drawing/printing an exact circle

Ragdyer · 10-23-2005, 02:05 PM

Couple of things to try:

First, when I'm drawing a circle, the oval default display *is* a circle,
where to resize it, and keep it perfectly round, I *only* click and drag the
handles at the 4 corners, *without* using any additional keys (<Shift>,
<Ctrl>).
I *never* use the handles on the perimeter of the circle.

Second, select the object and right click in the selection to bring up the
pop-up menu, and click on "Format AutoShape".
Click on the "Properties" tab, and click on "Move But Don't Size With
Cells".

See if that helps.
I don't have any problems with printing circles.
--
HTH,

RD

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"talisman" <talisman.1xd76c_1130087112.1244@excelforum-nospam.com> wrote in
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>
> Hi,
>
> probably an easy one for you experts but it's been annoying me for a
> while.
>
> How do i print an exact circle. I have used the drawing oval tool in
> excel and held shift to draw an exact circle. BUT, when I print (and
> i've tried on a few printers) it comes out as an oval with (in this
> case) the x diameter longer then the y.
>
> It also does this in word.
>
> Please help me understand why i can't seem to print an exact circle..
>
> thanks,
>
>
> --
> talisman
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**talisman** · 10-23-2005, 02:48 PM

hiya,

thanks for that but unfortunately it makes no difference here.

Again i took a blank sheet and drew a circle. Applied your suggestions and printed but still get an oval. Best way to show you is this screen print of the print preview. it prints exactly as shown here.

\1

n.hebb@comcast.net · 10-23-2005, 06:05 PM

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. It's not just
autoshapes that are effected either. For example, if you set the column
width to create a grid, you can get the cell grids to look square on
screen but they print out rectangular.

My best guesstimate has been to set the width of the autoshape to 92%
of the height, then click the Lock Aspect Ratio checkbox in the
formatting dialog. It prints out relatively circular.

Nick Hebb
BreezeTree Software
http://www.breezetree.com

**talisman** · 10-23-2005, 06:39 PM

Thanks nick, interesting. I'll give that a whirl. Never thought of changing the percentage.

ta,

**gothic chicken** · 09-11-2019, 01:33 AM

Umpteen years later...
Useful idea to set the width at 92% of the height Nick Hebb.
It may depend on the font you have selected*: I printed out a circle from a Calibri-based sheet and got a circle where the height divided by the width = 90.2439...%
It does mean that on the spreadsheet you won't have a round circle...

* Regarding the font, see Chinchilla's #14 reply at the excelforum post "Excel will not print images at correct height/width!!").
I set the Theme font in Page Layout to a fixed width font (Corbel, although any fixed width font should do (?) ).

The best solution, I believe so far, to get actual circles in the sheet and in print preview, is to set the shape's Properties to either of the "... don't size with cells" options.