How can I take a picture of something small and print it out so the item in the picture is the same size as the item actually is?

Question

I am trying to print a picture of a product my company is selling. I want the product in the picture to be the same size as the product actually is. How can I accomplish this? The paper is going to be the paper that comes out of a standard printer if that matters.

Answer 1

The easiest way to print a picture that is the same size as your small something is to hire me as your graphic artist to do it for you.

Here's the method I would use:

1. Take a picture of the something — that you like (The right angle, good lighting, sufficient detail to show texture, background, props, etc.)
2. Print it. The "Scale" of this original print is 100%. (Scale shows in the printer's print dialog when you select "Print.")
3. Measure both the actual something and the picture view of the something. (If you show the something top to bottom, measure the something from top to bottom, say.)
4. Compare the print size to the original size.
5. If your something is bigger than the print, increase the scale of the print to greater than 100%. If your something is smaller than the print, decrease the scale of the print to smaller than 100%
6. Print the Actual Size by using the equivalent change of scale to the original size.
7. Admire your fine job.

You can do this by trial and error; but, (Lifehack) you can calculate the % by dividing original size by the photo print size you first made.

For Example: If your something is 20mm across and your print showed it as 60mm across. Print your Actual Size copies using a Scale of 33%.
Original size (20mm) / Photo Copy size (60mm) = Desired copy scale to reproduce Actual Size as requested.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Pretend you are an archeologist and place a measuring scale beside the object when you take the photo. Then try different printouts to find the correct magnification. You don't have to worry about camera zoom or distance.

Answer 3

In this example, the product is a book that is 6 1/2 inches tall. Once you have a picture of it on your computer, You just need to do a bit of image editing, knowing that a standard printer paper size is 8 1/2 by 11 inches. Download, install, and run the free desktop version of Paint.net, then open your image in the program.

Using Image>Crop to Selection, remove excess parts of the image, so that the product spans the full height of the image. Next, using Image>Resize, adjust your image to a height of 6.5 inches (Maintain aspect ratio). Still in Paint.net, use File>New to open a new blank image, adjusting it's size to be 8.5 by 11 inches. Now, using copy and paste, select and copy your product image onto your blank image. That's it. You can now select print from within Paint.net, or save it to an image file, to be printed as needed.