At my school we make our yearbook in Excel, now before you get a hopped up exclaiming that excel shouldn't have very many pictures in it, just relax, it was either that or Front Page [shudder].

Now as we embarked on the start of this years book I noticed that when we printed the pictures they appeared to get fatter, only slightly but it is this type of thing that is noticeable with people you know. So anyway, I decided to go back a few years in archive and noticed that my older yearbooks didn't suffer this problem (or at least as much) and when I printed the same images as I was just printing in a file that I created three years ago in excel 97 they don't get fat, or at least as fat.

So firstly I was wondering does anybody have an explanation as to why this is happening, I know that excel isn't for graphics, but it still has image functions including crop re-size and various scaling methods, I also understand that it isn't a publishing program and as such shouldn't be used for that purpose, but that's too bad, it's what we're using and after three years I have just gotten the other people I'm working with understanding the system, so we're not changing. That being said I will accept suggestion if and only if they are free, work on win 2000 and a network plus they must work really well. This however isn't the point of my topic, and I would really rather NOT receive suggestions for other programs, but if you must.

I think it may have something to do with the original file type so I have tried it on an excel 97 file and 2003 file. So if you can't provide any insight in the above problem I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to send me a blank excel file created with any version prior to 97, or 2000, or XP (and any I may have missed) Could you (for my records) please type you excel version in the A2 field and you name, or forum name in A1. I understand that some of you may be opposed to this for reasons of security or privacy, but please keep in mind that I don't care about any of the information that may be stored in the Excel file, I just want to get this fixed.

Thank You

Excel does have some weird printing problems, but we may as well start with the basics. Under File > Print Setup... is the page set to print at 100% of the original size, or is the size changed? Also, has it been set to scale to 1 page by 1 page? If so, have you selected the right paper size?

They may seem obvious but they are often overlooked.

I would send you a blank Excel file, but I use 2003, which isn't any use to you.

You know just before I read this post I thought, "maybe it's because the papter is set to be 11.5" and when it prints it is shrinking to fit" But I checked this isn't happening.

Sorry I can't help with a file either, but I'm wondering if the distortion is apparent during print preview or only when actually printing?

If it seems to look ok during print preview then I'd suggest it's a printer setting problem, perhaps you need to update the driver for your printer.

I actualy have access to three physical printers, and all three of their print preview, and two of their physical prints show distortion.