On Sat, 24 Jul 1999, John Carmichael wrote: > But beware! I found out a while back that most copiers will not reproduce a > copy to the exact size that you program it to do. Yesterday, I showed the > surprised manager of Kinko's (a respected fotocopy shop) that when we > fotocopied a 16" ruler at 100 %, the copy measured 15 3/4" !!! We then > checked five different machines and none of them produced same-size copies > (except for a small digital copier). > > This error (99% to 102%) may seem small, but can be very significant for > work on larger dials. The best thing to do would be to always check the > final copy size to make sure it is correct.
I learned that a long time ago, trying to fit copies to particular scales! Another thing to check is whether the copier produces a result that is even an accurately *scaled* copy: It may not be "square", having a different ration in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. It may not be "rectangular", producing a trapezoidal or skewed output! These errors would be even more serious than a scaling error for a diallist. At least a dial works the same if (all dimensions) are scaled. Try copying two or more rulers at the same time... Dave
