Looking for assistance as a noob.

[u/Huge_Cheesecake3590]

As the title says, I’m looking for some help. I have never used photo editing before, and I hear gimp is pretty good. But there’s so many buttons. And with my limited (non existent) knowledge, I can’t figure out how to do what I’m trying to do. I need my work space to obviously be 8.3x11.7 and I’m trying to have 2 images in that work space. The images I’m working with need to roughly be 4x7. I tried to do it, and the images came out way too small. Like 90% smaller. Wasted material. As I’m printing on water slide paper. Thanks for any help.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

If gimp says the dimensions are correct and all the exports say the dimensions are correct, make sure the printing settings are also correct and arent scaling in any way

[u/Huge_Cheesecake3590 → u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

I don’t know how to tell if any of the settings I’m entering are correct.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie → u/Huge_Cheesecake3590]

What do you mean? Did you not set your canvas size when you created the new project? How are you printing the project? In the browser, gimp, etc?

[u/Huge_Cheesecake3590 → u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

I thought I did. I know I had the switch the height and width to get my images to fit the orientation I needed cause I couldn’t figure out how to rotate the images themselves.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie → u/Huge_Cheesecake3590]

Shift + r and then holding click and moving your mouse rotates. If you print within gimp, make sure all of your settings are correct. 

[u/Huge_Cheesecake3590 → u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

It’s a brand new printer, so I thought I had everything set up right.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie → u/Huge_Cheesecake3590]

The printer itself is fine, you need to mess with the settings software wise. Printers don't usually deal with the printing process past the paper it prints onto. When you print something, whatever program you're using to print will give you a preview and allow you.to change settings. You need to change those settings. 

[u/Alters_Reap]

Project HAS to be in 300dpi. It’s a project setting when creating the file. You can also change the dpi under ‘print size’ under the canvas menu. You will likely need to resize the canvas up to the correct dimensions after.

[u/ExplorerFit8883]

You can view the printed size on the screen before printing to avoid wasting stock.

• Under the View menu: Turn OFF Dot for Dot
• At the bottom of the Gimp window, set Zoom to 100%
• Set the units to inches (next to the zoom/scale factor above)

This is actual size. You can hold the paper up to it or measure it on your monitor. I know the warnings that your monitor has to be properly calibrated. But for me, Gimp has always done a good job of detecting my monitor resolution. Measurement are usually within 1/16 inch, or less.

You can adjust the printed size using X/Y Resolution (DPI used for inches). You adjust that under Image > Print Size. But in my opinion, this is doing it backwards. You should set things up at the beginning so that you don't have to adjust DPI after the fact. Reducing X/Y (DPI) after the fact increases print size but decreases print quality.

[u/barefootliam]

Many printers enforce margins, especially laser printers but also dye sublimation and even some inkjets by default.

There may be a setting in the printer driver to ignore printer margins - this depends on your operating system, e.g. Windows or Linux or Mac - and possibly also the printer driver.

If you don’t see a setting like that, and the print options don’t mention margins, start by printing a 3 inch square in the middle of the page - so, an entire image 900 pixels on a side.

If that comes out the right size, make your image in GIMP smaller - you can go to the Image menu and use Crop to Content, or use the crop tool - chop off any blank edges, and see if that works. Often it does.