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drawing/printing an exact circle

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    10-23-2005
    Posts
    3

    drawing/printing an exact circle

    Hi,

    probably an easy one for you experts but it's been annoying me for a while.

    How do i print an exact circle. I have used the drawing oval tool in excel and held shift to draw an exact circle. BUT, when I print (and i've tried on a few printers) it comes out as an oval with (in this case) the x diameter longer then the y.

    It also does this in word.

    Please help me understand why i can't seem to print an exact circle..

    thanks,

  2. #2
    Ragdyer
    Guest

    Re: drawing/printing an exact circle

    Couple of things to try:

    First, when I'm drawing a circle, the oval default display *is* a circle,
    where to resize it, and keep it perfectly round, I *only* click and drag the
    handles at the 4 corners, *without* using any additional keys (<Shift>,
    <Ctrl>).
    I *never* use the handles on the perimeter of the circle.

    Second, select the object and right click in the selection to bring up the
    pop-up menu, and click on "Format AutoShape".
    Click on the "Properties" tab, and click on "Move But Don't Size With
    Cells".

    See if that helps.
    I don't have any problems with printing circles.
    --
    HTH,

    RD

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    "talisman" <[email protected]> wrote in
    message news:[email protected]...
    >
    > Hi,
    >
    > probably an easy one for you experts but it's been annoying me for a
    > while.
    >
    > How do i print an exact circle. I have used the drawing oval tool in
    > excel and held shift to draw an exact circle. BUT, when I print (and
    > i've tried on a few printers) it comes out as an oval with (in this
    > case) the x diameter longer then the y.
    >
    > It also does this in word.
    >
    > Please help me understand why i can't seem to print an exact circle..
    >
    > thanks,
    >
    >
    > --
    > talisman
    > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    > talisman's Profile:

    http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=28289
    > View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=478575
    >



  3. #3
    Registered User
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    10-23-2005
    Posts
    3
    hiya,

    thanks for that but unfortunately it makes no difference here.

    Again i took a blank sheet and drew a circle. Applied your suggestions and printed but still get an oval. Best way to show you is this screen print of the print preview. it prints exactly as shown here.

    \1

  4. #4

    Re: drawing/printing an exact circle

    This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. It's not just
    autoshapes that are effected either. For example, if you set the column
    width to create a grid, you can get the cell grids to look square on
    screen but they print out rectangular.

    My best guesstimate has been to set the width of the autoshape to 92%
    of the height, then click the Lock Aspect Ratio checkbox in the
    formatting dialog. It prints out relatively circular.

    Nick Hebb
    BreezeTree Software
    http://www.breezetree.com


  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    10-23-2005
    Posts
    3
    Thanks nick, interesting. I'll give that a whirl. Never thought of changing the percentage.

    ta,

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-03-2017
    Location
    Auckland, New Zealand
    MS-Off Ver
    2010
    Posts
    12

    Re: drawing/printing an exact circle

    Umpteen years later...
    Useful idea to set the width at 92% of the height Nick Hebb.
    It may depend on the font you have selected*: I printed out a circle from a Calibri-based sheet and got a circle where the height divided by the width = 90.2439...%
    It does mean that on the spreadsheet you won't have a round circle...

    * Regarding the font, see Chinchilla's #14 reply at the excelforum post "Excel will not print images at correct height/width!!").
    I set the Theme font in Page Layout to a fixed width font (Corbel, although any fixed width font should do (?) ).

    The best solution, I believe so far, to get actual circles in the sheet and in print preview, is to set the shape's Properties to either of the "... don't size with cells" options.
    There is always a better way.

  7. #7
    Registered User
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    12-11-2019
    Location
    Arizona, USA
    MS-Off Ver
    2016
    Posts
    2

    Re: drawing/printing an exact circle

    This isn't technically a fix for the problem itself (which is caused by your computer's DPI settings differing from something in Excel) but it's definitely the simplest workaround that doesn't involve guessing squished proportions to offset the flattening when printed.

    Simply go to the "View" tab, and change the view from normal to "Page Layout" (you'll notice your image now looks distorted here just like it does on the print preview).

    Now - just insert the image again while in THIS view, and you'll notice it's inserted with the correct proportions.

    If you go back to the regular view, excel will have now squished it correctly so that the printing will appear as a perfect circle (or whatever proportionally important shape you're trying to print!)

    Additional:
    Since this bug is affected by the computer's DPI settings and not the file itself, please note that if you're opening this workbook on multiple computers, they might all print out differently if excel changes the shape differently than on your PC.

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