display size on-screen differs from actual size.

[Mitchell_Henry@adobeforums.com]

With Illustrator 10 installed on Windows XP Pro with a Viewsonic 21" monitor at 16000 X 1200, the problem I am having is: The image I see on-screen, when set to 100 percent, is much smaller than the actual size. I would like to have an 8 1/2 X 11 artboard fill the screen to an actual 8 1/2 X 11" size. I cannot seem to figure out how to make this type of default setting. Any help would be much appreciated.

Mitchell

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Mitchell,

See "PLEASE HELP--Viewing actual size" 3/23/04 11:05pm </cgi-bin/webx?13@@.2cd0ceac/1>.

Also...

With a 21" monitor set to 1600x1200 and both Illustrator and document windows maximized, 'Fit in Window' (Ctrl+0 or double-click on hand tool) should get you closer to actual "actual size" than 'Actual Size' (Ctrl+1 or double-click on zoom tool).

(Did that make any sense?)

=-= Harron =-=

[Mitchell_Henry@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Harron,
Ctrl+0 does get me closer to "actual size." 133% to be exact... a bit larger than actual size. I am still curios if there is a setting to adjust to display actual size at 100%?
Thanks,
Mitchell

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Well... You could drop your screen resolution to 1280 x 960, which is what I use on my 21". That'll get you closer, although 100% will still be somewhat smaller than real-life actual size.

=-= Harron =-=

[B. Philippus]

Mitchell:

1. Grab an 8.5x11 sheet of paper;
2. Tape it onto the screen;
3. Play with zoom settings until the 8.5x11 artboard matches exactly to the 8.5x11 paper;
4. Remove sheet of paper (optional), then memorize percentage.

Here's something else you could do:

Fiddle with the artboard size, until you get to a size where 1 inch on screen represents 1 real inch at "Fit-to-Screen" display size (draw a grid in inches to measure), then delete content of document and save it as your default-CMYK or default-RGB file. Next time you start a new document, it should open with that size artboard, then all you need to do is fit-to-screen and voila!

Bert

[mirage_3d@adobeforums.com]

hi there,

i've been also wondering how to get this working in illustrator. other vector packages have this feature, since they read screen resolution from the operating system. i have a 17" lcd set at 1280 with a 96dpi pitch. it's a perfect 96dpi when i measured it. illustrator displays my work at 75% of that size when viewed at 100%. translate this into dpi, we get 72dpi. so illustrator either assumes my monitor is 72dpi or is hard-coded to assume monitor seolution is 72dpi. isn't there any way to make illustrator treat my monitor as a 96dpi display?

thanks.

[Mac_McDougald@adobeforums.com]

The OS has no idea what size monitor you have.
It only knows that you are running 1280 pixels across whatever is hooked
up to the video adaptor.

A 19" monitor at 1280 would have a smaller working ppi.
A 15" at 1280 would have a larger working ppi.

That's why monitors don't have a ppi rating.
Monitors don't know ppi, only the total pixel dimensions fed to it at any
given time.

"Working" ppi, as you describe it, is valid enough concept, and is
detrmined by a combination of monitor size and screen resolution set at
the time. But you don't have a "96ppi monitor" and your OS (or video
adaptor) certainly doesn't think so either.

Also, aren't your Illy docs sized in inches, rather than ppi?
An 8.5 x 11 page can be any ppi at all, depending. And of course this
only relates to raster images that are on it. Vector work has no ppi at
all.

(and btw, technically, dpi is measure of output resolution, ppi is
measure of screen and raster image resolution).

Now, in Photoshop, if you had a 1280 pixel wide image, it would
essentially fill your screen at 100%. Except for whatever pixel area
needed for the program's boundaries.

Which is all to say, I think you are comparing apples to oranges.

Mac

[mirage_3d@adobeforums.com]

thanks for the insight and explanation about dpi, ppi, and all. the operating system does know your monitor size and pitch settings because the user 'has' to tell it what monitor they are using. it can also know about these settings from the monitor drivers when installed, as you choose what monitor size you're using for the particular brand. this works for both windows and linux, and i'm sure it works for the mac as well. operating systems let you choose the monitor resolution, and then allow you to set the ppi setting. this all resembles the printing process. if you know how many pixels your monitor has, and you 'tell' the os what 'dpi' to use, it's then a matter of simple math to display artwork at the accurate size. this is the case when people want to work as accurate as possible. it's just like color calibration. if you don't do it, your os/software won't know anything about it.
lemme give you an example. check your monitor setting for the dpi setting, large monitors are usually 96 dpi, although crt are not as accurate as lcd's. open an image in photoshop - doesn't matter whether we're dealing with raster or vector here - and change the ppi reslution to match your monitor dpi without resampling your image. take note of the image dimensions in inches, and then 'measure' the image size on monitor while viewing it at 100% - or actual pixel size. you'll find out that the size you get matches the size in the image size dialog. now try to view the image at 'print size' from the view menu and you'll notice that the image size on display differs - most probably the image would shrink.
same goes for vector graphics when you want to view at 'print size' resolution.
bottom line is, if adobe products can't dynamically display the 'real' dpi resoluition when viewing at 'print size', then why is that option there ? we might as well just try to manually tweak the zoom level to match the print size and then stick a note on the monitor that says 'print size - zoom 133.33%'

thanks