Actual size does not display as actual size

There is no setting allowing us to use seriously an intermediate setting.
Look at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10015516
where Magnus Lewan gave a tip allowing documents to default to such a value but if we have to change the zoom factor for this or that reason we aren't allowed to return to the custom value.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 2 septembre 2009 21:13:22

The terms "actual size" and "100%" are misnomers. To give an example, if you open an image in Preview and choose "actual size", it will display your image at 1 pixel on the screen per 1 pixel of image. The size of the image you see on your screen will be different depending on the resolution and size of your screen. It does not vary with the resolution of your printer or the dimensions of the paper you have chosen or any other printer settings. The size you see on the screen has nothing to do with the size of your printout. "Actual size" is not really "actual size", as you have discovered.

Turn on the rulers that are built into Pages. They are not "actual size" either but they'll show what the size will be for the paper size you have chosen.

Message was edited by: Badunit

phrankxm

Welcome to the forums. 🙂

As you have discovered screens appear all sorts of proportions relative to what is shown. The computer can't determine how big the screen is physically, only how many pixels it displays and the pixels can be large or small but by convention are considered 72 per inch which harks back to the days of the original Mac when it was indeed to size.

To match your wife's scrapbooking, use actual measurements which you can get on the toolbar ruler:

+Menu > View > Show Rulers+

or in the Inspector

+Inspector > Metrics (6th tab little ruler) > Size+

Peter

phrankxm

If you want to get it to appear at the correct scale, drag out the size of the window and set *Fit Width* (near the bottom) in the scale menu at the bottom left corner of the window.

Experiment till you get it to match the printed copy and then note the reported percentage for future use.

Peter

[Deleted my "edit the xml file" idea]

Dang, went through a lot of trouble posting an idea and someone posted a better idea first. "Fit width" and changing the window width will give you the zoom factor you need.

Message was edited by: Badunit

All's well that ends well.

Can't say I noticed that Windows got it always right but I'll go back to my PC and check it out.

If Microsoft can do this so too should Apple.

Tell them:

+Menu > Pages > Provide Pages Feedback+

Peter

As far as I know, an application may get the resolution (for instance 1920 * 1600 pixels) but it can't get the size of these pixels.
So I can't guess how it may determine the zoom factor giving a true 100% display.
Just as examples, I'm aware of 24" and 26" displays delivering both 1920* 1600.
The app can't take care of that.
The only soluce would be that it maintain a table of available devices with their pixel size.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 3 septembre 2009 15:26:37

phrankxm wrote:
Microsoft does not have this issue - actual size/100% is just what it says - actual size in the display

I doubt that 100%. I'm on a Mac now, so I cannot check on a current Windows system, but there is no way Microsoft could know the size of the pixels of each screen you attach to every kind of PC.

It may seemingly work on some obscure screen which happens to match, but it cannot be a rule.

If we look at it historically, it was actually the other way round. Windows never ever showed 100% correctly, as they had no idea of the connected screens. However, early Macs had complete control over the attached hardware, so their 100% was really 100%. As time went on, Apple realised that it was impossible to keep this match, as users required higher resolution per displayed inch, and pixels became smaller.

100% is still some kind of standard for a certain number of pixels. If you look at MS Word, Pages and Adobe products on a Mac today, their "100%" are all the same size - none of them corresponds to the physical size of the printed paper though.