Why doesn’t an inch in Photoshop equal and inch on the printer?

CD
Posted By
Charles_Durward_Rogers
Feb 1, 2009
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461
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Stuff: Photoshop CS3 Extended v10.0.1, Windows XP Pro

When I create an image of a grid with one inch spacing and print it on my Epson R1800 the grid spacing on the print is not one inch wide (an 8 inch wide grid prints as 8.25 inches). No scaling is being done, resolution of the image is 100 pixels/inch.

This is not a question about preview size, I don’t care about that. I just want to know the best way to match up what Photoshop thinks is an inch and what my printer thinks is an inch. I am hoping that there is some way to calibrate it once so I don’t have to scale each picture before I print it.

I am assuming this is a Photoshop issue and not an Epson printer issue because grids created in MS Word print exactly the right size.

BTW: I am not fanatical about printing accurate grids and rulers, I just want my 8×10 image to print 8×10 not 8.25×10.31 😉

Thanks,
Durward
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Geoff_K_Jackson
Feb 1, 2009
When you click on Print and the PS print dialog box appears, is there a tick in the box next to "Scale to fit media"? If so, take it off. This is all I can think of that may be causing your problem. I have 2 Epson printers and both will print at the correct size.
Geoff.
DS
Dennis_S
Feb 1, 2009
I don’t have an Epson printer but if your print driver has any options like "borderless printing", "minimize margins", or anything that sounds like that, try turning those options off. These types of options make the print driver expand the image slightly for printing. Unless you have "Scale to fit media" selected as Geoff mentioned, I think it is a printer driver issue.
CD
Charles_Durward_Rogers
Feb 2, 2009
Thanks for the replies. It was the "borderless printing" option that was causing the problems so kudos to Dennis.

Durward

P.S. I would like to meet the software engineer at Epson who decided that the "scale your image by an arbitrary amount depending on paper size" option should be called "borderless printing" – I have some mortgage-backed securites I want to sell him.

P.P.S And I’ll give the brilliant Epson tech-writer $1,000 for every time the manual mentions that "borderless printing" scales your image 😉
CH
CR_Henderson
Feb 2, 2009
Charles:P.S. I would like to meet the software engineer at Epson who decided that the "scale your image by an arbitrary amount depending on paper size" option should be called "borderless printing" – I have some mortgage-backed securites I want to sell him.

It isn’t just Epson. Virtually all ‘borderless’ printing engines have overspray. It is to make sure that a slightly misaligned paper does not result in a bad print–i.e. white stripes down one or more sides. In some (very few) printers this ‘overspray’ can be turned off. In others (a few more) the overspray can be reduced but not eliminated.

Charles:P.P.S And I’ll give the brilliant Epson tech-writer $1,000 for every time the manual mentions that "borderless printing" scales your image

It is another one of those items so obvious to the printer manufacturers that they don’t deem it necessary to place in the manuals. Contrary to their beliefs it is not common knowledge and I agree it should be in the manuals.

The ‘problem’ has been around for a long time:

See: <http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/april_2006.html> and scroll down to the section titled "Prints are the wrong size" There is also a link from that section that delves much deeper into the print size problem: <http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/March_2005.html>
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Feb 5, 2009
For what it’s worth, "minimize margins" doesn’t result in scaling; it merely reduces the printer margins, as transmitted to Windows, from huge to somwhat smaller, and also makes them symmetrical. Minimize margins should always be turned on, from my viewpoint. I just wish there was a way to minimize them more.

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