Comments on: Pixel rulers in Visio

By: Noah

Noah — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:14:34 +0000

Hi Daniel,

As I mentioned in the warning above, this change does mess with existing shapes. I’m not sure what the best fix is. Perhaps try Steven’s suggestion?

Best, Noah

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:43:21 +0000

I’ve been using the ol’ pica-to-pixel trick, but am having trouble with some of the company stencils we use. Instead of displaying normally, shapes like scrolling text areas, drop-down lists, and radio buttons loose lines or other elements. Since they’re custom shapes, I imagine there’s something in the make-up of the shapes that causes this to happen. They hold their fidelity until the 1 to 16 scale is applied, then the weirdness ensues.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:44:49 +0000

Thanks very much. This is exactly what I needed.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:32:52 +0000

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for and it worked a treat!

By: links for 2009-08-04 « Giri’s Blogmarks

links for 2009-08-04 « Giri’s Blogmarks — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:03:00 +0000

[...] Pixel rulers in Visio « Complex Diagrams (tags: visio wireframe) [...]

By: Steven Loi

Steven Loi — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:40:25 +0000

Great tip, Noah.

This is what I found useful: copy/cut your original wireframes/diagrams, then adjust your settings. Paste it back. You’ll have to adjust the dimensions on the wireframes, but at least it’s distorted.

By: Noah

Noah — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:47:22 +0000

Eric,
One issue here is that different models of display are going to have different resolutions. You can get a 17″ laptop with the same number of pixels as a 24″ widescreen monitor. Any “actual size” on paper is only “actual” for one specific resolution.
-Noah

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:31:15 +0000

Hmmmm….what happens with respect to the scale when you print something? My ideal would be to take your solution (which works on screen) and then be able to print such that the “actual” size on paper looks very very close to the size on screen. However, due to differences in resolution it ends up scaling down when printed.

By: Noah

Noah — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:12:06 +0000

Allen,

My suspicion is that because Visio isn’t a proper layout program, it’s not scaling the fonts at all, and is displaying them at the native size regardless of the document measure and scale. In the work where I discovered this hack, exact font size wasn’t an issue and rough spacing was close enough.

For pixel-perfect diagrams I strongly suggest using OmniGraffle (Mac only), and for interface mockups and wireframes I suggest using Adobe Fireworks. Both programs offer free 30 day trial periods to see if you like them, and both are well documented and supported.

Good luck!
-Noah

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:24:14 +0000

These are new drawings. For example, I create a new file with the units and scale set as you specify. Then I want to put some type in the page. I set the units on type to picas, and when I put the type in the page, I don’t feel like I’m getting any useful information about it. 1 pica type doesn’t look like 1 pixel type whereas the graphics that I’m laying down are pixel perfect.

Once again, thanks for the great suggestion.

-Allen