Actual Size Zoom Help

[TisErinHerself]

Hi there, I did try researching this, but didn't find a conclusive resolution. And this seems like it should be really easy to find the answer to, but I'm just not getting it.

I need the ability to see my project in "actual" size, and I cannot obtain that no matter how much I fiddle with things. Neither "Actual Size" or "Pixel Size" in View/Zoom give me an accurate on screen size. (I know this, because I've gone so far as to hold up a real life measure over the the affinity ruler)

My needs are:
300 DPI
12x12 inch minimum canvas size (sometimes I work larger, anywhere up to 36x60", but never smaller than 12x12")

I create fabric patterns that are digitally printed, so the DPI has to be 300.

From what I can gather, the only way to see actual real life size, is to do have it in Points.

Not being familiar with Points for measurement, nor math being my strong suit.... what size in Points do I need to have it to achieve 12x12@300dpi ?

[toltec]

What size is your monitor?

The problem with "actual" size is that there are the same number of pixels in a 1920 X 1080 phone as there are in a 1920 X 1080 50" HD TV. So how would the software know the exact physical size of your 1920 X 1080 display?

In other words, you can't do it

[Dan C]

Hi TisErinHerself  

I've set up a document using the following settings: 

I then used CMD/CTRL+8 for the Actual Size view and measured the document on my screen using a tape measure, and the result was a document that was correctly sized on my monitor.

I'm using a 27" 2560x1440 monitor for these results, but as toltec has mentioned this will vary based on your monitors size, resolution and if you have any scaling options set at an OS level.

 

 

[TisErinHerself]

Okay, this is just making me feel even more dumb, or maybe I didn't explain my needs properly.

To see Real Life Actual Size (print), it shouldn't matter what my monitor size is (unless I want to see the whole thing in one go, which I'm not asking for)

If something is set at 12 inches by 12 inches, and I ask to see it's actual size, then the project should 12 inches by 12 inches (and require me to scroll up and down, and left or right depending on the size of my monitor. I have a 15 inch monitor btw, so I should be able to see the majority of my project, again that's not the issue), and I should be able to line up a ruler and see that 1 inch is actually 1 inch. If this is not the case, than Affinity is using misleading verbage for 'Actual Size'.  

When I click 'Actual Size':

 

When I click "Pixel Size"


yes, I can see that its at 17.2% (first image) and 100% (second image), but neither one of them are correct.

I literally just need to be able to occasionally check that the object I'm making is accurate real life/print size while I'm working. I'm not asking to work at this size the entire time, but I just occasionally. (Because there is a big difference in how something looks on fabric when it's either 1 inch or 1.5 inch, or even 0.5 inch.

I previously was always working in vector based programs (not Affinity Designer, though that was on my to purchase list), and never had this problem. I could see my project at 100% accuracy with just the click of a button.

[h_d]

Hi,

What you're doing works for me with my screen set to its native resolution (1440x900):

 

(there's a bit of parallax in the photo, but the numbers do line up precisely).

 

Is your monitor set to its native resolution or has the display been scaled? I don't know how to do this in Windows but it will make a difference. This is what happens if I scale my screen resolution to 1280x800:

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

[toltec]

3 hours ago, TisErinHerself said:

Okay, this is just making me feel even more dumb, or maybe I didn't explain my needs properly.

To see Real Life Actual Size (print), it shouldn't matter what my monitor size is (unless I want to see the whole thing in one go, which I'm not asking for)

No you were clear, but what you ask is impossible because your monitor is not displaying an inch at one inch. The issues is with your monitor (or its settings) not with the software.

A monitor can display at many different resolutions and sizes and to a point, you are right, "Actual Size" is a bit misleading because Affinity has no way of knowing what "actual size" is on a display, like PPI, DPI and so on.

The problem is your monitor/settings. What you will need to do is find a monitor (or display settings) that displays one inch at a physical monitor inch.

@h_ddoes have a monitor that more or less does this, but you need to know the size of his monitor for this to be useful. 

If the display is on a 15.6 " monitor for a laptop, that is one thing but I can set my 27" monitor to the same 1440 x 900 resolution  However, because my monitor is 27", at 1440 my inch is much bigger than an @h_d inch. Not that I'm one to boast 

What you can try is to change the display resolution of your monitor. I suspect it is currently at 1920 x 1080 (?). Set Designer in inches so you have a ruler as a reference, then change the display resolution of your monitor to something like 1440 x 900. You will see that the display inch varies in size a lot from 1920 x 1080, which is what I was trying to explain. Software simply cannot know the settings such as size, resolution or any adjustments you have set on your monitor..

In Windows, right click on the background and there is a choice

Try setting your monitor to different display resolutions until you find one that closely displays one inch as one inch. Most separate monitors have a horizontal and vertical adjustment. You would be able to adjust that until hopefully, your monitor is displaying one inch at exactly one inch. If you are using a loptop I am not sure you can.

[h_d]

3 hours ago, toltec said:

at 1440 my inch is much bigger than an @h_d inch. Not that I'm one to boast 

Fnarrr

[TisErinHerself]

Hi h_d,

Thanks. That didn't solve it.

Since everyone is convinced it's a monitor issue, I guess I'll just have to find a work-around until I replace my monitor next year. (I guess I'll make a grid with 1x1 squares and just have that as a layer to use in every project so that I know what my scale is looking like at a glance.) I'm still not convinced it's a monitor issue, since I don't have the same issue with using other software. (Scaling for various device screens isn't an issue for me at all. My end product is print, which is why I want to be able to see it at 100% accurate size, even if it means on my screen I only see a fraction of it at a time.)

Thanks for your help though.

[TisErinHerself]

My monitor IS at 1440 x 900, and has been this whole time.

I checked other resolutions, and it was still off.

[toltec]

15 minutes ago, TisErinHerself said:

My monitor IS at 1440 x 900, and has been this whole time.

I checked other resolutions, and it was still off.

 

The easiest way round it is to draw an object one inch on the screen. Or a ruler of some sort. Do not use the Affinity rulers for this!!!

Adjust the zoom level in Designer until your drawn ruler is exactly one inch on the screen. The zoom level will probably be something silly like 132% or whatever.

Now, whenever you want to view your design at 'full' size, just set the zoom in Affinity to 132%, and you will be seeing the design at 100%, although the page rulers won't agree.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, toltec said:

@h_ddoes have a monitor that more or less does this, but you need to know the size of his monitor for this to be useful. 

No, you don't. @h_d is using a Mac, in this case one of the 13" MacBook Air models, all of which have a native screen resolution of 1440 by 900 pixels. But I get the same results (the onscreen & real rulers matching) on my 27" iMac using its native screen resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, or my wife's 21.5" iMac & it native screen resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.

If instead I set my iMac use a non-native screen resolution, I get results that are proportional to the difference in scale. For example, using the non-native resolution of 2048 by 1152 pixels on my iMac, since 2560/2048 = 1.25, for me an inch on screen is displayed as 1.25 inches long.

This is independent of the DPI setting of the document or the PPI of the screen -- the onscreen & real rulers always take into account the scale of the screen resolution for the actual size view setting, so at the native resolution they should match.

If they don't, it suggests the display is not using the native screen resolution.

[TisErinHerself]

11 hours ago, toltec said:

 

The easiest way round it is to draw an object one inch on the screen. Or a ruler of some sort. Do not use the Affinity rulers for this!!!

Adjust the zoom level in Designer until your drawn ruler is exactly one inch on the screen. The zoom level will probably be something silly like 132% or whatever.

Now, whenever you want to view your design at 'full' size, just set the zoom in Affinity to 132%, and you will be seeing the design at 100%, although the page rulers won't agree.

That's what I ended up doing (before I saw you post). Thank you though for the zoom tinkering suggestion.

Since, annoyingly Affinity doesn't let you make custom templates, I've had to make Project Templates (Just need to remember to open one of those first instead of just opening affinity straight up and going to work like I normally do), and included the zoom grid.

Gave myself a nice big reminder of what the zoom needs to be at for real life accuracy (or close enough for my needs.)

Now to go do the same for my other template sizes.

And before ya'all think I'm such a girl for having so much pink... I hate pink. Which is why I use it as my 'call to attention' colour, as it's usually not found in my projects, so stands out.

 

 

[toltec]

@TisErinHerself

I think you could save the grid as an Asset.

That would save you having to keep cutting and pasting, or if you forgot to load a "template" or didn't have one.

[R C-R]

@TisErinHerself, is your display set to use its native display resolution, what Windows 10 shows as "(Recommended)" in Settings > System > Display > Scale and layout, for example like in this CNet article?

If not, & you change that setting to the recommended one, do the onscreen & real rulers match when the "Actual Size" view is selected?

[TisErinHerself]

50 minutes ago, R C-R said:

@TisErinHerself, is your display set to use its native display resolution, what Windows 10 shows as "(Recommended)" in Settings > System > Display > Scale and layout, for example like in this CNet article?

If not, & you change that setting to the recommended one, do the onscreen & real rulers match when the "Actual Size" view is selected?

I did check to make sure it was set to native display, and it was still not correct. I have literally tried it in all monitor settings (I have an older monitor at the moment. I'm upgrading next year).

[TisErinHerself]

1 hour ago, toltec said:

@TisErinHerself

I think you could save the grid as an Asset.

That would save you having to keep cutting and pasting, or if you forgot to load a "template" or didn't have one.

I'm in Affinity Photo, I can't find anything about Assets? Is that a Affinity Designer thing only? (Designer is on my wishlist for Christmas. Right now I use Inkscape for my vector needs)

[toltec]

Yes, Designer only, sorry 

Roll on Christmas 

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, TisErinHerself said:

(I have an older monitor at the moment. I'm upgrading next year).

How is your monitor connected to your computer? Is it an analog connection like VGA or component video, or a digital connection like DVI or HDMI? If it is an analog connection (including via a digital to analog converter) does the monitor itself have any display size settings?

[lineweight]

I've come up against the same problem. I'm trying to move various processes that I used to do by hand on paper, into an entirely digital workflow, using a pen display.

I'll often do hand drawings but to scale (architectural drawings mostly). In other words I draw them freehand but using a scale ruler.

Currently i can do this in Affinity apps on the pen display - except the bit about using the scale ruler. Let's say I have a PDF, at a defined scale on the screen - I want to set it to "actual size", so that I can draw onto it in exactly the same way as I would if the same document were printed onto paper, where I can quickly use my scale rule to check dimensions.

At the moment if I tell affinity to display the PDF at "actual size", that's not what happens. It displays at the wrong scale. If I choose "actual size" Affinity gives me a zoom level of 44% but in fact I have to set it to 35% to get it right (or near enough).

I've read the discussion above about whether this is the "fault" of Affinity or the display. What I can say is that mac's native preview app gets it right on 2 out of my 3 monitors, and Affinity gets it right on none of them.

It would be useful if there were some way for me to set this zoom level manually in Affinity preferences. I've worked out that 35% will get it about right, but it's a pain to type that into the tiny scale box every time I want to use it. I'd like to have somewhere in the preferences where I can say, if I ask for "actual size", via the menu or a shortcut, please set the zoom level to 35%.

[fernandolins86]

I'm having the same issue on Windows PC. Native OS resolution, native monitor settings, no scaling of any kind. Actual size for A4 piece of paper on Affinity Designer looks about 70% of actual A4 size.

[lineweight]

I wish we could have some kind of on screen ruler, that could be made to match whatever scale we wanted, and dragged around the screen like a physical one.

[Aad Slingerland]

Just out of curiosity I checked my gear. After presisng Ctrl-8 the measurement is 100% okay. Please don't mind the unsharpness. No tripod 🙂

[Jack Humbert]

Where I posted this was pretty buried, but I ended up finding a solution for adjusting the EDID (driver-level information in the registry about the monitor), which corrected the scale for me in Affinity products on Windows. Folks with unpopular monitors, or those without manufacturer-supplier drivers might find it useful, but it is fairly advanced: 

 

[TenTonTITAN]

It is mind-boggling the number of uninformed comments here. You can definitely set the screen zoom to reflect actual print size in photo-editing software, no matter what monitor or TV you use, and no matter what size it is... if you use Photoshop. How? It's easy. You can tell Photoshop in the preferences dialog box under "Units and Rulers" and set the screen resolution. For example, if your screen is 24 inches wide measured horizontally, and it's a 1920x1080 monitor, then your screen resolution is 1920 pixels divided by 24 inches, which is 80 pixels per inch (ppi). You can then set your screen resolution to 80ppi and then when you zoom to "print size" it will show your document at its real life size. Or if you have a 4K 50" TV, then your screen resolution size is 3840x2160 pixels, and it will measure horizontally about 43.25 inches. Then just take 3840 pixels divided by 43.25 inches, which means you set your screen resolution to 88.79ppi. You will get your document at its exact real life size when you zoom to "print size".

So there's nothing wrong with anyone's monitor. This is a failure of the software to give us the ability to tell it exactly what our screen ppi resolution is. Until Affinity puts that option in the preferences, we will have to use toltec's workaround.

And for those of you who are getting actual size when hitting "actual size": it's a FLUKE. Affinity is guessing your monitor is probably something like 72ppi, and it just so happens your monitor and screen resolution combination is close to 72ppi. That's all there is to it.