# Random Photoshop Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-photoshop-question/369592>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 21, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-photoshop-question/369592 "2006-08-21T14:48:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-photoshop-question/369592/1 "2006-08-21T14:48:16Z")

</div>

Okay, this is weird. I’ve got photoshop 7.0 and I’m opening a new document. The canvas isn’t as wide as I want so I go to ‘Image-Canvas Size’ and then change the figure in the ‘Width’ field from 0 to 2, in order to increase the width of the canvas by 2cm. For no reason I can tell, the frigging canvas increases by about _3 inches!_ If I want to increase the width of the canvas by the amount I want, I have to change the measurements option from ‘cm’ to ‘pixels’.

Why is that?

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-photoshop-question/369592/2 "2006-08-21T14:54:54Z")

</div>

Are your default units, grid spacing, etc set to “inches”? What magnification are you viewing the image at? What’s the declared resolution of the image?

Keep in mind that “100% magnification” does not mean that the inch or centimetre dimension of the image on the screen matches that of it in “real life”; it means that one pixel in the image is displayed as one pixel on the screen.

If you are looking at an image with a declared resolution of 300 dots per inch (for example) on a screen that has 100 dots per inch, and the image is 1 inch square (in other words, 300 pixels by 300 pixels), setting the magnification to 100% will show an image 3 inches square… and will show every pixel of that image as one pixel on the screen.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-photoshop-question/369592/3 "2006-08-21T15:01:08Z")

</div>

> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Are your default units, grid spacing, etc set to “inches”? What magnification are you viewing the image at? What’s the declared resolution of the image?

I checked all these parameters and I found that the problem was that my resolution was set way too high. I reset it to 72dpi and that solved it. Thanks a lot dude, I wouldn’t have thought of doing that if you hadn’t mentioned it.

[sub] **shuffles away to n00b hall of shame** :)[/sub]