When I scan an A4 image and send it to MS Paint, it expands the image.
The width of the image is then bigger than the width of the screen.

If I resize it, the quality of the image suffers.

If I go to the Image menu then Attributes, and set the image size to
A4, it cuts off the parts of the image from the right and from the
bottom. Also, the image itself is still expanded, so it still looks
wrong.

Also, if I go to the Image menu then Attributes, and press default, it
sets the image size to Width 10.55 cm, Height 7.89 cm. Which is way
too small.

It is not a problem with zoom, as it is zoomed to the normal setting.
It won’t let me zoom out anyway, only in.

So when I print the image out from MS Paint, it takes up four pages
instead of one.

However, if I scan the same image to Corel Photo-Paint 8, it leaves it
as an A4 size, but it’s hell to work with. I’d rather find a way to
use it with MS Paint.

I’ve tried the Help file, but all it says is to resize it.

Also, the scanning software has different options for changing the
output size. I’ve tried using original size, as well as customizing
the size to A4, but that doesn’t work either. In any case, I don’t
think the scanner is the problem, seeing as it scans to A4 size when I
scan it to Corel Photo-Paint 8. I believe that the problem lies with
MS Paint.

If I try to open the MS Paint file with Corel Photo-Paint 8, the edges
of the image are cropped, due to the expanded image being opened as an
A4 image.

Is it possible to set the default page size to A4?

How I can get the scanned image to go to MS Paint as an A4 size,
instead of being expanded each time?

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Request for Question Clarification by j_philipp-ga on 23 Feb 2003 23:47 PST

Markabe,

- What are the problems you encounter with Corel PhotoPaint 8 when
editing your image? If it's too slow, how much RAM do you have?
- Did you test image editing alternatives like PaintShop Pro [1]?

In general, try to resample, not resize. This will result in higher
quality due to color interpolation.

[1] Jasc Software
http://www.jasc.com

---

Clarification of Question by markabe-ga on 24 Feb 2003 00:07 PST

j_philipp,

The only problem I have using Corel PhotoPaint 8 is that it is so
complicated to use. I'm not a professional graphic designer, so I just
want something simple to use like MS Paint.

I've resampled many times, but the problem isn't the image quality,
it's the image size. MS Paint enlarges the image instead of keeping it
to the original A4 size.

Markabe,

I suggest software like Paint Shop Pro 4 to do the job instead of MS
Paint (it's not as complex as Corel Photo-Paint 8):

Paint Shop Pro 4 at this download page
http://ressurssenteret.hive.no/Vestfold/Borre/veiledningstjenesten/download.html

Other versions of Paint Shop Pro at Jasc
http://www.jasc.com

It easily allows you to print exactly on one page, independent of the
size the original:

- Open the image
- Go to the menu File -> Page Setup...
- Check both "Maintain Aspect Ratio" and "Use Full Page", then click
"OK"
- Choose File -> Print, and click "OK" on the upcoming dialog

Maybe there's a way to solve your problem in MS Paint which someone
else can post as answer. It might be as easy as checking and adapting
the printer driver settings when you print the image. Hope it helps!

Markabe,

I certainly agree with you that Corel Photopaint is difficult to use.
And MS Paint is wretched.

I am a former professional computer graphics artist, and I've dabbled
with many graphics programs over the years. Paint Shop Pro 4,
suggested by my colleague j_philipp, is a dandy. Here are some more
rather good programs that you can download for free:

http://www.irfanview.com/

http://www.oneilsoftware.com/ImageEditor/EditorMain.shtml

http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_imffw.html

~pinkfreud

The problem you have lies with the way MS Paint works. MS paint is a
very simple bitmap editor. This means it displays the actual pixels in
the image on the screen. If you resize the image you change the number
of pixels in the image, which alters the quality.

When you print out an image form MS Paint, it sets each pixel to be a
default size that you cannot alter. This means that the size of the
image as printed depends on the number of pixels in the image.

As you are scanning the image, this means that the size of the printed
image will depend on the resolution of the scan. This means that if
you absolutely have to use MS Paint, you will need to alter the scan
resolution to about half what you are currently using  this will
reduce the image size to about a quarter, and will print OK in MS
Paint. It does mean the image quality will go down, however.

I use a range of image editing software, including MS Paint for some
tasks. However, MS Paint is not the best thing for printing from! The
easiest solution, and one I sometimes use when emailing images for
other people to print out, is to scan the image to a file (usually
jpg, but tif if the highest quality is important) and then simply
insert it into a Word document. You can then re-size the image to fill
the page, leaving as much or as little border around the edge as you
need. When you print it out, the image quality will be retained
regardless of how big you make the image on the page.

A couple of tips if you decide to use Word to do this:
- when you change the size of an image, if you hold down 'shift' on
the keyboard as you strech it it will keep its original proportion
- if you right click on the image and select 'image attributes' and
set the image to 'float over text' and set wraping to 'off' it makes
it easier.
- In the image attributes box there are also settings to alter the
brightnes and contrast. Whilst not offering the sophistcation of a
graphics package they can be quite useful simply to brighten up an
image that is a bit dark.
- if you do not know how to save the scan to a file, send it to
MSPaint as you do now, and then save the file as a JPG without
altering it. Then import that file into Word.