Microsoft KB Archive/65217

Selected Printer and/or Resolution Affect Bitmap Size

PSS ID Number: Q65217 Article last modified on 11-02-1994

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MS-DOS

= SUMMARY =

The size of a bitmap in Microsoft Word for Windows can depend on the printer and resolution that is selected at the time of editing or printing. Word attempts to scale the graphic to the best size for the current printing environment.

Because of this scaling, documents that have been formatted specifically for a 300-dpi printer may vary in appearance when printed at 75 dpi or to a dot-matrix printer.

= MORE INFORMATION =

At times, the scaling of graphics to meet varied resolutions can produce seemingly unpredictable results. For example, a bitmap printed at 300 dpi will sometimes be larger than the same bitmap printed at 75 dpi.

Word for Windows scales bitmaps up to the desired size by multiplying each dimension by an integer whose product comes as close to the desired size as possible. For 75 dpi, for example, the Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet gives us a “scaling factor” of four (300 pixels at 75 dpi is four times the size of 75 pixels at 300 dpi).

If we get multiples of four at 75 dpi, then we get multiples of two at 150 dpi and multiples of one at 300 dpi. If the closest multiplier is five, then Word will use four for 75 dpi and 150 dpi (possibly six for 150 dpi), and five for 300 dpi. In general, Word will be able to get closer to the desired size at 300 dpi than at the other resolutions.

KBCategory: kbinterop KBSubCategory: Additional reference words: w4wprint grphflt ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.