Hello,
Using the vertical and horizontal rulers as guides, I draw a box that is 150 mm by 150 mm. When I print it with my Samsung laser printer on regular 8.5in by 11in paper and measure the printed box with my micrometer, it is 143mm by 143mm.

How do I adjust so that 150mm in software equals 150mm on paper?

I originally had this problem when printing a graphic layout. As a test I then printed a simple rectangle and I have the same results. The print always comes out the be about 95.3% the size of shown in Inkscape. Is this a problem in Inkscape, my printer, my computer, my... crometer? Obviously, I can scale it up to print the correct size but then It's off in software and I really want to fix this proper. Thanks y'all!

-Bryan

Using Inkscape Portable V0.91
Samsung CLP-325w

First, I would suggest not using the rulers, if you need precise measurement. The rulers are not precise. Instead, I would suggest using the the H and W fields in the Selection tool control bar (or the Rectangle tool control bar also allows you to set the dimensions precisely). Or snapping to a grid or guides. (Set the guides precisely, not by visually aligning to rulers.)

If you set the size precisely using those controls, and still see some discrepancy....well, someone else will have to help. I've never tried to print an Inkscape drawing, so I'm not very knowledgeable about printing issues.

Although, I can see how different printers could produces variations. I mean, I see how my printer works (when it works, which it hasn't in a long time). Something goes back and forth on a bar and sprays out ink onto the paper. But it kind of vibrates while it prints. It seems like just that vibration could cause a line to be a few millimeters off. I think you'd have to have a pretty fancy printer, to print that precisely.

Hi.

Have never printed myself straight from inkscape svg, but drawings saved as pdf-s.
Pdf viewer's print option bringing up the print settings, there is always a "print actual size" choice.
That is working for me to print in 1:1 scale.

On an A4 paper, 7 mm error for 150 mm is too large for printer sloppiness. On large format plan printer, I could see inaccuracy in ink tone not being consistent along the whole width -probably the machine would need an inner cleaning up-, but cannot recall more than 3 mm discrepancy (The paper slipped while being pulled? Have no idea.)


Another thing, if you print on better paper, the ink "wont leak" and you can achieve a higher resolution.
(Regular print papers are not so good for printing photographs, though that could only produce tiny inaccuracy.)

My guess is that you have different resolution settings (dots per inch - dpi) on your Inkscape drawing from that of which the printer is capable. Inkscape defaults to 72 dpi but many printers default to 75dpi. Printing a 72dpi drawing on a 75dpi printer will translate 150mm to 143mm (or thereabouts).

Thank you for the suggestions! Unfortunately I still haven't whipped it

brynn wrote:First, I would suggest not using the rulers, if you need precise measurement. The rulers are not precise. Instead, I would suggest using the the H and W fields in the Selection tool control bar (or the Rectangle tool control bar also allows you to set the dimensions precisely). Or snapping to a grid or guides. (Set the guides precisely, not by visually aligning to rulers.)

If you set the size precisely using those controls, and still see some discrepancy....well, someone else will have to help. I've never tried to print an Inkscape drawing, so I'm not very knowledgeable about printing issues.

Although, I can see how different printers could produces variations. I mean, I see how my printer works (when it works, which it hasn't in a long time). Something goes back and forth on a bar and sprays out ink onto the paper. But it kind of vibrates while it prints. It seems like just that vibration could cause a line to be a few millimeters off. I think you'd have to have a pretty fancy printer, to print that precisely.

@brynn
I get the same results using the rulers or the H and W fields.

Lazur URH wrote:Hi.

Have never printed myself straight from inkscape svg, but drawings saved as pdf-s.
Pdf viewer's print option bringing up the print settings, there is always a "print actual size" choice.
That is working for me to print in 1:1 scale.

On an A4 paper, 7 mm error for 150 mm is too large for printer sloppiness. On large format plan printer, I could see inaccuracy in ink tone not being consistent along the whole width -probably the machine would need an inner cleaning up-, but cannot recall more than 3 mm discrepancy (The paper slipped while being pulled? Have no idea.)


Another thing, if you print on better paper, the ink "wont leak" and you can achieve a higher resolution.
(Regular print papers are not so good for printing photographs, though that could only produce tiny inaccuracy.)

@Lazur
Yeah I agree, I don't think this is printer sloppiness. The test rectangle is evenly shrunk in all directions. I tried saving to a pdf using the Inkscape save box dialog settings "Use documents page size" and then again using "Use exported objects size", both giving the same results. I did select "Actual Size" when printing each.

styxlawyer wrote:My guess is that you have different resolution settings (dots per inch - dpi) on your Inkscape drawing from that of which the printer is capable. Inkscape defaults to 72 dpi but many printers default to 75dpi. Printing a 72dpi drawing on a 75dpi printer will translate 150mm to 143mm (or thereabouts).

@styxlawyer
I tend to agree with this. No matter the size of the print it's always off by the same percentage which would correlate pretty close 72dpi/75dpi = ~95%. A 6" box printed measures exactly 5.700". 5.700/6 = 95%

Any recommendations on how to proceed troubleshooting or verifying this? It doesn't look like I can change or even verify what my printer dpi is. I'm having no luck figuring out how to change or verify this in Inkscape as well. I think I will dust off and find some cables for this old printer I have here; that would really help narrow it down. Thanks again everyone for your help!

styxlawyer wrote:My guess is that you have different resolution settings (dots per inch - dpi) on your Inkscape drawing from that of which the printer is capable. Inkscape defaults to 72 dpi but many printers default to 75dpi. Printing a 72dpi drawing on a 75dpi printer will translate 150mm to 143mm (or thereabouts).

75/72~~150/143

Sounds reasonable, but there are various posts here about illustrator svg looking off in inkscape and vice-versa, caused by the fact inkscape runs 90 dpi, illustrator 72.
The upgrade to 96 is forced by javascript (?) development strategy.
Also if you save in a vector format, and used real world units, you should not deal with calculating the resolution.
It is up to the printers rip to render the image to inkblots at the resolution it was made for.
If the printer had a setting for output dpi, it should definitely have a setting to adjust the real world sizes of the image.


At this point my guessing is that all the present inaccuracy is specific to that printer.
Have no idea about the exact settings, but you might as well search for the printer by serial number, if anyone noticed the same problem.

It may be a printer driver problem as I have just drawn a circle of 150mm diameter on an A4 page and printed it from Inkscape on an HP Envy 4500 inkjet with A4 paper. It comes out of the printer at exactly 150mm diameter.

Inkscape 0.91 running under Windows 8.1 on a Toshiba satellite.

Thanks styx for doing that test!

I just saved in all sorts of different formats(dxf, svg) and different dpi settings(export as png) and imported them into Autodesk Inventor and it always comes in the correct size.

Also, then fired up GIMP and printed a 6" box. Holding it up to the light I can see it's the same exact incorrect size as my print outs with Inkscape.

My second printer has a broken usb port so that's out of the test but I don't think the test is even necessary. After the import/export test producing accurate results and my test print using different software(GIMP) producing the same incorrect results, I think I can safely say it's printer related and I wasted entirely too much paper.

For those interested, my printer:
Samsung CLP-325W

Updating from "Samsung CLP-325w Class Driver" to "Samsung Universal Print Driver 2" solved it. Thanks styx for dropping that hint.

Driver Issues... for as often as they get the best of me, you'd think I'd be quicker to consider them as the root.

Glad you got it sorted out. Don't you just love Windoze.

I had a similar problem with my HP Photosmart 6520 All-in-one printer. In this case, graphics were printed at about 91.5% of full size when the printer was set to 'double-sided printing' but were printed correctly when it was set to 'sided-sided'. Why?