[HM] screen resolution: pinched inches

[Duane Murphy]

--- At Tue, 1 Mar 2005 07:25:35 +0000, michaelP wrote:

>>From: Brian Olesky
>>
>> The ruler shows...how do I describe this...the relative size of your page.
>> Each inch on the ruler shows an inch not on your screen, but on the actual
>> page when you print it out.
>>
>> So whatever size you have the page on your screen, the ruler will always
>> show you the measurement of the real page.
>>
>> Try it and see.
>>
>> Brian
>>
> Thanks, Brian, but I do realise this (I have been using DTP software,
>mainly
> PageMaker since version 1, as a graphic designer for 17 years); it's just
> that, on other Macs I have loved and lost, when viewing at "Actual Size"
> (PageMaker) or "Print Size" (PhotoShop) the rulers *were* inch for inch,
> i.e., the screen rulers' inches were actually one inch long. I agree this
> doesn't matter unless one is, say, showing a client on screen the size of
>  option of displaying a picture at "Print Size", given the fact (as you
>have
>shown yourself) that the rulers always show the correct measurements at any
> magnification, then I DO expect THIS option to display on screen the actual
> size of the image when it prints (and similarly for PageMaker's "Actual
> Size" option. You must admit, given the 'correctness' of the rulers at all
>magnifications, that such special/specific options should do what they say,
> n'est pas?
>
> So my problem remains...

The problem is that today, monitors lie. What? How can a monitor lie? 

The internal graphical drawing space for a Macintosh application is 72
pixels per inch. All drawing expects the monitor to be 72 pixels per
inch. And all drawing is done with those measurements. It's the only
thing that is known. 

Unfortunately these days, monitors come in all kinds of pixels per inch,
so the scaling factors are not accurate. Applications don't draw in
inches, they draw in pixels. So if a monitor is not 72 pixels per inch,
it won't be accurate. That is the cause of your problem.

With that said, Apple is working on fixing this situation. They are
developing a resolution independent drawing model for applications. This
will allow applications to draw accurately to the screen so that 1 inch
looks like 1 inch. (It also let's web browsers show pages more correctly
as lots of web sites assume 90(?) pixels per inch from Windows. That's
what makes some web sites look too small.) 

It will take time for applications to adopt this new resolution
independent drawing model (whenever it is released), but it will get better.

 ...Duane