Shapes printing distorted (eg, flattened, squashed circles)

[ceravis]

Shapes printing distorted (eg, flattened, squashed circles) - Excel 2007 and possibly earlier versions


Note that I posted this Sept. 10th at http://www.excelforum.com/showthread.php?t=614091 and have yet to receive a response, so I thought I'd try here... sorry for the cross-post .
I also searched quite a bit here and elsewhere, and http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=250808 is the only reference I can find to the problem, and that has no solution yet.


This seems to be a strange Excel bug ("feature"?) - when I print (or Print Preview) a sheet with shapes, the shapes print a little wider than they should be, resulting in a squashed looking, disproportional shape. For instance, a 3x3" circle prints at about 3.25" wide x 3" tall, while a 2.75" wide x 3" tall circle prints just about 3x3".

Anyone know what could be causing this in Excel? I'm using Excel 2007, and I'm told the problem exhibits in earlier versions, though I haven't tested this myself. I've tried printing to 3 different printers, so I'm pretty sure it's not the driver, and it doesn't occur with any other software (e.g., Word, OpenOffice Calc, etc.), so I'm pretty sure it's not something wrong with my Windows Vista installation. Also, it doesn't make a difference if I lock the aspect ratio of the shape, or if I specify "Don't move or size with cells" under Object Positioning.


Here are some examples:

1. Created a circle at 3x3" in Normal view.

2. Switched to Page Layout view, now it's 3" tall x 3.21" wide - didn't change anything else.

3. Switched to Print Preview, now it looks even more distorted than Page Layout view. This is very similar to how it looks when printed - measured about 3" tall x 3.25" wide.

4. Resized the circle to 3" tall x 2.75" wide in Normal view.

5. Switched to Print Preview (without doing anything else), now it looks almost perfectly circular.

6. When I switch over to Page Layout view now, Excel reports the circle is now 3" tall x 2.96" wide.


I would really appreciate any ideas how to fix or workaround this (other than manually resizing to compensate, of course - I and my coworkers deal with far too many of these files) - I've scoured the net and haven't come up with much of anything...

Thanks!

 

[ceravis]

As far as I can tell, it seems to have something to do with Windows DPI settings, since the amount of distortion is different when I switch from 96dpi to 120dpi in Windows Control Panel.

Again, I can reproduce the problem on several computers, in both Windows XP and Windows Vista, and Excel 2007 and 2003. It also occurs regardless of which printers are physically installed or set as default, or whether printing to a physical printer, Adobe PDF, or saving as XPS in Excel 2007.

Is there another way to create shapes easily and force them to keep the proper proportions? Even if I create a static image (PNG or JPG) and import it into Excel, it distorts by the same amount.

Sadly, I can't simply compensate for the distortion when designing, because a number of different people will be working on these files on a number of different systems, and some will use Normal View, some will use Page Layout view, some will use Page Break view... all of which look different.

Has anyone else even *seen* this happen, or is it an isolated thing? Am I going crazy? Should I ditch all poorly designed Microsoft products for good and never look back?

 

[Tadashi]

Was there any resolution to this problem? I also have this issue where the print preview (and print out) is all distorted when the screen looks fine. I noticed this only with 2007 and not Excel 2003.

 

[riaz]

I have found that using display properties to jack the DPI up by 25% causes Excel to jack everything up by the same amount without telling you it is doing so. For example, selecting a 10 point font on screen is bumped up to 12.5 points, but the font selection still shows this at 10 points. Row heights, which are a factor of font size, are similarly bumped up.

The solution I have found is to keep the DPI at normal under display properties, but then use the appearance tab to set the font size to extra large. This enlarges everything on screen including menu items, dialog boxes etc., but keeps the aspect ratios correct.

 

[Tadashi]

My display setting are on normal and I still get the distortions.

 

[Thushara]

It looks very interesting,But no conclusions it see.
.......................
Thushara
[url="http://www.widecircles.biz"]Wide Circles
[/URL]

 

[Macropod]

Hi all,

The squashed shapes problem has been an issue with Excel sice at least as far back as version 5!!

Yet, if your worksheet's print area is small enough, there's a really simple workaround - copy & paste it into Word (as an embedded worksheet). Make sure the object has scaled both the horizonatl and vertical dimensions to 100%, then print from there. I kid you not.

Cheers

 

[blessy]

I am a new visitor of this forum. It is very interesting forum. This problem is now solved in latest versions. I my view Excel only a work sheet for storing data,applying functions etc.The shapes printing disorder is not a huge problem in it. I think this problem is only occurred only in printing time.

=====================================================

Bless



Wide Circles

 

[gospelle]

I am a new visitor of this forum. It is very interesting forum. This problem is now solved in latest versions. I my view Excel only a work sheet for storing data,applying functions etc.The shapes printing disorder is not a huge problem in it. I think this problem is only occurred only in printing time.

=====================================================

Bless



Wide Circles

WRONG!!! I am running Excel 2007 and have this EXACT same problem. I import a perfect circle and the print preview and hardcopy print jobs show a squashed circle. WTF?

 

[Macropod]

The OP (ceravis) said clearly enough that the problem exists with Excel 2007, so I don't know what gave blessy the idea "This problem is now solved in latest versions".

Cheers