimensions of the screen if two monitors are set to the same resolution. If you change the monitor resolution setting, the image will be rendered larger or smaller and will take up a greater or lesser part of the total browser window.

Peter,

I do not think that I am misunderstanding you. Where did you ever get the

idea that I don't understand that two different sized monitors running the

same pixel dimensions would have different apparent images sizes? I think I

was fairly careful in pointing out when I was talking about effective

resolution, by which I mean actual numbers of pixels per inch of monitor.

What I said was that I don't believe you are correct in the assertion that

ID calculates the size of its display based on points. I doubt that because

I can see no reason a programmer would use typesetting points for

calculating screen display, and changing InDesign's internal calculation of

points from postscript to traditional doesn't effect the display. It just

doesn't make sense. Granted, I would change my mind if a technician from

Adobe set me straight.

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