positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem?

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Pedroski
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positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem?

Postby Pedroski » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:03 am

To test the accuracy of positioning an object on a page, I started a new document.
Document Properties:
Page size A4, units mm, grid lines every 10mm, grid origin x= 0 y= 297 (ie top left corner of page)
Set snap to grid
Then I drew lines on the grid, horizontal and vertical, the first line at 10mm from the page edge.

Both horizontal and vertical lines are not precise. Horizontally, by the time I get to what should be 100mm, the line is 102, 200mm is actually 204.
Vertically, by the time I get to what should be 200mm, it is actually printing at 204, or slightly under.

So it seems there is a 2mm in 100mm error.

Is this a printer problem, or an Inkscape problem? Can I do anything about it?

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brynn
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby brynn » Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:14 pm

In Inkscape, when you place the lines and snap to the grid, are they in the right place? You can either confirm, or set the precise location of any node, using the X and Y spinboxes on the Node tool control bar.

Working at extreme zoom can cause this kind of descrpancy, between the path and the grid line. But you can always confirm that the path (nodes) are in the proper place.

Once you have the nodes in the proper place, and you know they are correct, test by printing.

Pedroski
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Pedroski » Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:44 pm

No, the lines snap to the grid correctly, it says 'snap to grid intersection' when I draw the line. Somehow between the computer and the printer things go wrong. As far as I know, this kind of printer makes about 5000 steps across a page, using an LED to read a band of vertical stripes and gaps on plastic ribbon. I don't know how many steps down it makes, or how it calculates them. It seems there is a regular error, so maybe it can be corrected.

Pedroski
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Pedroski » Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:19 pm

Someone on linuxquestions.org suggested trying another program. I printed a grid in Libre Office Draw. It is very very exact, so the problem must lie with Inkscape.

hulf2012
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby hulf2012 » Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:41 pm

Hello
It may be in Inkscape...

...but before your last post, I was suspecting that your printer adds a white margin to the svg drawing. I mean, there are machines that can print in the full page, without leaving white margins, but it depends of the configuration when printing.

Also... how wide are your strokes (1mm 1/8 inch)?...
... In inkscape there is an extension to "measure" a path... It could help to know if The drawing is beins escaled, or offseted...
... and in Inkscape 0.91 there is the measure tool
If you have problems:
1.- Post a sample (or samples) of your file please.
2.- Please check here:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.html
3.- If you manage to solve your problem, please post here your solution.

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ragstian
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby ragstian » Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:43 pm

Hi.

Just for fun I tested this using Inkscape with a "el cheapo" Canon MG7120 inkjet printer.
I made the scales with marks 10 mm apart.
On the X-axis (landscape mode - long side of the paper) the marks were out 0.6mm at the 250mm mark.
The marks on the Y-axis were "spot on" at the 180mm mark (and everywhere in between)

To "calibrate" your printer you can adjust the size of your objects by a percentage, in your case the percentage is 98. (200/204 * 100)

Scale the all the objects (Ctrl A) before printing (save first) with the Objects - Transform - Scale (Shift Ctrl M) using a scale factor of 98%.

Good Luck.
RGDS
Ragnar
Good Luck!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
RGDS
Ragnar

iconberg
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby iconberg » Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:01 pm

Tested on a laser and a label printer, for me it is accurate with <1mm differenz at 19cm.
Also by ratio i cant measure a difference.

It is a ink printer?

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Maestral
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Maestral » Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:44 pm

@Pedroski
Could you post your testPrint file, I`d like to give it a go with your file.
:tool_zoom: <<< click! - but, those with a cheaper tickets should go this way >>> :!:

Lazur
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Lazur » Wed Feb 11, 2015 8:24 pm

Just a random thought, save as pdf and print outside inksape with a pdf reader where you can set actual size.
Printing from svg may not be satisfactory.

iconberg
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby iconberg » Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:08 pm

Try to clean the position stripe, mabye it has some dirt on a gap that brokes position.
If i remember right such pinters have a calibrate option to reposition the colours of the head on each other maybe it helps.

Pedroski
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Pedroski » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:40 am

Thanks for the replies. This is an Epson L351 All-in-One A4 printer, which is the same as an Epson 202 I believe, just it has refillable ink tanks as standard. I set the line width to 0.1mm.
I've uploaded the file testpositioning.svg if you want to check. I have Inkscape 0.48r9939 for Ubuntu 14.04.

The measure path tool does show that the first horizontal lines I drew were about 0.25 mm too short, but most were 190mm. Vertically, the measure path tool shows no problem.

Thanks for your attention. I finally got what I wanted to print, I'm pretty happy, just needs some very small tweaks! That saved me a long flight and a lot of hassle!
Attachments
testpositioning.svg
File to test accuracy of print positioning
(14.8 KiB) Downloaded 249 times

Pedroski
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby Pedroski » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:04 pm

I found if I go to Print>Page Setup > Scale and set that to 98%, the lines are accurate. This must be a bug between translating the file to print format.

Thanks again for the tips! Maybe the next version of Inkscape will iron out this bug!

iconberg
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Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:46 pm

Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem

Postby iconberg » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:19 pm

Dont know why but your file is shifted on our laser too, pdf output is ok...

vickelodeon321
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Re: positioning is not accurate, printer or inkscape problem?

Postby vickelodeon321 » Sat Apr 06, 2019 2:23 pm

!!!! I AM SO HAPPY I FOUND THIS THREAD! I Have been trying to figure out a way to ask the internet what is going on...
I have been printing 2 page designs off inscape for awhile...all of a sudden the second page us not lining up by just a few mm, regaurdless the design. I dont get why. I need to know if it is the printer or the program. Yes i recently downloaded illustrator but i need to learn how to do everything i have been doing, in illustrator.
I am still curious what happened to easily printing 2 page designs... I set the canvas to legal size..center the design and drag half of it onto the canvas...print the top half and then while keeping centered, i drag down the other half to print. This has always worked...now all of a sudden the second page is a few mm off wben im trying to line up my design after it prints. If i cut out each piece of the design the image fits over each piece but it is as if there are extra spaces in the design when printed to not be matching up accurately...please help :(


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